At this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix, where he will start from pole position, Max Verstappen intends to capture his second world championship.
After making many extremely rare mistakes, both on his part and that of Red Bull, the defending champion lost the chance to win the Driver’s Championship in Singapore at the earliest time in 20 years.
First, Verstappen was left yelling at his crew, “What the f***?” because of under-fueling, which caused him to finish eighth in qualifying.
The Dutchman then had a disastrous start to the race from the previous week, and a lock-up as he was moving through the field deprived him the chance to place better than eighth.
Despite this, Verstappen begins in front of title contender Charles Leclerc and is still on track to win it all at Suzuka.
However, after a collision with Lando Norris, there were calls for the reigning champion to be moved down the starting order.
We were all lining up to create a distance between each other as we were on our out lap, but yet, Verstappen said, he still tried to push me into the chicane.
“He had to drive around me because I had a brief moment just as I was about to accelerate and I had really cold tyres.
“But if he had just a little more respect for me, because everyone is already in line and I don’t think nobody is trying to pass into that last chicane, so by trying to overtake me you create that kind of scenario,” the driver said.
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Japanese Grand Prix: Date and UK start time
The Suzuka circuit’s race weekend is set for Friday, October 7, to Sunday, October 9.
F1 fans in the UK will have to wake up early to see the sport’s return to Japan after a two-year hiatus in the land of the rising sun.
The first free practise begins at 4 am UK time due to the seven-hour time difference, while the second session begins at a more acceptable 7 am.
On Saturday, qualifying will start at 7 a.m., while the race itself will start an hour earlier, at 6 a.m.
Japanese Grand Prix: TV channel and live stream
Sky Sports F1 will broadcast the whole race weekend, with the live build-up to the race starting at 4:30 am.
Customers of Sky Sports may watch the race live on their mobile, tablet, or computer via the Sky Go app.
If you’re not a customer, Channel 4 will air the race’s highlights on Sunday night.
The greatest of the racing action from the race weekend in Japan will also be covered by talkSPORT.
Click HERE to access the live broadcast of talkSPORT or talkSPORT 2 on the website. Additionally, you can tune in through the talkSPORT app, DAB digital radio, your smart speaker, and 1089 or 1053 AM.
Japanese Grand Prix: What has been said?
After starting third in Singapore, Lewis Hamilton had a remote chance of taking home the season’s first race victory.
However, a mistake at the start gave Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz the lead, and as Hamilton tried to overtake him, he ran into the barriers.
The Mercedes driver dropped from fourth to ninth as a result of having to pit to replace his front wing.
Additionally, the Mercedes driver’s performance in qualifying was poor, as he could only move up to sixth.
“We knew coming to this track that we wouldn’t be vying for the front row or the victory since Red Bull and Ferrari are in a different league here, and we have some basic restrictions with our vehicle,” said the team.
Although I had a clean session and it felt fantastic to be behind the wheel, the final pace is still far away. At this track, despite our best efforts and a solid feeling in the turns, we are falling short on the straightaways.
I’m hoping we’ll be a little bit closer tomorrow, and perhaps the weather will help. Although I don’t believe we can go head-to-head with the cars in front, I do hope to defeat the Alpines. My sole objective is to outperform our performance from the previous weekend.
Japanese Grand Prix: Driver standings
Car, Driver, and Points
- Max Verstappen / Red Bull / 341
- Charles Leclerc / Ferrari / 237
- Sergio Perez / Red Bull / 235
- George Russell / Mercedes / 203
- Carlos Sainz / Ferrari / 202
- Lewis Hamilton / Mercedes / 170
- Lando Norris / McLaren / 100
- Esteban Ocon / Alpine / 66
- Fernando Alonso / Alpine / 59
- Valterri Bottas / Alfa Romeo / 46
- Daniel Ricciardo / McLaren / 29
- Sebastien Vettel / Aston Martin / 24
- Pierre Gasly / Alpha Tauri / 23
- Kevin Magnussen / Haas / 22
- Lance Stroll / Aston Martin / 13
- Mick Schumacher / Haas / 12
- Yuki Tsunoda / Alpha Tauri / 11
- Guanyu Zhou / Alfa Romeo / 6
- Alex Albon / Williams / 4
- Nyck De Vries / Williams / 2
- Nicolas Latifi / Williams / 0
- Nico Hulkenberg / Aston Martin / 0
