Japanese Grand Prix – Verstappen dominates and becomes champion!

Running start and very wet.

All the drivers start on intermediate, green tires, while Pierre Gasly starts from the pit lane.

Charles Leclerc makes a better start, but Verstappen, on the outside of the first corner, manages to regain his first place.

Sebastian Vettel also quickly extracts himself from his position while flirting with the grass to attempt an overtaking maneuver on Alonso’s Alpine. The German touches the Alpine, goes off track, and ends up dead last. Carlos Sainz gets passed by Perez.

A lively first lap also between Alonso and Hamilton at the hairpin. The Spaniard dives to the inside to overtake the Englishman, but skids when trying to accelerate again, allowing Hamilton to reclaim his position. He narrowly avoids a serious collision with Carlos Sainz, who just went off the track.

Safety car and then red flag.

Carlos Sainz loses his Ferrari shortly after the hairpin and has to retire due to contact with the safety barrier. Zhou, on the other hand, spins out when accelerating after the hairpin.

Alex Albon retires due to mechanical failure. The gearbox is likely to be the cause.

Pierre Gasly has to go back to the pit lane to change a damaged wing and takes the opportunity to put on maximum rain tires. He damaged his wing after making contact with a advertising board that returned to the track during Carlos Sainz’s accident.

However, during the lap under safety car, as the Frenchman was rejoining the pack led by Bernd Maylander’s red Mercedes, he encounters a truck with his AlphaTauri. This incident infuriates Pierre Gasly, who doesn’t hesitate to express his opinion to the race management once the race is neutralized.

Spa 2021: a distant memory!

More than two hours after the initial start, the Japanese Grand Prix takes off for a second time. Despite the continuous rainfall, the race management officially announces a new start behind the safety car and with a mandatory requirement to use the wet-weather maximum grip tires.

After three laps, the safety car releases the drivers. The grip conditions are acceptable for everyone, but the visibility conditions remain poor and raise concerns among some participants.

Regardless of what happens, there are still a maximum of 40 minutes left in the race.

And as soon as the restart happens, Vettel and Latifi switch to intermediate tires. While Verstappen relaunches wonderfully, the rest of the pack follows closely behind him.

Very quickly, Lando Norris and then Valtteri Bottas realize that it is also appropriate to switch to the green tire. They are then followed by the leaders Verstappen, Leclerc, Perez, Hamilton, and Russell. The teams make two simultaneous changes. And that’s how Alonso becomes the race leader for one lap, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Mick Schumacher.

After this commotion in the pit lane, Verstappen regains his position at the front of the race, ahead of Leclerc, then Perez and Esteban Ocon.

There is only Mick Schumacher left on wet tires, but his strategy is not the right one. He is being overtaken at every turn, as the intermediates clearly have a big advantage in terms of grip. When he finally decides to pit and change his tires, he rejoins in last place, 18th, and 14 seconds behind 17th. Haas was certainly hoping for the intervention of the safety car.

The big winners are those who dared to bet on green tires first, namely Vettel now sixth and Latifi eighth.

A race animated by Hamilton, Ocon, and Russell.

The Mercedes seems to be comfortable in these rainy conditions. So Hamilton is putting pressure on Esteban Occon lap after lap. They are battling for fourth place, and the seven-time world champion is sometimes extremely threatening. But the Frenchman is solid in defense.

On his side, after losing time in the pits, stuck behind his teammate during the simultaneous double tire change for Mercedes, Russell makes a great comeback thanks to some impressive overtakes. Especially a very bold move on the outside against Tsunoda.

There are only fifteen minutes of the race left, and some drivers and engineers are questioning the premature wear of the intermediate tires.

And it’s Zhou who attempts the first pit stop, he is followed by Stroll and Gasly. The latter clearly lacks pace and completes the pack in 18th position.

Exciting finish for the second and fourth place.

Ten minutes from the finish line, Lewis Hamilton starts to lose patience and becomes more and more insistent. He forces Esteban Ocon to defend more aggressively, hoping that the Frenchman will make a mistake.

And it’s at this moment that Sergio Perez manages to catch up with Charles Leclerc, doubting his intermediate tires.

These two battles are intense, but Leclerc and Ocon are holding onto their positions.

Fernando Alonso opted for a more aggressive strategy by imitating Zhou. However, he came out in eighth place and lost positions, unable to recover them despite the advantage of new tires.

Max Verstappen is not troubled and wins this race in Suzuka with ease. He has nearly a 25-second lead over Charles Leclerc at the end of the race.

However, in a huge mix-up, the race officials make the decision to award 100% of the points… which gives Verstappen the championship title!

Because Leclerc’s second position was given to Perez. On the last lap, at the chicane, the Monegasque goes straight instead of turning the corner. He does slow down, but he squeezes Perez when the latter tries to overtake him in the final meters of the circuit.

The results of the 2022 Japanese Grand Prix of F1