Lights Out: We owe Max an apology

It's been quite the whirlwind start to the season and no driver has been whirling quite as much as Max Verstappen so far in 2018. But it's time to stop sniggering at the back, and with good reason, too! It's lights out for Tuesday morning!

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Mad Max, Crashtappen, the endless memes... it's been a rough ride through the early races for the Dutch superstar.

Crashes with Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and most infamously his Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo have led to Verstappen DNFing in Bahrain, missing out on a likely podium in China and DNFing in Azerbaijan respectively.

Perhaps most damning of all, though, has been the comparisons to a certain Mr P Maldonado, of Maracay, Venezuela.

Such was Maldonado's mastery of the shunt, he even managed to wreck his Lotus when nobody was within miles of him on more than one occasion.

And therefore, as Pastor has himself pointed out, it is entirely unreasonable to compare him with Verstappen.

Too right, too. Max can only dream of such brutal ballet that Maldonado was able to provide us on his own. Max is more of a two-man tango kind of guy - yawn.

Barcelona is next up, scene of Verstappen's precocious Red Bull debut triumph, but also a three-way DNF-inducing mangle with Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas.

He'll have to pull out all the stops to reach peak Maldonadoism this week...

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(Given he's been in the news...)

A #SpanishGP classic for the ages

Pastor Maldonado claimed an incredible victory back in 2012 ????

Holding off none other than home hero Fernando Alonso ???? pic.twitter.com/l7RAyTojFb — Formula 1 (@F1) May 7, 2018