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Max Verstappen was crowned the 2022 F1 world champion at the Japanese Grand Prix in his career-first win at the venue. He won with a whopping 26-second gap to Sergio Perez, who was promoted to second after Charles Leclerc was given a five-second penalty.
The race was absolutely chaotic up until the very end after and fans could not get enough of it. The race started off with two retirements within the first three laps, seeing Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon out of the race, before it was red-flagged as a result of heavy rainfall and extreme conditions.
Once the safety car was deployed, a recovery tractor was brought out on the track for Carlos Sainz's Ferrari, while the cars continued to move around with little to no visibility due to all of the spray. Pierre Gasly, in particular, was left absolutely furious after just about avoiding what could have been a massive collision on the wet track. With visibility extremely low, the Frenchman was lucky to have made it out safely. Fans and the F1 community as a whole were absolutely shocked to see how the matter had been handled by the FIA.
Here are some of the best Twitter fan reactions to the 2022 F1 Japanese Grand Prix
Drivers react to Pierre Gasly's incident with tractor on the track during safety car period at 2022 F1 Japanese GP
Drivers were absolutely livid to find out that a tractor was present on the track while the cars made their way around, especially given the tragic accident involving the late Jules Bianchi at the 2014 F1 Japanese GP. The Frenchman was severely injured after colliding with a recovery vehicle in Suzuka and succumbed to his injuries a couple of months later.
Reacting to the incident on the team radio, Pierre Gasly claimed that he could have been "killed", saying:
"God, what the... what the... what is this tractor? What is this tractor on track? This is unacceptable! What has happened? Cannot believe this. I was going flat out! I could have f**king killed myself."
The FIA responded to the incident but blamed Gasly for "driving at high speed", stating:
"In relation to the recovery of the incident on Lap 3, the safety car had been deployed and the race neutralised. Car 10, which had collected damage and pitted behind the Safety Car, was then driving at high speed to catch up to the field. As conditions were deteriorating, the Red Flag was shown before Car 10 passed the location of the incident where it had been damaged the previous lap."
Meanwhile, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner added that their must be a "full investigation" of the incident, admitting that they were "lucky" that Pierre Gasly and all others were doing okay at the end. He said:
"It is totally unacceptable. We lost Jules Bianchi here and that should never ever happen so there needs to be a full investigation why there was because it obviously shouldn't have been. I think we got lucky. It's unimaginable when you see something like that. Thankfully all the drivers are in one piece."
The 2022 F1 Japanese Grand Prix came to a chaotic end with plenty of confusion surrounding the points system until it was confirmed that full points were awarded to drivers after the race resumed.
