Max Verstappen’s top-10 streak intact since 2016 despite spanish GP drama. Despite a penalty in Spain, Max Verstappen extended his remarkable run of points finishes to nine years.

Max Verstappen, the streak is safe
With the contact against George Russell, Max Verstappen was handed a ten-second time penalty in the Spanish Grand Prix — and can even consider himself lucky. The world champion made a mistake, apologized (certainly to the team, and possibly to the Briton in private), and knows he risked receiving a harsher sanction.

The penalty issued by the stewards dropped the Dutchman to tenth place in the final standings, but it did not affect the extraordinarily long streak of points finishes that Max Verstappen started on September 4, 2016, at Monza. Since that day, Super Max has contested 186 Formula 1 Grands Prix, and in the 161 races he has finished, he has always crossed the line inside the points.

The last Grand Prix in which Max Verstappen saw the chequered flag and simultaneously finished outside the top 10 was Spa 2016, a weekend where he certainly didn’t endear himself to Ferrari (contact at the start with Kimi Raikkonen and aggressive battles with the Finn through Kemmel and Les Combes). In that race, the then-18-year-old Max finished 11th with a car damaged from the first-lap collision with the Ferrari.

In addition to Spa 2016, there have only been four other races in Max Verstappen’s career where he finished worse than tenth. All of them date back to 2015: 11th in Barcelona, 12th in Monza, 15th in Montreal, and 16th in Abu Dhabi.

Risk of suspension
Super Max will have to keep a low profile in the next two race weekends. The four-time world champion has just one penalty point remaining on his licence, and only on June 30 will he recover two points. This means that in Canada and Austria he can’t afford any misconduct, or he risks a race ban for the following Grand Prix.