In Pictures: Japan 2022
ROUND 18 | JAPAN | SUZUKA
As had happened with Singapore, Japan did not have Grand Prix races in 2020 or 2021 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Suzuka is one of the old school tracks, and a loved one by all drivers, definitely one of the best racetracks in the World, and the only figure-eight in the calendar.
Max Verstappen could clinch his second World Drivers’ Championship this weekend, a feat that has been done twelve times before. Would 2022 be lucky number thirteen? Let’s find out…
FRIDAY
Regretfully, it was wet, very wet, and cold. The Safety and Medical cars have been out on track assessing conditions, and at FP1 start time, the track was very wet, with rivers flowing through it at certain parts, meaning not many drivers were keen to go out. The other issue is that, at the time, both Saturday and Sunday were to be dry, although there was a slim chance of rain for Sunday afternoon, so there wasn’t much incentive to go out other than to test cars with the usual installation laps.
The first man to brave the conditions was Kevin Magnussen in the Haas, followed by the home hero, Yuki Tsunoda in the AlphaTauri. Both did their respective installation laps and returned to the pits, Magnussen did go out again, but did not set a timed lap. After ten minutes, Latifi came out in the Williams, and so did Schumacher.
Little by little, cars came out on track, with Schumacher setting the first timed lap of the session, a 1:52.537. After that, Stroll reported drying track, and Leclerc mentioned it was ok for intermediates.
At the halfway point in the session, 12 cars had set a time. Still, that's 12 more than we expected to have set a time when FP1 started. In the end, it was Fernando Alonso setting the fastest lap, ahead of Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc, Esteban Ocon, and Kevin Magnussen.
After the session, many drivers did the now usual practice starts, regretfully, Schumacher ended up crashing at Dunlop. Lots of work to repair that VF22.
FP2 had an extra 30-minute set aside for 2023 Pirelli tire testing, but due to the wet weather conditions and that there were no wet or intermediate tires within that test set, Pirelli decided along F1 to carry these tests in Mexico, but the session remained 90 minutes long.
The session started similarly to practice 1, with not much action on track as it was still very wet. Nicholas Latifi was the first one to come out. Slowly, a few more drivers came out. After the first hour, everyone had done a timed lap, except Schumacher, whose Haas had chassis damage as well as the whole front of the car after his crash after FP1. Both Mercedes were dominating the second practice, exchanging fastest laps between Russell and Hamilton.
There were fewer cars on track for the second half of FP2. The final standings had George Russell as the fastest of the day. He was followed by Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez, and Kevin Magnussen.
SATURDAY
Much brighter conditions in Suzuka, and warmer as well, albeit a bit windy. And the big stories for the day, and perhaps the worst kept secret in the paddock, Pierre Gasly was announced as an Alpine F1 driver for 2023 onwards. Filling his current seat at AlphaTauri will be Nyck De Vries.
Since Friday practices were in the wet, this hour long FP3 was crucial for the teams to understand and set the cars as best as possible not only for qualifying later but for the Grand Prix on Sunday.
And as expected, there was a huge queue at the end of the pitlane as everyone was keen to get out on track. Once the practice started, we had every single car out there doing lap after lap, great for the fans.
During the first half of the session, most drivers were doing long runs, gathering as much data as possible while trying to understand car behavior for the race. For the latter half, fast laps became the norm. In the end, it was championship leader Max Verstappen the fastest, followed by Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc, Fernando Alonso, and Sergio Perez.
QUALIFYING
Bright and breezy for Qualifying, fantastic atmosphere in this wonderful track.
Q1
Latifi was the first driver to come out on track, followed by both AlphaTauri’s, probably the most concerned about not going through to Q2. Then, everybody came out, but those ending up in the Elimination Zone were Albon, Gasly, Magnussen, Stroll, and Latifi.
Q2
All fifteen runners left came out early on, led by Sainz, Leclerc, and Verstappen. By the time the twelve minutes session ended, knocked out of Qualifying were Ricciardo, Bottas, Tsunoda, Zhou, and Schumacher. Vettel got into Q3 by 0.003 of a second over Daniel Ricciardo.
Q3
The always exciting Top Ten Shootout did not disappoint, and in the end, it was Max Verstappen getting his eighteenth pole position by just 0.010 of a second on Charles Leclerc. Behind them came Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez, Esteban Ocon, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, George Russell, Sebastian Vettel, and Lando Norris.
SUNDAY
What a majestic place Suzuka is. The only Figure-eight track in the calendar, meaning it is both clockwise and anti-clockwise, playing havoc on the drivers’ bodies, especially their necks, having to withstand high g-forces going through those very fast corners, like 130R.
