Max Verstappen was already in the high-speed interview room at the end of the eventful Japanese GP when he received confirmation that he had become world champion – the announcement was made by ex-driver Jenson Button, holding the official F1 microphone. It was the second consecutive title for the Dutchman from Red Bull, who finished the race in first place and benefited from a “penalty” for Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) – penalized by five seconds for cutting the path in the penultimate corner, then battling for second with Sérgio Pérez, dropping from second to third. The setting Mad Max needed.
The rain caused a series of incidents on the first lap leading to the showing of the red flag interrupting the race. With a three-hour window, the race eventually resumed with just 41 minutes to go, allowing 28 laps to be completed.
The doubt (whether Verstappen was champion or not) hung because just over 50% of the predicted race distance had been covered. But the fact that the race was resumed and the winner crossed the finish line in race condition was enough to get the maximum score on Suzuka. When Leclerc’s penalty and drop to third place allowed the Dutchman to celebrate the title.
Verstappen himself was not convinced he had won the title, telling Sérgio Pérez that he was not champion in the break room before the podium ceremony. Only later was he certain that he had won the second championship of his career, at the age of 25. “I am very proud of what we have achieved. It was incredible. I thank everyone who contributed to this success. Winning the second championship with Honda, especially here, it is very emotional,” said the Dutch driver.
After the podium ceremony, and interviewed by former driver Jenson Button, he admitted that “the first” [título] is more emotional, but the second is more beautiful for the season” that the team has. “We are leading the constructors and now we are concentrating on that fight,” he stressed, as this is going to be “a very special season”.
For the second year in a row, Verstappen was crowned champion with some controversy in the mix. This Sunday was due to Leclerc’s penalty in a bumpy race; last year in Abu Dhabi with an overtake by Hamilton on the last lap, when the green flag was raised after the safety car arrived.
The son of a former driver, Jos Verstappen, Mad Max became one of the earliest F1 champions this Sunday, leaving Monegasque Charles Leclerc well behind 2nd place. This performance equaled Briton Nigel Mansell, just behind German Michael Schumacher, who secured the title in 2002 with six races to go.
Always burning steps
At the age of 17 years and 166 days, Verstappen became the youngest ever to compete in a full-time race for Toro Rosso at that year’s Australian GP. Two races later, in Malaysia, he was the youngest to score, aged 17 years and 180 days, when he finished seventh.
In 2016, when the season was already underway, he was promoted to the Red Bull first team. And right on his debut, he won the Spanish GP, aged 18 years and 228 days.
After two third places in the championship, in 2019 and 2020, Verstappen, who turned 25 on Friday, won the second title of his career this Sunday after the controversial win in 2021, in the final race of the season, in Abu Dhabi, against Lewis hamilton. Now chase other records
Gasly’s brave shock
The Japanese GP was quite bumpy on the first lap, with pedestrians from Vettel (Aston Martin) and Chinese Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo), and a showy skid by Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari forcing the safety car to pull away.
Frenchman Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri) ended up with a billboard on the front of his car and had to go to the pits to change the nose of the single-seater. After returning to the track, he ran into a tractor on the track, yelled to tow Sainz’s Ferrari, and nearly ran over one of the stewards.
This incident was widely criticized by other drivers, namely Britain’s Lando Norris (McLaren), not least because Suzuka was the scene of the accident of Frenchman Jules Bianchi in 2014, which ended with the driver’s death after hitting of a crane towing another. accident car. . “If I had lost control of the car I could have been dead by now. We’ve lost Jules [Bianchi] eight years ago in similar circumstances,” the French driver lamented at the end.
The race directors, led by Portuguese Eduardo Freitas, opened a speeding investigation against Gasly as the race was interrupted by red flags before the Frenchman reached the site of Sainz’s crashed car. with LUSA
Source: DN
