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Following his third-place finish in last night's United States Grand Prix, Max Verstappen has officially been ruled out of contention for the 2026 Formula 1 World Championship.
The Dutchman sits fourth in the drivers' standings on 236 points, trailing Andrea Kimi Antonelli by 129 points with only 125 points left to play for this season. This marks the first time since the 2020 campaign that Verstappen has dropped out of title contention before the final race.
However, Verstappen remains firmly in the hunt to claim the runner-up spot in the standings for the second consecutive year. A four-way battle for second place is heating up, with just nine points separating the contenders with five rounds remaining.
George Russell leads this chasing pack on 242 points, closely followed by Lewis Hamilton on 241, Verstappen on 236, and Charles Leclerc on 233. The contest continues at one of Verstappen's most successful hunting grounds—the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico, where the Dutchman has claimed five career victories, the most recent coming in 2023.
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