Max Verstappen won a rain-soaked Japanese Grand Prix overshadowed by a terrifying close call in the first few minutes of the race – and the Dutchman was then crowned the 2022 Formula 1 world champion.
All the build up to the race at Suzuka was focussed on the Dutchman being able to confirm his status as world champion if he beat Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez by enough points.
Heavy rain at Suzuka meant the race was shortened to 29 laps. That resulted in confusion over whether full points would be awarded to winner Verstappen and it was only after the race that his world championship title was confirmed. However, the Monday morning headlines will be stolen by the run-in Pierre Gasly very nearly had with a recovery vehicle.
As the race was red flagged in the early stages after a Carlos Sainz crash, Gasly drove at high speed past the tractor which had come onto the track to recover the wreckage. Fortunately he passed it unscathed, but could barely see the vehicle in an incident which reminded F1 fans of the tragic crash which claimed the life of Jules Bianchi at this very track eight years ago.
For a moment it seemed every driver got away okay at the start, but then the chaos began. No fewer than four cars had issues after the first few corners – two spins for Sebastian Vettel and Zhou Guanyu who were able to carry on. But Alex Albon suffered a gearbox issue and Sainz crashed his Ferrari.
That sparked a safety car and then a red flag after just one lap of racing. The main controversy came at that point, as the red flags were waved just a second before Gasly drove past the tractor, after which he declared angrily over team radio: "Can't believe this... I could have f***ing killed myself."
With the rain continuing to pour at Suzuka, the race restart was delayed for almost two hours before the race director decided it had eased enough for the cars to head back out on track. It resumed with little over half-an-hour on the race clock, meaning the full race distance would not be completed.
Verstappen was imperious once the race did get going again and soon left Leclerc trailing in his wake. The Ferrari man looked to have survived a late battle with Perez for second place but got a five-second time penalty for an aggressive defence on the final lap and was later relegated to third place. Esteban Ocon finished fourth impressively by holding off Lewis Hamilton.
Amid the chaos caused by the rain, Nicholas Latifi was one of the main beneficiaries and finished in the points places for the first time all year. Vettel also finished strongly at his final race in Japan – Suzuka is the four-time world champion's favourite circuit so he will be delighted with that result.
But there was no fairytale result for Yuki Tsunoda in front of his home fans. He was one of the losers of all the rain chaos and, despite making some late progress, the Japanese racer was still some way off the points.
Meanwhile, despite assumptions that full points would not be handed out, Verstappen was confusingly declared to be world champion after the conclusion of the race.
Red Bull had considered bringing Verstappen in for a pit stop for new tyres during the shortened race to target the fastest lap extra point. However, it was considered too risky with the Dutch driver finishing 26 seconds ahead of Leclerc.
So the Dutch driver finished the race thinking that the world title was yet to be won. However, the FIA announced that full points were to be awarded despite only 29 laps being raced.
