It is not Verstappen who lingered the most laps from P1. That honour is reserved for
Charles Leclerc. The
Ferrari driver crossed the start-finish line first a total of 194 times in the seven races. Verstappen did that 142 times. The Dutchman has a large gap to
Red Bull Racing teammate
Sergio Perez. The difference is 73 laps. Otherwise, only
Carlos Sainz and
George Russell drove a pair in the lead this season.
Last year, Verstappen was a long time behind Lewis Hamilton in the world championship, while he had driven many more laps in the lead. We see that pattern now with Leclerc as well. The Monegasque should have been ahead of Verstappen based on this statistic, but nothing is further from the truth. Heading into the
Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Verstappen is defending a nine-point lead.