The 25-year-old Limburger has become world champion in Formula 1 for the second time. Last year he won the world championship in the last round of the last race. This year he already managed it during the Grand Prix of Japan. The special thing is that there are still four Grand Prix’s and a sprint race on the schedule.
Dramatic start of the race
Polesitter Max Verstappen certainly didn’t have a super start. The Dutchman recovered well and was able to defend his lead in the first corner combination against rival Charles Leclerc. Further down the field it got worse and Sebastian Vettel went off the track, but was able to continue without further problems. Carlos Sainz, who was parked next to the track in his Ferrari, was less fortunate. Williams driver Alex Albon was also heavily damaged and stranded. Guanyu Zhou also spun and the safety car was deployed, but soon got a red flag. This allowed the entire field to enter the pitlane to await the restart.
Restart of the race
The restart of the race led Verstappen, Leclerc right behind him, followed by Sergio Pérez in third, followed by alpine rider Esteban Ocon. Lewis Hamilton followed the Frenchman. In this order, the restart started after the safety car started with significant delay. There were 41 minutes to go when the light turned green and the safety car came in. Verstappen led the field and quickly created a lead.
Final round of the Japanese Grand Prix
Max Verstappen had to be eight points ahead of Charles Leclerc and six points ahead of Sergio Perez at the Japanese Grand Prix. He did exactly that, partly due to Leclerc’s penalty in the last lap of the race. As a result, the Ferrari driver dropped to third in the day’s results, losing ten points, while Perez moved into second, losing seven points to the Dutchman. This made him world champion for the second year in a row. In addition, Sebastian Vettel climbed to 11th place with a sixth place, while Nicholas Latifi scored his first points of the year to return to the top 20 of the general classification.
Uncertainty after the finish
As mentioned before, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was given a 5 second penalty for cutting the penultimate corner. Because no statements had yet been made about this, Max Verstappen did not even know that he was world champion after winning the race. After Verstappen had completed his interview, he was recalled by the camera crew. Apparently Verstappen had become world champion, even after the camera crew and the interviewer had congratulated him, there was still no certainty.
The analysts claimed that half points were given for the Japanese Grand Prix for not racing long enough, while the FIA gave full points to all drivers. So there was a lot of confusion about this. But we can now happily say that Max Verstappen has become Formula 1 world champion twice!