Max Verstappen has sealed the 2022 Formula 1 world championship following the Japanese Grand Prix.
The Dutchman claimed his 12th win of the season, heading Charles Leclerc to the line only for the Ferrari driver to receive a post-race penalty.
Leclerc dropped to third as a result, and with full points awarded despite the race only running for 28 of the scheduled 53 laps.
It leaves Verstappen with a 113-point advantage with a maximum of 112 left on the table from the remaining four races.
“When I crossed the line, I didn’t believe that we would have won the title right there,” Verstappen said of his title win.
“I also didn’t know if we were going to get full points or not, but nevertheless, great, great day.
“At the end, we could race and the race itself, we could manage really well with the car, with the tyres.”
Verstappen’s second title win was in stark contrast to his first, which went down to the wire with Lewis Hamilton in 2021.
His latest success came after a slow start to the year, failing to see the chequered flag in two of the opening three races.
He then overhauled Leclerc for the points lead at the Spanish Grand Prix, after which he was never headed.
“We have a lot of very special moments, of course, but it’s also very important to look back at what the whole team has achieved and something that is, I think, pretty special and doesn’t really happen that many times.
“That’s why I think you really have to enjoy the moment and really appreciate, you know, the whole team around you.
“Everyone is working very hard towards the same goal. And, yeah, I’m pretty sure that it will be very hard to try and replicate a season like this.
“At the moment, it does feel perfect,” he added of sealing the championship in Japan, a circuit owned by Red Bull’s unofficial engine supplier, Honda.
“It’s not only because of just that we are driving with Honda, we’ve been really working together with them now for a few years, and with all the Japanese fans around.
“It’s also where we came from together because I think everyone, or most people, told us we were crazy when we started to work with them back in the day – ‘Is it going to work out,’ you know, because they had a tough time at that time.
“But you just see [they] never give up and full dedication to make it work, and that’s what happened.
“Already last year we were very competitive, but even better this year, and that’s why I’m really proud of the whole team.
“I’m also very proud of everyone within Honda for that mentality because it’s hard when you have a lot of criticism on you and there’s a lot of pressure because people are demanding a lot, and you need to perform and you need to show results.
“They stayed calm and they knew what they had to do, eventually, and look where we are now.”
Verstappen singled out his win in the Belgian Grand Prix as the highlight, where he charged from 14th on the grid to victory,
Conversely. Bahrain and Australia offered the low points, retiring from both though officially classified in the former since his DNF was so late in the piece.
“There were a few moments where I thought we have a good chance of winning it,” he said when asked when he thought the title was a realistic goal.
“But I think the moment where I thought ‘now we are going to win it’ was after Paul Ricard, where the [championship] lead increased by quite a bit.
“We had a quite competitive car, I knew it was going to be quite close in the coming races, but I was like, you know, this is a gap which we cannot give away anymore.”
Discussion about this post