Sahara Force India's Nico Hulkenberg qualified 10th but will start Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix from the 15th position on the grid after being handed a five-place penaltly due to an unscheduled gearbox change.
Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel limbered up for a Japanese Grand Prix that could bring him a fourth successive title on Sunday with the fastest time in Friday practice.
Lewis Hamilton tightened his grip on securing a fifth Formula One world title by coming from nowhere to claim a stunning pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix in his Mercedes on Saturday.
Vettel, who won all four of his world championships with Red Bull, has gone 16 races without a victory and made some costly errors, while Hamilton has won 14 of the last 20.
Nico Rosberg drew first blood for Mercedes in the new Formula One season with a dominant Australian Grand Prix victory on Sunday after pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton and world champion Sebastian Vettel retired with reliability problems.
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso won the European Grand Prix on Sunday to become the first repeat winner of the Formula One season after eight races.
Following's Verstappen's 2021 title win, here's a list of F1 champions over the years...
Lewis Hamilton can clinch his fifth Formula One world championship at Sunday's US Grand Prix.
Ferrari announced on Tuesday that four time world champion Sebastian Vettel would be leaving them at the end of the season. Spaniard Carlos Sainz is more likely to replace Vettel.
Max Verstappen celebrated a record 10th win in a row by leading Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez one-two at Ferrari's home Italian Grand Prix
The prospect of seeing Sebastian Vettel beaten for the first time since last July is just one of the many novelties Sunday's season-opening Australian Formula One Grand Prix promises to deliver.
Lewis Hamilton will start Sunday's season-ending Brazilian Formula One Grand Prix on pole position in his farewell to McLaren, with teammate Jenson Button alongside.
Valtteri Bottas seized his first pole position of the Formula One season in Austria on Saturday with Mercedes team mate and world championship leader Lewis Hamilton having to settle for second.
Jenson Button ignored an incident-packed race behind him and calmly steered his McLaren to victory at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix ahead of world champion Sebastian Vettel on Sunday.
Red Bull's quadruple World champion Sebastian Vettel seized pole position on Saturday for a US Grand Prix that could see him celebrate a record eighth successive win of the Formula One season.
Sebastian Vettel handed Ferrari their first Canadian Grand Prix pole position since Michael Schumacher in 2001 on Saturday while Formula One championship leader Lewis Hamilton qualified fourth for Mercedes. Vettel, 14 points behind the Briton, will start from the front for the fourth time at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve after setting a track record of one minute 10.764 seconds on a sunny afternoon.
Finland's Kimi Raikkonen won the season-opening Australian Formula One Grand Prix for Lotus on Sunday, beating Ferrari's Fernando Alonso into second place at Albert Park.
No driver in the history of Formula One has won four championships before the age of 30 but being first has become something of a habit for Sebastian Vettel.
McLaren's Lewis Hamilton produced a monumental drive to take his second win of the season in the German Formula One Grand Prix after an enthralling battle with Ferrari's second-placed Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber.
A Ferrari victory was the shot in the arm that Formula One needed.
Formula One world championship leader Sebastian Vettel won the Bahrain Grand Prix for Ferrari on Sunday in the German's 200th race start.
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso lost his lead in the Formula One championship but still found positives to take away from a Korean Grand Prix dominated by Red Bull rival Sebastian Vettel on Sunday.
Ferrari's Formula One championship leader Fernando Alonso defied atrocious conditions to take pole position for the German Grand Prix on Saturday.
Six-times world champion Lewis Hamilton dominated the Styrian Grand Prix in a Mercedes one-two on Sunday to celebrate his 85th Formula One win and move a step closer to Michael Schumacher's record of 91 victories. Finnish Team mate Valtteri Bottas, winner of last weekend's season-opener behind closed doors at the same Austrian circuit, finished a distant runner-up with his championship lead cut to six points.
Australian Mark Webber took back the Formula One championship lead from Lewis Hamilton on Sunday after snatching victory in a Hungarian Grand Prix that Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel had been favourite to win.
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel could see his hopes of a fifth Formula One world title fading with the Sochi sunset on Sunday after falling 50 points behind Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton with five races remaining.
Mark Webber led a Red Bull one-two in Brazil on Sunday to celebrate his first victory of the year in the last race of the Formula One season.
Formula One leader Max Verstappen celebrated a record-equalling ninth successive victory on Sunday after beating the rain to win a chaotic and red-flagged Dutch Grand Prix for the third year in a row.
McLaren's Lewis Hamilton won the floodlit Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday after Red Bull's double Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel suffered his first race retirement in more than a year.
The pole was the second of the Dutch 22-year-old's Formula One career and the first in Brazil for engine partners Honda since the late triple champion Ayrton Senna in 1991 with McLaren.
Red Bull's Australian Mark Webber, closest rival of team mate and Formula One championship leader Sebastian Vettel, crashed out of the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Germany's Sebastian Vettel won Formula One's season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the first race to start in daylight and end at night, in a Red Bull one-two finish on Sunday. The 22-year-old German beat Australian Mark Webber by a comfortable 17.8 seconds under the floodlights for his fourth win of the season to make sure of second place overall in the championship.
Jenson Button celebrated his greatest victory on Sunday after overtaking Red Bull's Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel on the last lap of a rain-delayed Canadian Grand Prix thriller.
The Spaniard knows he will lose the championship lead at the southern Yeongam circuit for the first time since seizing it in Valencia in June if his Red Bull rival Sebastian Vettel chalks up a third win in a row.
Ferrari title rival Sebastian Vettel qualified only ninth.
The 31-year-old German fell 30 points behind race-winner Hamilton after a collision with the Briton left him struggling to finish fourth in Monza last time out, one of several races where Vettel has frittered away a position of authority.
Lewis Hamilton smashed the Shanghai circuit lap record on his way to a stunning first sprint race pole for Ferrari in China on Friday.
Adrian Sutil's ninth place finish earned Force India a couple of precious points from the eventful Turkish Grand Prix while Hispania driver Karun Chandhok was classified 20th though he could not finish the race.
Mark Webber led a Red Bull one-two in the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday to celebrate his first victory of the year in the last race of the Formula One season.
