Formula One: 'It's a crazy feeling" as Verstappen retains world title after dramatic Japan GP win

SUZUKA - Max Verstappen was declared Formula One world champion on Sunday after winning a dramatic rain-shortened Japanese Grand Prix.

Red Bull’s Verstappen crossed the line first and was awarded the title, but second-place finisher Charles Leclerc was given a five-second penalty, dropping to third.

The result gave Verstappen an unassailable 113-point lead in the championship, making him only the third driver after Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel to clinch the title with four races to spare.

Ferrari’s Leclerc finished the race in front of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, but he was hit with a penalty after squeezing Perez wide and leaving the track in a late surge for the line.

Verstappen was informed he had retained his title midway through the post-race TV interview, and even the driver himself was not sure if he had sealed the deal.

“It’s a crazy feeling of course as I didn’t expect it when I crossed the line,” said a shell-shocked Verstappen.

“Was it going to be half points? I didn’t know how many points I was going to get. I was happy with the race we had.”

The race got off to a chaotic start in heavy rain, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Williams’ Alex Albon exiting on the first lap.

A red flag soon followed and forced the drivers to wait for more than an hour before the action restarted, again under a safety car.

Verstappen resumed with a lead over Leclerc and Perez, and extended it as conditions gradually improved.

Verstappen has won 12 of 18 races in 2022 and thanked his team for an “incredible” year.

“The first (championship) is a little more emotional, the second one is beautiful,” he said. “It’s been a special year, and you need to remind yourself as these kind of years you don’t have very often.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said Verstappen had “grown” as a driver.

“Carrying that number one this year, he’s done it with a lot of pride,” he said.

Earlier, French driver Pierre Gasly reacted furiously after passing a tractor during the race, on the same Suzuka circuit where Jules Bianchi suffered a fatal accident.

Gasly said he could have been killed after encountering the vehicle, which was deployed to recover Sainz's car after the Spaniard crashed in heavy rain in the first lap.

French driver Bianchi suffered a fatal crash at Suzuka in October 2014 when he collided with a tractor crane that was recovering a car.

He underwent emergency surgery and was placed in an induced coma, but never recovered and died in July 2015.

McLaren driver Lando Norris said the incident involving Gasly in terrible visibility was "unacceptable", in a tweet posted on social media as he waited for the race to restart.

"How's this happened?" he tweeted. "We lost a life in this situation years ago. We risk our lives, especially in conditions like this."

The governing body FIA said the incident would be investigated after the race.

Gasly was also under investigation for allegedly speeding under red flag conditions, having pitted to remove an advertising board that had lodged on the front of his car after Sainz had dislodged it, and then trying to catch the field behind the safety car.

 

Sainz said: "Even behind a Safety Car we are going at 100 or 150kph and still at those speeds we don't see nothing.

"I still don't know why we keep risking, in these conditions, having a tractor on track. You were going to red flag it anyway, so why risk it?"

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said the incident was "totally unacceptable".

"We lost Jules Bianchi here eight years ago and that should never, ever happen," he told Sky Sports F1.

"There needs to be a full investigation into why there was a recovery vehicle on the circuit." - AFP