the dutch Max Verstappen (Red Bull), outstanding leader of the Formula One World Championship, aims this Sunday to retain the title from the first place on the grid of the Japanese Grand Prix, the eighteenth of the championship, at the Suzuka circuit; where the Spanish Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and Fernando Alonso (Alpine) start third and seventh, respectively, and the Mexican Sergio Pérez, companion of ‘Mad Max”, fourth.
Verstappen, for the title
Verstappen, 25, achieved the eighteenth ‘pole’ since he races in F1 -the fifth of the season- by covering, in his best attempt, with the soft tire, the 5,807 meters of the Japanese track in one minute, 29 seconds and 304 thousandths, only ten less than the Monegasque Charles Leclerc and just 57 over the other Ferrari, the Spanish Carlos Sainz.
In a day in which it was shot in the dry and that was resolved in a tight way, but in which the new sporting idol of the Netherlands made a declaration of intent by topping all the time tables except for Q2.
The Dutchman, who wasted last Sunday, finishing seventh in Singapore -where his Mexican teammate won-, his first opportunity to leave the World Cup mathematically sentenced, will try to solve it ‘the second time’ in Suzuka, the legendary circuit owned by Honda, the motorcyclist of the Austrian team. Where he will be champion, in the absence of four races, as long as he scores eight points more than Leclerc and six more than ‘Checo’, third in the World Championship -only two points from the previous one- and that he will face the race from the second row, at Spanish side of Ferrari.
There are various combinations, but the easiest to memorize, due to their simplicity -and nothing to be ruled out- are for Verstappen to win the race, with the fastest lap; or that he wins without the fast turn, as long as Leclerc does not finish second on the legendary Japanese track.
The Japanese Grand Prix debuted in the World Championship in 1976, at the Fuji circuit, which decided that championship -in the last round of the year- in favor of the Englishman James Hunt and to the detriment of the triple Austrian world champion Niki Lauda -brutally injured ( and about to burn to death) just a few weeks earlier, at the German Nürburgring, in a historic race marked by monsoon rains.
EFE
More sports news
#Verstappen #wins #pole #Japan #twotime #Formula #championship #reach