In other news, Daniel Ricciardo did confirm he will not be in the F1 Grid in 2023. No news about what he will be doing, but racing F1 will not. Shame for such a massive talent to be left on the sideline, but we’re hoping to see the smiley face back in the Grid for 2024.
It was announced that AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly would be starting from the pitlane after changing his rear wing spec and rear suspension set-up.
It was cloudy and raining by the time the race procedures started, with cars making their way to the grid on a damp track. Everyone on Inters and most went through the pitlane to do a few laps before going to the grid.
The rain kept falling as the cars started the formation lap, and there was so much spray already, so visibility was a major issue for most.
The race started with Leclerc making a move on Verstappen, but the World Champion defended with an awesome drive on the outside at turn two. Magnificent driving.
Behind them, chaos, with Seb Vettel getting hit by Alonso going into turn one, losing grip, and going into a spin. Rejoining last. Carlos Sainz aquaplaning in his Ferrari, losing grip and crashing into the barriers. Somewhere else, Alex Albon parked his Williams at the side of the track with car issues. Pierre Gasly got to the place of Sainz’s crash but was distracted by a recovery truck on track and got an advertising board stuck to the front of his car.
Safety Car was deployed but with worsening conditions, then, on lap 3 of 53, the race was red flagged. Everybody to the pitlane.
After almost an hour under red flag conditions, the race resumed at 14:50 local time with full wet weather tires mandatory. But then, with just one minute to go, the restart was suspended. Too much water on the track.
The race resumed at 4:15 PM local time, and after a few laps behind the Safety Car, we went racing again, albeit for just 40 minutes because of the 3-Hour Rule.
Verstappen took off, gaining time little by little on Leclerc. Behind them Perez, a bit lonely, and behind them, two fantastic battles, Hamilton trying to pass an all defending Ocon for fourth place, and Vettel defending from a charging Alonso. Towards the end, Perez began attacking Leclerc, and another great battle unfold, which ended with Leclerc, with his inters practically slicks, missing the last chicane on the last lap. And Vettel edging Alonso by just 0.011 seconds to claim P6.
So, the finishing order was Max Verstappen winning the Japanese Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc in second, Sergio Perez in third, followed by Esteban Ocon, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso, George Russell, Nicholas Latifi, and Lando Norris the top ten.
The stewards penalized Leclerc with a five-second time penalty. Perez was promoted to P2.
Amid some confusion, Max Verstappen was crowned as the 2022 World Champion! Congrats to the now Two-Time champion… He joins Alberto Ascari, Graham Hill, Jim Clark, Emerson Fittipaldi, Mika Hakkinen, and Fernando Alonso… Some great names on that list.
QUOTES FROM THE PODIUM
““This is crazy! To win here in Japan is really special, I feel really proud that we could do it here. When I crossed the line, I didn’t know that I was World Champion, there was a lot of confusion, but I thought it was quite funny. The first Championship was very emotional and this time it feels very different, it feels even more beautiful because of the season we’ve had. The teamwork has been unreal, we kept on pushing, kept on believing and kept on improving the car. As a Team we’ve made very few mistakes, you can’t be perfect but for most of the races we were close to it. Working together with Honda has been incredible and of course a lot of my thanks goes out to the Team here at track, back at the factory and everyone that’s been contributing with the Red Bull Powertrains division. Everyone has been working flat out and has a huge amount of motivation. Checo has been an incredible teammate and now the full focus is on the Constructors Championship. Let’s see what we can do in Austin.””
““I am very proud of what Max has done this season; he has stepped up as a driver. I was fighting with him in the beginning but then halfway through the year he moved into another gear, the way he drove in some races was unbelievable. It is a massive day for the Team, to do this in Japan in front on Honda and with a one-two is incredible. Hopefully soon we are able to secure the Constructors Championship for our Team, that will be massive. I am massively looking forward to the rest of the year. It was a great battle with Charles today, it was nice that we got to race because at one point we though we wouldn’t get to. It was a fantastic fight, and we were pushing him hard towards the end, it was so difficult to overtake without DRS but I kept the pressure on, he made the mistake and he got the penalty to give me P2.””
““I gave it my all, but it was a difficult race for us today. We were strong in warming up the tires in the first few laps, but then it all faded away. Especially at the end, I struggled with front tire degradation, and it was really difficult to keep Checo (Perez) behind me.
I congratulate Max (Verstappen) and Red Bull for an incredible season, they’ve done an excellent job and deserve the title.
We will use the last four races to work on our race execution, tire management and becoming a stronger team all-round so that we can mount an even better challenge next year. We’ve already been making steps in the right direction in the past two races, and we will keep on pushing this way until the end.””
