The Fastest Lap in F1 History

The fastest lap in Formula 1 history, judged by average speed over a complete lap, belongs to Max Verstappen: 1:18.792 around Monza in qualifying for the 2025 Italian Grand Prix, an average of 264.682 km/h. Lando Norris ran almost as fast in the very same session, and a day later set a second, separate record for the fastest lap ever completed inside an actual race. As of the 2026 season, both marks still stand.

Because every circuit is a different length, a raw lap time cannot be compared between tracks, which is why “fastest lap” in F1 is always measured by average speed rather than the clock. That single rule explains why every entry below, qualifying and race alike, was set at just two circuits: Monza and old Silverstone.

Leaderboard: F1’s fastest laps by average speed

Sources: Guinness World Records, Formula1.com, RaceFans, Motorsport.com. Qualifying laps run at minimum fuel and maximum downforce trim; race laps carry fuel and tire wear, which is why the fastest race lap ever is still slower than the seventh-fastest qualifying lap in history.

The record holder: Verstappen’s 2025 Monza pole

Verstappen’s lap came in Q3, where he grabbed pole and set the highest average speed ever recorded over a full F1 lap, edging Hamilton’s five-year-old record by just 0.095 seconds. He converted the pole into a race win the following day. The margin was tiny, underlining how close the very fastest laps are once the circuit is held constant — and confirming that even as F1 cars have grown heavier since the 2022 rules change, aero and power-unit gains have kept outright single-lap pace climbing.

The chasers: Norris, Hamilton, Raikkonen, and Montoya

Norris ran the second-fastest qualifying lap in F1 history in that same session, just 0.259 km/h behind Verstappen — the tightest gap ever recorded between the two fastest laps in the sport’s history. Hamilton’s 2020 pole had itself been a landmark, the first F1 lap above 264 km/h, and stood as the outright record for five seasons. Raikkonen’s 2018 pole, at age 38, made him the oldest Monza pole-sitter since Nigel Mansell in 1994. Montoya’s 2004 Monza lap, in a BMW-powered Williams FW26, held the record for 14 years, the longest reign on this list.

The old guard: Montoya at Silverstone and Rosberg’s 160 mph lap

Before Monza became the benchmark, Silverstone’s old high-speed layout held the record. Montoya’s 2002 pole there, 259.827 km/h, briefly stood as the fastest lap ever run in F1. It broke a mark that had lasted 17 years: Keke Rosberg’s 1985 British Grand Prix pole, a 1:05.591 averaging 258.983 km/h. Rosberg remains the only driver to set an F1 pole above 160 mph on that old, unchicaned Silverstone — the benchmark of pure speed for a generation before Monza’s records overtook it.

Qualifying pace vs. race pace, and top speed too

The leaderboard splits into two measurements. Qualifying laps run on near-empty fuel and maximum-attack tires, the outer limit of what car and driver can do for one lap. Race laps carry fuel and tires that must survive dozens more laps, so even F1’s fastest-ever race lap, Norris’s 257.8 km/h in 2025, trails the seventh-fastest qualifying lap in history. That race-lap record broke Barrichello’s 2004 mark, unbroken for 21 years, the longest-standing race lap record in modern F1.

Top speed is a third, separate measurement again: the peak reading at one point on track, not sustained pace through every corner. The official Guinness World Record for outright top speed in a Grand Prix is 372.6 km/h, set by Montoya’s McLaren at Monza in 2005. Bottas went faster still outside race conditions, clocked around 378 km/h during 2016 qualifying practice in Azerbaijan, and Honda’s specially prepared RA106 hit 397.36 km/h in a straight-line test at Bonneville in 2006. For the cars behind these figures, see our guide to the fastest F1 cars.

Could either record fall again? As of 2026

Both records have a history of falling in bursts and then holding for years. The qualifying mark has been broken six times since 1985, but the gap between each new record and the last has shrunk from multiple seconds in the 1980s to fractions of a second today. As of the 2026 season, no lap has come within that margin of Verstappen’s Monza pole, and Barrichello’s 21-year reign on the race-lap record shows these marks can stand for a long time once set. The drivers chasing them tend to be the same names topping the most F1 poles and the most F1 world championships, because the single-lap pace that sets speed records is exactly what wins titles.