SUZUKA, Japan — Red Bull’s flying
Dutchman Max Verstappen has another chance to clinch his second consecutive world
championship when the Japanese Grand Prix returns at Suzuka this weekend after
a three-year absence because of COVID.
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The runaway leader failed to secure the title at
last weekend’s rain-affected Singapore Grand Prix, but he will do it in Japan
if he wins and nearest rival Charles Leclerc finishes lower than second.
Verstappen is 104 points ahead and he needs to
extend that to 112 points over the field to claim the championship after
Sunday’s race.
Simply put, if
Verstappen gains eight points on Leclerc and six on teammate Sergio Perez, who
won in Singapore, he will be only the third driver after Michael Schumacher and
Sebastian Vettel to clinch the title with four races to spare.
History appears
to be on the 25-year-old’s side, with
12 Formula One world champions having
been crowned at the Japanese Grand Prix.
“This is not where we want to be but we move on to
Japan,” Verstappen said after a rollercoaster wet-dry race in Singapore where
he finished seventh to end his five-race winning streak.
Verstappen has never won in Japan and will aim to
bounce back from a frustrating race under the lights of Singapore, where he
finished seventh after starting eighth on the grid.
A fueling blunder in qualifying left him seething
and gave him too much work to do on the tight Marina Bay street circuit, where
overtaking was extremely difficult.
That will be less of a problem at Suzuka, on a
circuit characterized by sweeping bends and dramatic elevation changes.
Weather forecasts suggest the race could be another
wet one, after a heavy rain storm delayed the start of the Singapore Grand Prix
for more than an hour.
The
Japanese Grand Prix has not been held since 2019
because of the pandemic, when it was won by Valtteri Bottas in a Mercedes, and
it will likely take more than rain to dampen the enthusiasm of fans and
drivers.
Budget brouhaha
Casting a shadow over the
race in Japan will be the investigation from the governing body FIA into 2021
team spending.
Rival teams claimed at the Singapore Grand Prix that
Red Bull and Aston Martin had spent more than the $145 million cost cap that
was introduced last season to make racing more competitive.
A furious Red Bull chief
Christian Horner blasted
the claims as “fictitious” and threatened legal action, while the FIA said they
were “unsubstantiated” as they still had to conclude their investigation.
The FIA are due to release their findings in a
report later Wednesday.
Should any team exceed the cost cap then there are a
range of penalties available, from fines for “minor” breaches of the cap all
the way up to points deductions and disqualification from the championship for
a serious “material” breach.
If Red Bull are found to have broken the rules, it
would cast a further shadow over Verstappen’s first world title, won in
controversial circumstances in the final race of 2021 in Abu Dhabi.
By contrast, this year’s fight is all but over, and it is a
question of when, not if, the dominant Dutchman, who has won 11 of 17 races,
will be declared champion again.
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