Verstappen crowned world champ with Japanese GP win as Leclerc lands third

MANILA: After a controversial late penalty for Ferrari's Charles Leclerc rendered the championship unassailable — Max Verstappen won the 2022 F1 Japanese Grand Prix and his second world championship title along with it.

At Suzuka, a race that had to be restarted due to severe rain was won by Verstappen, with Leclerc initially appearing to be in second place. However, the Ferrari driver was fined for skipping the chicane on the last lap while he was fending off Sergio Perez's other Red Bull.

Verstappen has an unstoppable advantage over Perez and Leclerc heading into the United States Grand Prix and the final four races of the season thanks to the massive points swing in the 2022 F1 Championship, ensuring his victory.

The F1 Japanese Grand Prix initially started at 2 p.m. as scheduled. Verstappen was holding off Leclerc following a close run to Turn 1 at local time.

However, only two laps had been completed when the race was red-flagged due to heavy rain and numerous incidents, including a crash involving Ferrari's Carlos Sainz.

After the original start, there was a significant delay while Race Control waited for a good weather window to restart the race. During this time, the overall three-hour race restriction was running out and the two-hour window had already begun to apply.

A planned rolling start was quickly carried out and the pack of cars was released, all of which were this time forced to run wet tires rather than having the option to use intermediates, with just under 50 minutes remaining on the race clock. The Safety Car had led the field out of the pit lane for that planned rolling start.

Verstappen eventually crossed the finish line more than 20 seconds ahead of the field after mastering the transition from wet tires to intermediates as the track condition steadily improved.

As a result of Leclerc's penalty for cutting the final chicane on the penultimate lap to fend off a charging Perez, Verstappen won the championship and Leclerc lost his chance to finish second and keep the title fight alive.

After fiercely defending against Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes, Esteban Ocon finished a strong fourth for Alpine, and Sebastian Vettel, making his final appearance at Suzuka, came from behind to finish in sixth place.

Prior to Mercedes’ George Russell, Williams’ Nicholas Latifi, and Lando Norris of McLaren, who also made an early swap from wets to intermediates, Alpine’s Alonso slapped on another set of intermediates in the closing stages to finish in P7.

Daniel Ricciardo of McLaren came in P11, ahead of Kevin Magnussen of Haas, Yuki Tsunoda of AlphaTauri – in his home race, he was naturally the local favorite — and Lance Stroll of Aston Martin.

Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu of Alfa Romeo finished P15 and P16, respectively, with Pierre Gasly of Alpha Tauri finishing P17 following a spectacular incident in which he started from the pit lane and sustained damage from an advertising board.

After the aforementioned accident involving Sainz, a Ferrari driver who lost control of his vehicle at the exit of the Turn 11 hairpin, the Safety Car and a red flag were used at the 2022 F1 Japanese Grand Prix.

The other retirement was Alex Albon of Williams, who collided with Kevin Magnussen in the opening lap's spray and had to be removed from the race owing to a mechanical issue precipitated by the collision.

Leclerc’s third-place finish resulted in Verstappen’s confirmation as champion.

After he learned of his title triumph, Verstappen expressed: “It’s crazy. (I’ve got) very mixed emotions. What a year we’ve had so far – it’s been incredible. It’s something I could never have imagined happening after last year already, fighting to the end and having such a good car again this year.

“I’m so thankful to everyone who has been contributing to the success. The whole team here (at the track) but also back at the factory constantly working flat out and never missing any motivation to make the car faster.

“Besides that, the work we’ve done together with Honda all the way through every year, just constantly improving rapidly. To win now twice with them is very emotional, especially here (at their home track), with everyone watching. It gives you a little bit more pressure, but it’s good pressure, it’s positive pressure. I’m very proud that we could do it here.”

Verstappen has amassed 12 victories from 18 races so far this season, and with Perez supporting him in P2 in Japan, Red Bull now has five 1-2 finishes to their credit. The team is now working to deny Ferrari the constructors' championship.

Asked to compare his F1 2021 and 2022 championship wins, Verstappen had this to add: “I think the first one is always a little more emotional. But the second one is probably even more beautiful… The season we’ve had with the wins, the great races, the team work, the 1-2s we’ve had.

“We’re leading the constructors’, so we really want to focus on that as well to try to secure that. It’s been a pretty special year and it’s something you really have to remind yourself of, because these kind of years you don’t have very often.”

Verstappen was recognized by Charles Leclerc for clinching his second F1 world championship at the 2022 Japanese Grand Prix, which was made official after the Ferrari driver received a penalty.

Leclerc seemed poised to postpone Verstappen's title celebrations for another round over the last laps of the rain-shortened race at Suzuka until Sergio Perez closed up and forced him into an error.

“A huge congratulations to Max for his second world championship. It’s obviously frustrating today, the pace was not there after four laps, but it’s like this,” said Leclerc, who experienced some problems related to the tires of his car.

“From Lap 5 onwards, it was all downhill. (I was) really struggling with tyres; a bit like the last race, we are very strong warming up the tyre, but then after three, four laps, we just destroy them, (so) we struggled this time.”

When he was inquired for his opinion on the penalty given by the stewards, Leclerc added: “I don’t have much to say. I wasn’t aware it was the last lap. A five-second penalty was the right decision, to be honest.”

Leclerc's focus is now on making the most of the last four races of the season and adding to his triumphs in Austria, Bahrain, and Australia before reuniting for another attempt to win the championship in 2023.

“Exactly, that’s the goal. I think Max’s title this year was just a matter of time, really – we expected him to win the title. Now we need to use those last races in order to become a better team and hopefully put in a bit more of a challenge next year,” he concluded.

The United States Grand Prix, the following round of the World Championship, will take place in Austin, Texas, from October 21 to 23.

Photos from Formula 1

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