Max Verstappen and the championships, it’s a marriage never without drama.
Here he was, in his garage accepting the sad reality that the rain had stopped playing. Ruined Title Party. Then off to Austin in a couple of weeks.
Only, no. This is Verstappen and a championship after all.
Max Verstappen was crowned 2022 world champion after victory at the Japanese GP
He clinched his second world title in dramatic fashion after a strange finish at Suzuka
There was confusion over the allocation of points after the shortened race at Suzuka on Sunday
Verstappen won the title after Charles Leclerc was demoted to third following a time penalty
He took victory at Suzuka, beating second-placed Perez by 26 seconds on the day.
With 41 minutes left on the race clock, they set off again, sliding through the spray and puddles that had built up. Verstappen cruised to victory, another race win for the season, while Charles Leclerc, the man behind him in the title race, battled like Tom and Jerry with Sergio Perez.
That was where the drama would play out until the penultimate corner, when a Leclerc spun out, only to re-emerge in P2. A lot of gasping from the fans for the local straight.
Commissioners noticed this immediately and ordered an investigation. Minutes later, the Ferrari driver received a five-second penalty. Incredibly, Verstappen was once again world champion.
Confusion reigned, had he really won it with the help of his teammate Pérez in the last corner? Should only half points be awarded? No, the rules would say go ahead with the layout.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner said Verstappen’s win was ‘much less controversial’ than in 2021
Verstappen put in a dominant performance despite torrential rain that caused a two-hour delay
Full points are awarded if a race can be restarted and passed the half distance. Check and check. Rummaging through the appendix of the code, he found the clause that would crown him champion. How had he managed to repeat the drama of Abu Dhabi in December last year?
“Max Verstappen: You’re the world champion,” announced track reporter Jonny Herbert, prompting a huge roar from the fans. Over Verstappen ran into girlfriend Kelly Piquet. big hug Huge smiles. Nothing is simple for the Dutchman and his now two world titles.
It wasn’t the way it was supposed to go, and another spectacular final lap finish in the soaking rain. None of the 11 drivers in F1 history who have won a title here at Suzuka – Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost among them – has had to contend with as much drama and disbelief as Verstappen here.
Rain began to pile up on the track 45 minutes before the race was originally due to start, how long ago it now feels, and as engineers frantically worked on the cars under temporary gazebos, hope soon faded that a race might even take place.
Many thought that Verstappen could not get the championship after the race delay
A pit stop provided a lap of action, but even that lasted a few corners before a safety car was deployed due to crashes by Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon. He was a traitor and everyone knew it.
Sainz aquaplaned at the barrier and the force deflected part of a billboard onto the track, which soon latched onto the front wing of a trailing Pierre Gasly.
Gasly then had to take evasive action to avoid a tractor that had come onto the track, surprisingly unbeknownst to the drivers, as he headed into the pits following a red flag.
“I could have killed myself,” said an incredulous Gasly. The memory of Jules Bianchi, who in 2014 suffered a horrific accident in the wet here, which ended his life a year later, was not far from the riders’ thoughts. Philippe Bianci, Jules’ father, was livid on social media.
Pierre Gasly had to take evasive measures to avoid colliding with a tractor that appeared on the track
The AlphaTouri star claimed the incident was “unacceptable”, during a two-hour stoppage
As the war raged between the drivers and race control over why Gasly had put himself in such a dangerous, or as he called it, “unacceptable” situation before returning to the garage, the rain continued to fall.
Puddles soon turned into streams and fans outside the main straight soon found themselves scrambling for cover, even with their special team ponchos on.
So for more than two hours they waited, like the drivers, for positive news.
As two men began dismantling the podium, the omens looked grim for any racing action to emerge from the downpour. Trust Verstappen to frantically put the screws back in with seconds left to run.
Lewis Hamilton took to Instagram to attempt to grease the wheels of race control and how fascinating it is that the Mercedes star’s plea helped set the wave for Verstappen’s second title.
Lewis Hamilton was keen to race despite the terrible conditions which led to the postponement
‘Let’s go… try it. We will know immediately if it is driveable or not,” he wrote.
The words of a seven-time world champion tend to carry a great deal of weight and soon the riders were exhausted to the stands and back to the cockpits.
Two laps behind a safety car followed and from the fifth lap, with 41 minutes to go in the action of the race, a roar arose from the grandstand and we started again.
So could Verstappen do it yet? The odds were getting slimmer, and you had to make sure you passed all 27 laps to activate 50 percent of the available points.
The spray behind the Dutchman was immense. How his tail runner Leclerc could see anything was a miracle in itself.
Visibility was low as water sprayed under the tires after the rain had settled on the track
The world champion said he was “very happy to be able to run at the end” after the early rain
The pit-lane was bombarded as the intermediate tires advanced and in the desperate hope of a safety car, in order to earn a cheap shot, Haas dropped Mick Schumacher out while in P3.
It backfired as he was dragged around the circuit and soon finished 10th and one pit stop later he was at the back of the grid.
From there the action was limited and became a more glorified procession. Kevin Magnussen did his best to make it a race, helping himself and weaving into overtakes amid the spray, but others chose to play it safe and avoid joining Sainz and Albon again in the garage.
Then came the end. Pérez wins and beats Leclerc, a breather in every corner of Suzuka. He was like a bird of prey waiting for the moment to strike and it was Perez in Abu Dhabi who played such a key role in upsetting Hamilton.
The final end was done again and forced Leclerc into a lapse of concentration. penalty third The Ferrari man’s late contraction gave Verstappen the title.
Sportsmail’s James Cohen produced live blog updates as the Formula 1 campaign continued at the Japanese Grand Prix.