How Verstappen overcame his and Red Bull’s errors to bounce back in double-quick time

Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari engine disaster offered an open goal for Max Verstappen and Red Bull to strike, but the reigning Formula 1 world champion still had to solve multiple errors and profit from a begrudged assist from team-mate Sergio Perez, which created an unexpectedly eventful Spanish Grand Prix

Matt Kew May 23, 2022, 8:07 AM

Upd: May 23, 2022, 8:24 AM

Max Verstappen reckoned, albeit tongue in cheek, that he would need “45 races” to make up the lost ground to Charles Leclerc having retired from the Australian Grand Prix in early April. No, it wasn’t a mix-up with ‘four to five races’ in what might be a rejected premise for a Two Ronnies sketch. He said a full 45. Remarkably, the forecast proved pessimistic. For just three rounds after the Melbourne malady that left him 46 points adrift, the defending champion summitted the 2022 Formula 1 drivers’ standings for the first time.

That was the ultimate prize for winning a frenetic Spanish Grand Prix on a day when rival Leclerc copped his share of unreliability in the title fight between the pair.

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Author Matt Kew

Matt Kew is Autosport’s F1 Editor, a role he has held since March 2022 following stints covering Formula E, Extreme E and the British Touring Car Championship.

Matt joined Autosport in 2018 to work predominantly on the magazine, but his relentless quoting of Alan Partridge meant office colleagues soon thought he would be better-suited to increased field work.

Needless to say, Matt had the last laugh when he won the Motorsport UK Young Journalist of the Year Award in 2019.

His interest in motorsport was sparked by regular trips to watch ASCAR crash around Rockingham’s banked oval.

Matt read politics and philosophy at the University of Sheffield - receiving first-class honours for his dissertation assessing the lack of female participation in top-tier motor racing.

He covered a wide variety of national race and rally meetings for Autosport as a freelancer before joining full-time. His best efforts to argue the merits of historic racing are undone by a questionable taste in music and James Bond actors.