Max Verstappen leaves Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris in the dust with F1 record

has left the likes of and in the dust following his victory at last weekend's Japanese Grand Prix. The reigning world champion took the chequered flag at Suzuka to claim his first win of the 2025 campaign. It came a day after he secured pole position with an incredible qualifying lap despite McLaren being the favourites.

Verstappen kept his lead out of Turn One and never really looked back, with his McLaren rivals struggling to keep up the pace. His victory moved him to within a point of top spot in the Drivers' Championship standings after the opening three races. It also saw the Dutchman extend an incredible record which puts him well ahead of drivers like Norris and Hamilton.

His pole-to-win rate now stands at 80.49 per cent, a significantly higher number than any other driver on the grid. The next best record is that of Fernando Alonso, who has won 63.64 per cent of the races he has started from pole position.

Hamilton boasts a pole-to-win rate of 58.65 per cent, which means Verstappen would need to lose his next 16 poles to have an equal record. Norris, meanwhile, has a rate of just 40 per cent, owing to his historically poor race starts.

Only time will tell if Verstappen can secure back-to-back victories when he returns to the track at this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix. He will be desperate to prolong his momentum and make an early statement in the battle to secure the end-of-season honours.

Verstappen is hunting a fifth straight Drivers' Championship title but has warned that he is likely to fall short unless Red Bull make rapid improvements.

Reflecting on his victory in Japan, he said: "It's a good motivation for the team, but we are still looking into how we can improve our car quickly.

"It's nice to have that little motivation boost, but we are very aware of what our limitations are and we know we still have to work on that. Hopefully every weekend we can make tiny progressions."

Asked if he sees any chance of glory in Bahrain, Verstappen replied: "If we have that pace, yes, but at the moment it's very difficult to say. If you look at everything, they [McLaren] are more all-round and it just seems like it's a bit easier to set up [their car].

"It's still a very long season, a lot of things that we want to work on with the car, and hopefully step-by-step we just make it more competitive. We definitely need to improve to be able to fight for a title.

"It's great that we are one point behind, but I think it's more that we just maximised our weekends quite well so far. To really fight for a title, we need to find more performance."