How Max Verstappen won his second F1 title

SUZUKA, Japan — It wasn’t until Max Verstappen was about to walk onto the podium that he knew for certain he was a double world champion.

He’d been told he’d won this year’s title shortly after getting out of his car and completing his first post-race interview, but he didn’t quite believe it. Then his own Red Bull engineers, who are among the sharpest minds in the sport, advised him he was still one point short, meaning he’d have to finish tenth or higher at the next round in Austin to clinch it there.

But the initial calculations by Red Bull (and the vast majority of the paddock) had not taken into account the exact wording of Article 6.5 of the FIA Sporting Regulations. Along with pretty much everyone else, Verstappen believed he would be awarded a reduced points score of 19 for the victory in Suzuka because the race had run to just 28 of the planned 53 laps. That would only give him a seven point advantage over nearest his rival Charles Leclerc, who had been demoted to third by a post-race penalty, and he needed eight to make his second title a mathematical certainty.

But on closer inspection of the wording of the sporting regulations, it became clear that the awarding of scaled-down points only comes into play if a shortened race “cannot be resumed” after it has stopped. Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix had been red flagged for two hours due to heavy rain, but had then resumed before it eventually ran up against the three-hour maximum time limit in which a race can take place. Technically speaking, it had resumed and therefore full points should be awarded.

In the rapidly fading light at Suzuka it suddenly dawned on Formula One that it had just crowned a new champion. Even engineers at rival teams were scanning through copies of the sporting regulations to double check the news that was now being broadcast by F1 around the world, but when Verstappen reached the podium to be receive his trophy and be interviewed by 2009 world champion Jenson Button, there was no longer any doubt.

“To be honest I don’t mind that it was a little bit confusing, I find it actually quite funny!” Verstappen said of the unusual course of events. “Because at the end of the day it’s not going to change the result.

“When I crossed the line [and Leclerc was still second] it was anyway not enough even if you give full points, in that scenario it wouldn’t have changed anything.”

While it all seemed rather absurd, it was also somewhat academic given the overwhelming inevitability of…