Red Bull has won the F1 team championship with six races remaining in the season. Max Verstappen drove to victory in the Suzuka race. It was enough to decide the team championship, even if a teammate Sergio Perez had to stop the race.
The drivers of the nearest threats Mercedes and Ferrari could no longer catch Red Bull enough as McLaren wedged between them on the podium.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri took duller podium finishes behind Verstappen at Suzuka. For F1 newcomer Piastr, the podium finish was the first in his career.
For Red Bull, the team championship was the sixth all-time.
– An incredible weekend. It was fantastic to win here. The car performed really well with every tire compound. Now the most important thing was to win the brand championship. I’m really proud of everyone who has worked on the tracks and in the factory. We’ve had an incredible year, Verstappen expressed in the track interview.
– This has been the most incredible race for us and the most incredible year. Everyone has done a wonderful job to help us achieve these results. Max is now also like from another planet, team manager Christian Horner described.
Valtteri Bottas has a terrible race
Valtteri Bottas the race became a complete disaster. He got off to a good start from the 16th grid, but the race was ruined even before the first corner.
Bottas overtook Haas, who started in front by Kevin Magnussen past, but was caught in a tight spot by Williams by Alex Albon and Alpine by Esteban Ocon between.
Ocon turned in front of Bottas. The Finn had to make an evasive move and then hit Albon. Bottas had a flat tire.
Bottas had to visit the pit immediately. A few laps later, the Finn’s race took an even darker turn when Williams was at the tail end of the race Logan Sargeant hit the side of a Finnish Alfa Romeo after the lock braking.
Bottas was surprised by Sargeant’s actions, which were tinged with swear words, fresh on the team radio.
Sargeant was in the headlines this weekend with his bumps, when the Williams driver had already crashed into the barrier during qualifying.
The American is also currently driving about his F1 future, as next season’s driver’s seat is the only one open for him at the moment.
Bottas had to make another pit stop after Sargeant’s hit, but it didn’t produce the desired result. The Finn quickly reports to the team radio that the car is undriveable. The Finn had to stop after seven laps and two crashes.
Sargeant received a five-second time penalty for the situation, but the American rookie had to stop the race later.
– Clearly (Sargeant’s situation) was its fault. It’s a shame that there were twice bad weather at the beginning of the race. You can’t really do it yourself. The car had to be put in the pits when the suspension and diffuser were damaged, Bottas described to Viaplay.
According to Bottas, in the race you can judge a little whether it is worth passing a crash-prone driver.
– There are not many opportunities to try to overtake. I had to try. Otherwise, the whole race would have been on the tail, Bottas stated.
Sargeant also explained the situation to Viaplay.
– To be honest, I thought that Valtteri would have seen it. I would never have been able to drive through the bend. Valtteri went outside. The situation was my fault, but I thought Valtteri saw my lock braking, Sargeant said.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez also had a rough race. He took a hit at the start of the Mercedes Lewis Hamilton with. He later broke the rules for driving behind the safety car and received a five-second stoppage penalty. Perez didn’t even have time to complete his penalty before crashing into Haas’ Kevin Magnussen due to late braking.
There was so much damage to the Mexican Red Bull that Perez had to stop the race.
Max Verstappen has an excellent chance to secure the drivers’ championship at the next race weekend in Qatar in two weeks’ time. Verstappen can already celebrate the championship in the sprint race in Qatar. Perez should get six points more than Verstappen from the sprint race to continue the championship fight.
Points standings of the teams
Drivers’ point standings