Dutch driver Verstappen won his fourth successive title with Red Bull in Las Vegas last month.
Lando Norris celebrated his first Monaco Grand Prix win from pole position on Sunday.
Verstappen crossed the line in his Red Bull for his 64th Grand Prix victory to a huge ovation from the 115,000 crowd some 1.4 seconds ahead of McLaren's championship leader Lando Norris in second place.
Seven-times World champion Lewis Hamilton appeared in Ferrari red for the first time outside of Italy as Formula One put on an unprecedented and spectacular 10-team season launch in front of 15,000 fans on Tuesday.
Max Verstappen was surprised by his Red Bull car's performance as the F1 defending champion took third place in qualifying for the season-opening race.
Mocked, misjudged, written off, Lando Norris's carves own road to F1 Glory
Max Verstappen celebrated Red Bull's 400th Formula One race with a fourth win in a row at Imola on Sunday.
Days after the Red Bull driver and partner Kelly Piquet welcomed daughter Lily, his first child, the four-times champion set a blistering lap of one minute 26.204 seconds around the Hard Rock Stadium.
Bernie Ecclestone says his money is still on Red Bull's Max Verstappen to win the Formula One championship
George Russell wins F1's Singapore GP as McLaren secures constructors' title
Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan has rejected claims that batters have worked him out, saying consistent execution, not new variations, will define his impact at the upcoming T20 World Cup.
Norris last led the standings in April, a gap of 189 days, and had not won a race since Hungary in early August. Sunday was his sixth victory of the season, one less than Piastri, and career 10th.
Lewis Hamilton will launch his bid to win the drivers' championship at a third F1 team when he makes his much-anticipated debut for Ferrari in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
Russell fastest in first Austrian GP practice as Dunne shines
World champion Max Verstappen put Red Bull on pole position for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in dramatic style on Saturday.
Seven-times World champion Lewis Hamilton failed to stand on the podium all year for the first time in his career.
McLaren, who secured the constructors' championship in October for the second year in a row, won both titles in the same season for the first time since 1998.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame joined Max Verstappen on stage when the Red Bull driver collected the F1 champion's trophy for the fourth year in a row.
Verstappen collided with Leclerc and twice with Mercedes' George Russell after the safety car restart.
Lewis Hamilton has dismissed suggestions of friction within Ferrari after team chairman John Elkann's recent comments that he and teammate Charles Leclerc should "focus on driving and talk less".
Ferrari's underwhelming pace was a surprise to their rivals and to Hamilton, whose quickest lap in the final qualifying session (Q3) was nearly nine-tenths of a second slower than Norris's.
Red Bull's reigning champion Max Verstappen will join the Australian on the front row.
Charles Leclerc stunned favourites McLaren by seizing pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday as Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton described himself as useless and suggested he should be replaced.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen won the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday with the battle for the constructor's title going down to next weekend's Abu Dhabi season-ender
A fired-up Max Verstappen ended his barren run as he outclassed the McLarens to register a dominant victory at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza on Sunday.
An angry Leclerc dropped to fourth after Ferrari called him in again for slicks and then told him, too late, to stay out after Sainz also pitted and went directly from wets to the dry tyres.
Oscar Piastri is looking forward to watching Australia beat England at cricket after a F1 season of highs and lows ended in disappointment on Sunday.
McLaren's Oscar Piastri seized the first proper pole position of his Formula One career at the Chinese Grand Prix on Saturday with the fastest lap yet around the Shanghai International Circuit.
McLaren could clinch their first constructors' crown since 1998 on Sunday if they outscore Ferrari by 21 points at the Qatar F1 Grand Prix.
Lando Norris stretched his Formula One championship lead to nine points after winning Saturday's Sao Paulo sprint while McLaren teammate and title rival Oscar Piastri crashed in a big blow to the Australian's bid to get back on top.
Lando Norris held off McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri to win the Hungarian Grand Prix on a one-stop strategy and slash the Australian's Formula One lead to nine points going into the August break.
Norris had shown his pace in final practice when he became the third different driver to top the timesheets in the three sessions, punching out an impressive lap 0.345 faster than anyone else.
Ducati's Marc Marquez returned to the top step of the podium with victory at the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday despite suffering damage to his bike in a collision with his brother Alex on the first lap.
The win from fourth on the grid was Australian Oscar Piastri's third in a row, after Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, and fourth of the season. McLaren have so far been beaten only once.
In the constructors' standings, Ferrari closed the gap to McLaren to 24 points.
Present rivalries and past collisions hang over Red Bull's home Austrian Grand Prix as Formula One braces for the next round of Max Verstappen v George Russell and more title-chasing drama at McLaren.
Max Verstappen claimed his sixth victory from nine races this season and the 60th of his Formula One career.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli showed he was a quick learner by becoming F1's youngest race leader and fastest lap setter on his way to sixth place for Mercedes in the Japanese Grand Prix
McLaren's Oscar Piastri celebrated his 50th Formula One race with a pole-to-flag win in Bahrain on Sunday that sent him second overall.
Red Bull's triple world champion Max Verstappen followed up a Saturday sprint win with a statement pole position for Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix, with McLaren's Lando Norris again alongside on the front row.
