Wins at the Japanese GP, Max Verstappen appears as the 2022 F1 World Champion

This is Max Verstappen’s second world title after his first title he won last season and this time he won it convincingly.

Autos.id – The 2022 F1 season is entering its 18th series at the Japanese Grand Prix. In the race which took place in pouring rain at the Suzuka circuit, Red Bull team driver Max Verstappen managed to win the race while making sure to defend his world title this season.

Verstappen’s certainty of becoming F1 world champion this season after his rival, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who finished second, was sentenced to a 5-second penalty and fell to 3rd place.

Road race

The Japanese GP race which took place on Sunday (9/10/2022) took place in conditions of heavy rain. The race itself is expected to last 53 laps with Max Verstappen starting from pole position. After the start, Verstappen managed to keep his position from chasing Charles Leclerc. Meanwhile, Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez managed to overtake Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz for third place.

At the first corner there was an accident involving Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) and Fernando Alonso (Alpine) which took Vettel off the track. The accident occurred at Turn 7 when Carlos Sainz lost control of his car on a slippery track. He immediately had to finish the race faster and the Safety Car off the track.

In addition to Carlos Sainz, Williams team driver Alexander Albon also had to finish his race due to problems with his car’s hydraulic system. Then on the third lap the track conditions became more dangerous and the visibility was not good, so the red flag was raised indicating the suspension of the race. All the drivers enter the pits waiting for the weather conditions to be favorable to continue.

After almost 2 hours of delay, the race resumed. But the race no longer uses the lap count but the countdown time. This is due to the limited duration of the race which must last a maximum of 3 hours. During the red flag period, the FIA ​​conducted an investigation into a crane which suddenly entered the track and endangered the driver.

When the race resumed, the stewards decided to use the Rolling Start method with the Safety Car driving the track for several laps until the race could start normally. When the restart began, some riders who had previously used Full Wet tires during the red flag period started switching to intermediate tires.

When all the riders made more stops, Max Verstappen led the way with 20 minutes to go. He was almost 7 seconds ahead of Leclerc and Perez who were competing for second place. Then there was also Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) who tried to overtake Esteban Ocon (Alpine) for fourth position, but unfortunately several attempts did not yield results.

The drama occurred in the final minutes before the end of the race, Sergio Perez kept trying to overtake Charles Leclerc. Two minutes before the end of the race, Perez tried to overtake Leclerc on the inside of the track. But Leclerc managed to block Leclerc’s effort by cutting the last chicane.

Until the end of the race Max Verstappen was not overtaken and won the Japanese GP, followed by Leclerc and Perez. But moments before the end of the race, Steward punished Leclerc with another 5 seconds of penalty. In this way Sergio Perez moved up to second place and Charles Leclerc dropped to 3rd, thus ensuring Max Verstappen to win the world title this season.

This is the second world title after the first world title won in the last race of the Abu Dhabi GP last year. Meanwhile Sergio Perez managed to overtake Charles Leclerc from the second position in the provisional standings. The next race will take place at the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of The Americas from 21-23 October.