F1 champion Max Verstappen claims title success

Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen claims title success

Max Verstappen's racing team have achieved success!

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Tuesday 23 September 2025 20:57

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It wasn't a bad weekend for four-time F1 world champion Max Verstappen.

On the track, the Dutchman claimed a stunning pole position-race win double at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, once again demolishing his competitors and keeping himself in the drivers' championship battle thanks to McLaren's struggles.

But away from F1, Verstappen was also crowned a champion through his Verstappen.com Racing team.

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For the first time, Verstappen become a championship-winning team boss, with his outfit clinching the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup championship in Valencia.

The victory came with Chris Lulham and Thierry Vermeulen - son of Verstappen's manager Raymond Vermeulen - at the wheel, with the pair securing the Gold Cup title.

Lulham proclaimed after title success: "I could not have predicted at the beginning of the year that we would win the championship. I am super happy!"

It marks another step in Verstappen's GT Racing exploits, with the 27-year-old soon set to race in a 24-hour GT3 race in the Ferrari 296 GT3 for Emil Frey Racing, a team who partner Verstappen.com Racing.

Chris Lulham and Thierry Vermeulen claimed title success

Is Max Verstappen in the title race?

With victory in Azerbaijan, his second consecutive race win, Verstappen is now just 69 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri.

For large swathes of the season, it has been thought that the championship was simply between Piastri and his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris, who lost out to Verstappen in last year's championship fight.

But it seems as though Verstappen could yet have something to say about that. He has been in scintillating form throughout 2025, winning four races in a season in which McLaren have dominated, and has all the championship-winning experience that Piastri and Norris lack.

McLaren's two drivers will surely start to fear the Dutchman breathing down their necks in the standings, and Red Bull's upturn in form has caused McLaren boss Andrea Stella to admit that Verstappen is 'absolutely' in a title fight.

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Max Verstappen Azerbaijan Grand Prix