Sergio Perez admitted that he intentionally forced Charles Leclerc into making a mistake at the 2022 Japanese GP.
The rain-interrupted outing in Suzuka turned out to be the afternoon Max Verstappen became a two-time World Champion. However, it was a very anti-climactic and underwhelming finish to a Title battle that promised so much in the opening rounds.
Race Control decided to start the race after a delay of more than two hours due to poor weather. When it did get underway, Verstappen was on top from the get-go and ended up taking P1 by a margin of 27 seconds. The fact that he finished with such a huge lead in just a 28-lap race was staggering.
Because only 50% of the total race was completed when Verstappen won, the Red Bull team thought that he was still a point short of winning the Championship. After the race, FIA announced that full points had been awarded. This meant that Verstappen was the 2022 World Champion, something he wasn’t sure of even when he was on the podium.
Sergio Perez made sure Max Verstappen won his second Title
Before the confusion surrounding the points distribution started, Perez’s heroic attack on Leclerc ensured that his teammate would seal his crown. Leclerc’s tire degradation over the course of the race slowed him down immensely. As a result, Perez was able to catch right upto him on the last lap.
Leclerc tried his best to defend, but leading up to the last corner, the Monegasque had to leave the track. He held on to P2 initially but the FIA thought he gained an unfair advantage on Perez when he left track.
In the immediate aftermath of the race, he got a five-second penalty. This demoted him to P3, and with full points awarded, it meant that the Title battle had been sealed with four races still left.
“He was making it really hard,” Perez admitted after the Japanese GP. “I knew that the only way I could get him was if I push him into a mistake.”
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Perez thought race was not over after last lap
A lot of drivers were confused once they crossed the chequered flag in Suzuka. They thought that the race was still going on, because they crossed the line before the timer ran out. Sergio Perez too, thought the same.
After Leclerc left the track, Perez closed the gap between them eve further. He believed that with one lap to go, he could easily overtake the 25-year-old, but that did not turn out to be possible because the race had already ended.
“Towards the end I thought there was one more lap left so when he went off,” he continued. “I thought that was going to be the opportunity. “It didn’t happen and we managed to get a good result for the team.”
Perez’s P2 finish means that he has now overtaken Leclerc in the Drivers’ Championship Standings. The Guadalajara-born is currently P2 with 253 points, one more than the Ferrari driver. The next F1 race takes place in a week’s time at Austin with the US Grand Prix.
