Verstappen, F1 world champion in Japan

Verstappen dreams of winning the title in Japan, the home of Honda. The ground was prepared and he did everything right to achieve it. But today is not the day. The rain took care of watering his biggest party. Verstappen won the F1 Japanese GP, but the happiness was not complete: he had to wait two more weeks to lift his second crown. Verstappen is holding his own in the Japanese event. If he wins and achieves the fastest lap, he will take his second World Cup. In the dry, the possibility of that happening is high, because behind the wheel of the best car, with less degradation than Ferraris and starting from pole, I was in a perfect position. But the heavy rain that fell on the Japanese track changed everything and allowed only 28 laps of the 53 scheduled to be run. That is, when 50% of the planned laps are exceeded, but not up to 75%, the regulation states that the points awarded to the winner are 19 instead of the usual 25. Max beat Pérez, who finished second after the last 5″ penalty to Charles, who is 3rd. Max adds 19 points, Pérez, 16 and Charles, 12. He needs to get 8 points from the Monegasque and 6 from Pérez to be champion in Suzuka, so he had to postpone the wing for the next United States Grand Prix, in Austin.

Rough start and Sainz left

The start of the race was very controversial. The drivers decided to start with the intermediate tire, but on an increasingly wet track, that was an overly optimistic decision due to the high probability of aquaplaning. In the first meter almost everything happened. Alonso and Vettel touched, Stroll made a great comeback from 5th place and into the lead and Verstappen defended his first position as champion against Leclerc in the first corner after a better start from Charles.

Max’s maneuver was to take off his hat: in unknown conditions, the Dutchman did not hesitate for a moment to jump out when everything was lost, letting the car run to regain first place. A masterpiece worthy of the current king of F1.

Later, something comes from Zhou and what everyone fears: an accident. It’s up to Sainz to do the worst part. The Spaniard lost third place at the start to Pérez and, chasing the Mexican, he got up to see something, but that caused him to end up in a bog. Carlos lost the car and leaned against the wall. Race Direction decided to stop the race with a red flag, and a situation arose that did not need to happen.

F1 did not learn from the Jules Bianchi tragedy

The red flag had just been shown, on lap 3 of the race, the drivers could not believe what they were seeing while riding behind the ‘Safety Car’: on a track with no visibility, they could not believe when they realized they were. is passing by a crane. In 2014, on this same track, Jules Bianchi had an accident when he collided with a tractor pulling a car on gravel. It was his life. 8 years later, the drivers were outraged to find that gross negligence had been done in allowing a crane to access the track to remove Carlos’ car while cars were still running on it. A tragedy may have occurred. First, because a marshal was seen “putting his life in serious danger by climbing onto the asphalt with a car tied to a crane, having to jump off when he saw a car passing by. And secondly, because Pierre Gasly, who came in to put on rain tires, was driving too fast (the FIA ​​says 250 km/h) to keep up with the safety car. He got a terrible fright when he saw the crane and many complained about it: “I could kill myself!”. But he was also to blame: the red flag was revealed and he couldn’t walk that fast.

That dangerous situation focused the debate in the paddock and in the pit lane during the almost two hours that had to wait for the return of the race. It competed again in a re-launched post ‘Safety Car’ with the clock ticking 40 minutes for the three-hour race limit. Emotions are maximum. Verstappen and Leclerc could duel in the rain. But there, Max and Red Bull made a difference again. Verstappen was unrivaled and crushed his opponent, making it clear why he will soon be champion. The Dutchman strolled through the rain with great superiority against a Charles who lasted a few laps before melting so fast that he ran out of tires. Even in wet conditions, the Ferrari undercuts the intermediate tires more. Leclerc was fortunate to cross the finish line in second position, 31 seconds behind the winner, as ‘Checo’ Pérez squeezed him from behind with a forceful final attack.

The Monegasque defended himself as best he could, in a lean way despite the absence of rubber bands, and Checo tried everything. Although that fight ended