The largest F1 Drivers’ Championship leads surrendered

And yet, with just four races remaining at the time of writing, that advantage had been snipped to 47.

He may yet go on to secure the title, of course, but there will surely be some nervousness heading into the final weeks of the campaign.

In that spirit, here’s a look back at the widest championship leads that have ever been lost in the F1.

Such is the scale of Verstappen’s current lead, with so few races remaining, he’s as short as 1/6 to retain his title in the online betting odds for the F1 championship.

It would make the sports news around the globe if he were to lose that 47-point cushion with four races to go; Verstappen is talented enough, and his Red Bull car reliable enough, to keep the rest at bay.

Mind you, Fernando Alonso probably felt the same back in 2012, when he led the rest of the field by 37 points with just seven races remaining.

But Sebastian Vettel found his mojo thereafter, with improvements in his own Red Bull car sweeping him to four consecutive victories in Singapore, Japan, Korea and India.

There was still drama to come, with Vettel being forced to the back of the field after a crash in the final race in Brazil.

But he rallied, scrapping his way to sixth place, with Alonso’s inability to win Sao Paolo enough for Vettel to land the title by just three points.

Jim Clark must have felt unassailable when he romped into a 20-point lead way back in 1964 – this was the days of the ten-race season, with nine points awarded for a win and just six and four respectively for finishing second and third.

John Surtees, meanwhile, had been forced to retire from three of the opening four races of the campaign.

But this was an F1 season unlike any other. In the second half of the schedule, Clark’s Lotus suddenly began letting him down; so much so that he would only finish one of the last five races.

That opened the door to the miraculous Surtees, whose Ferrari had begun behaving. Wins in Germany and a particularly memorable one in Italy, allied to second places in the United States and Mexico, secured Surtees one of the greatest comeback victories in F1 history.