F1 race results: Max Verstappen wins Japanese GP to take title

Verstappen just held his lead from pole position at the start in wet conditions, which quickly worsened and led to Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) to crashing heavily. The race was red flagged on Lap 3, which led to a lengthy delay as the heavy rain continued.

As conditions improved slightly, the race was restarted with 40 minutes remaining on the event clock, with Verstappen holding sway again and pulling clear of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to score his 12^th win of the season.

Leclerc just fended off Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez to finish second on the road, but was given a 5s penalty by race stewards for his tactics on the final tour.

That pushed him back to third and was enough for Verstappen to be confirmed as champion as full points were awarded despite the race only running to 28 laps.

2022 Japanese Grand Prix race results

Cla	Driver		Laps	Gap	Interval	Points
1	Max Verstappen		28			25
2	Sergio Perez		28	27.066	27.066	18
3	Charles Leclerc		28	31.763	4.697	15
4	Esteban Ocon		28	39.685	7.922	12
5	Lewis Hamilton		28	40.326	0.641	10
6	Sebastian Vettel		28	46.358	6.032	8
7	Fernando Alonso		28	46.369	0.011	6
8	George Russell		28	47.661	1.292	4
9	Nicholas Latifi		28	1'10.143	22.482	2
10	Lando Norris		28	1'10.782	0.639	1
11	Daniel Ricciardo		28	1'12.877	2.095
12	Lance Stroll		28	1'13.904	1.027
13	Yuki Tsunoda		28	1'15.599	1.695
14	Kevin Magnussen		28	1'26.016	10.417
15	Valtteri Bottas		28	1'26.496	0.480
16	Zhou Guanyu		28	1'27.043	0.547
17	Pierre Gasly		28	1'28.091	1.048
18	Mick Schumacher		28	1'32.523	4.432
	Alex Albon		0
	Carlos Sainz		0
View full results

How the Japanese Grand Prix unfolded

On a wet track, with all the cars in the field starting on intermediate tyres, Verstappen just held on to his pole advantage on the run to Turn 1 despite a poor initial getaway.

Leclerc, who raced him wheel-to-wheel until Turn 2, led the chase ahead of Perez, Sainz, Esteban Ocon (Alpine) and Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes).

Sebastian Vettel spun his Aston Martin after he clashed with the Alpine of Fernando Alonso on the chaotic dash to Turn 1, then Sainz aquaplaned off at the right-hander following the hairpin, causing a safety car.

Zhou Guanyu spun his Alfa Romeo at the hairpin, as Pierre Gasly started from the pit lane but picked up an advertising hoarding from the Sainz crash on the front of his AlphaTauri, while Alex Albon’s Williams ground to a halt.

Due to intensifying rain, the race director decided to red flag the race on Lap 3 but not before Gasly, who had pitted for a new nose section, controversially suffered a near miss with a tractor that was recovering Sainz’s car.

After a long delay, due to a prolonged period of torrential rain, the race resumed under the safety car with only 48 minutes remaining on the clock with all cars now on extreme wets. The race went green with 40 minutes to go.

Verstappen headed Leclerc, Perez, Ocon, Hamilton and Alonso. Vettel led a handful of cars that pitted for inters almost straight away and began setting faster sector times, prompting the leaders to pit too.

Alonso led for a lap, with Verstappen rejoining in fourth, before he too pitted. Mick Schumacher briefly led for Haas before Verstappen swept past to retake the lead, as Leclerc dropped back to 5s behind. After setting fastest lap, Leclerc struggled for grip as the race went on, losing over 20 seconds to Verstappen and allowing Perez to close in.

Perez attacked hard in the closing stages, but Leclerc managed to fend him off to finish a distant second – but had to straightline the Casio Triangle on the last lap and almost pushed Perez off at the final corner. That led to a 5s penalty, which promoted Perez to second.

Ocon and Hamilton fought out an epic duel over fourth, with Vettel reaping the benefit of his early pit call to jump up to sixth. George Russell lost time in the pitstops, being forced to stack behind Hamilton, but pulled off a sequence of brilliant passes to recover to finish eighth.

Alonso made a second stop for fresh inters, which dropped him to 10^th, but he charged back to pass Russell on the final lap for seventh but just missed out on getting Vettel.

2022 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix fastest laps

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	20	1'44.411			200.220
2	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	25	1'44.412	0.001	0.001	200.218
3	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	10	1'44.489	0.078	0.077	200.070
4	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	10	1'44.911	0.500	0.422	199.266
5	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	21	1'45.205	0.794	0.294	198.709
6	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	22	1'45.387	0.976	0.182	198.366
7	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	11	1'45.530	1.119	0.143	198.097
8	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	22	1'45.893	1.482	0.363	197.418
9	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	11	1'46.120	1.709	0.227	196.995
10	Mick Schumacher	Haas	13	1'46.545	2.134	0.425	196.210
11	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	11	1'46.559	2.148	0.014	196.184
12	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	13	1'46.964	2.553	0.405	195.441
13	George Russell	Mercedes	21	1'47.004	2.593	0.040	195.368
14	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	11	1'47.820	3.409	0.816	193.889
15	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	11	1'47.843	3.432	0.023	193.848
16	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	10	1'48.072	3.661	0.229	193.437
17	Lando Norris	McLaren	8	1'48.175	3.764	0.103	193.253
18	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	12	1'48.371	3.960	0.196	192.904
View full results

2022 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix pitstops

Cla	Driver	Chassis	1		2		3		4		5
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	I	2	W	5	I	21
2	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	I	2	W	5	I	21
3	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	I	2	W	5	I	21
4	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	I	2	W	5	I	21
5	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	I	3	W	6	I	24
6	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	I	2	W	3	I	23
7	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	I	2	W	6	I	14	I	6
8	George Russell	Mercedes	I	2	W	5	I	23
9	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	I	2	W	3	I	23
10	Lando Norris	McLaren	I	2	W	4	I	22
11	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	I	2	W	6	I	20
12	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	I	2	W	5	I	12	I	9
13	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	I	2	W	5	I	13	I	8
14	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	I	2	W	5	I	21
15	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	I	2	W	4	I	22
16	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	I	2	W	7	I	9	I	10
17	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	I	1	W	1	W	5	I	12	I	9
18	Mick Schumacher	Haas	I	2	W	9	I	17
	Alex Albon	Williams	I	0
	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	I	0
View full results