Max Verstappen secures his second world championship!
Max Verstappen is a 2-time Champion of the World! Verstappen outclassed everyone around the wet Suzuka circuit. Max won the race by 27 seconds ahead of his teammate Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc who received a penalty right after the race had finished.
The Biggest Talking Point
There is a lot to talk about. The race was quickly red flagged after the FIA felt the rain was too heavy. We then waited for over 2 hours before the race restarted. A clip was shown showing Pierre Gasly going past a Crain that was on the track. This is unacceptable. You can barely see in those conditions so what happens if he drove into it. You could say that he knew Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari was going to be there but that doesn’t stop him from losing the car and spinning into it. It’s even worse when you consider Jules Bianchi died in the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix from hitting a Crain in the rain. When the race finally restarted, there was a lot of good action. Esteban Ocon and Lewis Hamilton’s battle was really fun, George Russell pulled out some excellent overtakes, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll made late pitstops and then came through the pack and the battle between Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez in the closing laps was really fun.
There’s then the matter of how Max Verstappen found out he had won the world championship. Going into the chicane for the final time, Charles Leclerc outbroke himself, missed the corner but stayed ahead. After they had spoken to Max Verstappen, it was revealed that Charles Leclerc had received a 5 second penalty for the incident. Then, Johnny Herbert told Verstappen that he was now the World Champion. No one really knew what was going on because according to the rules, we weren’t giving out full points. The graphic then appeared to say that Max Verstappen is a 2-time World Champion. Nobody, including Max, knew if he was the champion or not. It then got revealed that they were awarding full points for some reason, meaning that Max did enough to become champion. This is easily the weirdest way anyone is ever going to become the World Champion.
The Standout drives in the race
I have given out four 10’s. The first one is for the World Champion Max Verstappen, but I don’t really need to go on about him anymore. The second guy is Esteban Ocon. Esteban Ocon brought his Alpine home in an incredible P4. His defensive driving against Lewis Hamilton was excellent; not only because he was fair and gave Lewis space but also because the Frenchman never made a mistake. A brilliant, brilliant day for Esteban Ocon and for Alpine.
The next person to receive a perfect 10 is Sebastian Vettel. What a topsy turvy day for the four-time World Champion. Vettel collided with Fernando Alonso on the first corner of the opening to the race but once we got going, Aston Martin pulled the plug straight away and brought Sebastian Vettel into the pits to fit the intermediate tyre. This was a masterful strategy as he managed to jump most of the field to go up to P6. He then kept his cool whilst he was being challenged by Fernando Alonso to come home in P6. He ended up beating Fernando Alonso to the line by 11 thousandths! It’s a shame I haven’t been able to see it yet.
The final man that earnt a ten from me is Nicholas Latifi! Williams pulled the same strategy as Aston Martin and brought the Canadian straight in. Latifi jumped up into the points and never let go of them. He was overtaken by Fernando Alonso and George Russell, but he managed to stay ahead of the McLaren’s to score his first points of the year. Me and many others have been rightly criticizing Latifi’s performances this season, but he did brilliantly today. He’s clearly very comfortable in the wet conditions. A quick shout out to Checo Perez who was excellent today.
Drivers who had a horror race
I have only given one person a rating of 1. That person is Mick Schumacher. Schumacher finished last on track and really didn’t look good. His pace was so slow, and he just couldn’t find the speed. Both Alfa Romeo drivers also had pretty tough days and Mick’s teammate Kevin Magnussen didn’t do too much better. I haven’t given Pierre Gasly a 1 because the incident with the Crain could have easily been going through his head. As for Carlos Sainz, he crashed on the opening lap and the only reason I haven’t given him a 1 is because if you watch the crash, you will see that he really didn’t have much chance. It could have happened to anyone. Still, not a very positive day for the Spaniard who’s looked pretty good this weekend.
Overall Race Result and my Rating
Max Verstappen: 10
Sergio Perez: 9
Charles Leclerc: 8
Esteban Ocon: 10
Lewis Hamilton: 8
Sebastian Vettel: 10
Fernando Alonso: 7
George Russell: 5
Nicholas Latifi: 10
Lando Norris: 6
Daniel Ricciardo: 5
Lance Stroll: 6
Yuki Tsunoda: 5
Kevin Magnussen: 3
Valtteri Bottas: 2
Zhou Guanyu: 2
Mick Schumacher: 1
Pierre Gasly: 2 (20s penalty)
Alex Albon: - (DNF)
Carlos Sainz: 2 (DNF)
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