Confusion reigns in the rain in Japan 🌧🏁

Verstappen is the champion with 4 races still to go.

The race started in the rain. Everyone went for intermediate tyres, not full wets, so they thought it wasn't that wet. Leclerc had the best start, but Verstappen judged the grip in the first corner much better and went round the outside of him. Then Sainz went off so there was a safety car. Gasly had a heart-stopper when he passed a recovery tractor on the track. It had come to retrieve Sainz's car, but Gasly didn't know and was passing at almost full speed in the rain. Given that Bianchi was killed by hitting a tractor in the rain at this track a few years back, you have to wonder how that was allowed to happen. A simple radio message to drivers so that they know it's there would be enough.

While the safety car was still out, there was a red flag and a long, long wait. When the race started again, everyone was told to use the full wet tyres, but almost immediately Vettel and Latifi went to intermediates and were fast, and the rest followed. Verstappen built a huge lead and won easily.

At the first red flag, it was obviously too wet for intermediate tyres, but why not tell everyone to put full wets on and re-start the race? The break was so long that by the re-start it was past the point of using full wets, even though the teams were told they had to use them.

Because of the long red flag period, the race was limited by time, and only ran for just over half distance. Everyone assumed that meant that half points would be awarded, so not enough for Verstappen to be champion (yet). But it turns out that everyone had misunderstood, and because the race ended at the chequered flag it was normal points. But still that wasn't enough for the championship. But Leclerc got a penalty for going off the track while defending against Perez, so those two swapped places. Sometimes stewarding decisions take hours, but this one was decided in minutes. Now Verstappen did have enough points. He only found out during a post-race interview. He's had an amazingly strong season, and deserves the title.

After everyone had left, it was announced that last year Red Bull broke the budget cap (a limit on what a team can spend). But there's no decision on what to do about that. If the punishent is mild, everyone will start doing it because more money spent equals more performance.

Please can we have better, more consistent, more timely decision making? Please could we have rule clarity? Please could we have safety taken more seriously? I'm guessing not.

Oh well. Now we have four races that no longer matter so much. Maybe that will lead to something unexpected. But it seems likely that Verstappen will win them all.

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