The Japanese Grand Prix finally comes to an end after it looking like it almost didn’t happen due to the rain. Lights went out at 6am (BST) and we got half a lap of racing before there was a safety car and then on lap 3, the race then got red flagged.
But it was Max Verstappen who took the win in Japan, and secured himself a second world title! Sergio Perez comes home in 2nd making it a 1-2 for Red Bull and Charles Leclerc finishes 3rd after being penalised for cutting the chicane…
The full top 10 are- P1: Verstappen, P2: Perez, P3: Leclerc, P4: Ocon, P5: Hamilton, P6: Vettel, P7: Alonso, P8: Russell, P9: Latifi and P10: Norris.
First lap incident was Carlos Sainz, who spun round and then hit the barriers. As well as this Alex Albon couldn’t move from 2nd and had to pull to one side of the track.
It was a very weird race, obviously having the race red flagged for over 2 hours so we only ended up with around 40 minutes of racing! But not only that there was a recovery vehicle on track whilst Pierre was also on the track.
Completely unacceptable that they allowed this to happen, even more so at a track where a driver collided with a vehicle back in 2014 at the Japanese GP and then died in 2015. Jules Bianchi lost control of his car in very wet conditions and collided with a recovery vehicle.
Honestly im so shocked, but I am also glad to see that drivers and team principles agree that the recovery vehicle shouldn’t of been on the track. But the FIA have announced that they have launched an investigation into by releasing a statement of the following- “While it is normal practice to recover cars under Safety Car and Red Flag conditions, due to the particular circumstances and also taking into account feedback from of a number of drivers, the FIA has launched a thorough review of the events involving the deployment of recovery vehicles during the Japanese Grand Prix. This is part of the common practice of analysis of all race incidents to ensure continual improvements of processes and procedures.”
But on another note, Max Verstappen is world champion for the second time in a row, after an absolute stellar of a season and winning it with 4 races to the end! He now has to focus on the Constructors as Red Bull haven’t won it yet, but it can be won in Austin.
Now we have to wait until the 21st to 23rd of October for Round 19 but it is the first of a double header and we are heading to the States!
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