Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen won his second Formula One world championship amid scenes of confusion today at the end of the Japanese Grand Prix at the Suzuka circuit after closest rival Charles Leclerc was handed a five-second post-race penalty for an incident with Sergio Perez on the final lap. The Dutch driver won the race at Suzuka, with the Maranello team’s Charles Leclerc demoted from second to third behind Sergio Perez, as Red Bull secured a one-two finish.
A few moments after the race, the governing FIA confirmed that full points had been awarded for the rain-hit and shortened race in Japan, which meant Max Verstappen also succeeded in clinching his second consecutive world championship.
It is a disappointing moment for Scuderia Ferrari, even though the Italian side was aware the title hopes were lost at this stage of the 2022 Formula 1 season. The Maranello team started the F1 campaign in a strong way, with two race wins for Charles Leclerc after the first three rounds, in Bahrain (where Ferrari even scored a 1-2 finish) and Australia, as well as a second place in Saudi Arabia. It finally seemed like Ferrari would be able to challenge its rivals for the Formula 1 world championship, but since the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix it all went downhill: several power unit reliability problems, a series of poor strategical decisions and some drivers’ mistakes gradually allowed Red Bull to take the lead and build a solid gap in front, with the Austrian team even able to outdevelop the Italian side in the second part of the season, after the F1-75 showed some impressive performances in the first part of 2022.
At the end of the Japanese Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc wanted to extend his congratulations to Max Verstappen and his team, with the hope of being able to challenge the Austrian team in the 2023 Formula 1 season: “Huge congratulation to Max and Red Bull. This year, Max was just incredible. It‘s a title fully deserved. On our side, we will try to push in the last four races to improve as a team, and to hopefully put more of a challenge next year.” – Charles Leclerc added.
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When asked about drivers encountering two recovery vehicles on track during the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, as recovery vehicles were sent to recover the cars of Carlos Sainz Jnr and Alexander Albon which crashed between the hairpin and Spoon Curve, the Ferrari driver added: “We shouldn’t see these type of things. Of course something happened in 2014, we all know that, and we should learn from that. Max said it very well. Once you are first, it is actually quite okay but once you are behind, you can‘t see anything. Whenever you try to have more visibility, you can get surprised by having a crane in the middle of the track. It shouldn‘t happen. I really hope we learn from that. And that we don‘t see these things.” – Charles Leclerc concluded.
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