Ranking Max Verstappen's top 3 wins

Max Verstappen, the young Red Bull driver. is the 2021 F1 world champion. It was a long time coming after he was seen making a breakthrough in the sport as a teenager, and now growing up to achieve his full potential.

Since making his debut in 2015 and getting promoted to Red Bull in 2016, the Dutchman has been a consistent presence at the front of the grid. Even though the Red Bull he had at his disposal was not the most competitive car every year, Verstappen was still able to pick his moments, as well as wins.

In a career that has already seen the driver achieve as many as 20 wins in his career, there have been some that are more impressive than the rest. In this list, we take a look at the top 3 race wins of Max Verstappen's F1 career.

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#3 2016 Spanish Grand Prix — Max Verstappen's first win

The 2016 Spanish GP was an announcement, if at all one was needed, by Red Bull that they had found someone special. Max Verstappen was promoted mid-season to replace Daniil Kvyat before the Spanish GP. Although everyone was impressed by the young Verstappen, the decision to promote him this early seemed premature even by Red Bull's standards.

All those doubts, however, were first silenced in qualifying when he placed himself just behind team-mate Daniel Ricciardo on the grid in fourth. The race was an entirely different story, however, as both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg crashed out at the start. Numerous strategies tried out by both Red Bull and Ferrari saw Verstappen leading the race, with Kimi Raikkonen chasing him in what appeared to be the quicker car.

Surprising everyone in the paddock, the Dutch driver would absorb all the pressure from Raikkonen and end up winning his first-ever race in F1. If there were any doubters about the young driver's early promotion to Red Bull before the race, then there weren't any left after it.

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#2 2019 Austrian Grand Prix — First win with Honda

The Austrian GP win in 2019 was significant on so many levels for both Red Bull and Honda. Of course, Max Verstappen had won the race on earlier occasions as well. In 2019, however, the team went along with Honda in a partnership that raised quite a few eyebrows. Red Bull had done a decent job with Honda as the engine partner until that race, but questions remained on whether Red Bull could challenge for wins, and consequently, the title.

On the power-heavy Spielberg circuit, Red Bull surprisingly seemed to have a good pace throughout the weekend. Verstappen duly obliged Red Bull fans by placing his car on the front row of the grid.

It all went downhill at the start, however, as the Dutchman messed up the launch and was eighth at the end of the first lap. It was at this stage that he pulled off one of the best drives of his career. Going on a charge, he started overtaking one driver after the other, and towards the close of the race, he had race leader Charles Leclerc's Ferrari in his sights.

With just a handful of laps to go, Verstappen would overtake Leclerc in a close wheel-to-wheel battle and win the race. The post-race celebrations were proof of how much it meant to the Honda contingent, which had just won its first race since its fourth return to the sport.

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#3 2019 German Grand Prix — Defeating Lewis Hamilton in the rain

The 2019 German GP was the race where Verstappen placed his claim for the crown of the 'rain master', held so far by Hamilton. In the turbo era, Hamilton had more or less dominated the race every time it rained. At the German GP, however, Verstappen finally had a car that could keep up with the Mercedes.

After challenging the Mercedes duo early in the race, Verstappen would make the right tire calls throughout the race that helped him jump both the Mercedes cars of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.

In conditions where it was far too easy to make a mistake and saw Hamilton damage his front wing, Max Verstappen was flawless and won the race on Mercedes' home turf.