"I think that was just total dominance"- Max Verstappen picks highlight of 2022 F1 season after winning world championship

Max Verstappen revealed that the win in Spa was the highlight of his season. According to the Red Bull driver, the car's ability to dominate the entire weekend was hard to believe after the weekend. He started the race at the back of the grid but was leading the race after a few laps and then was never challenged. During the post-race press conference, when asked which weekend stood out for him in the entire season, Max Verstappen said,

"I think I have to go for the Spa weekend. Because I think that was just total dominance, which, yeah, these kinds of weekends, they very rarely happen like that. And especially when I came home that night, you know, you start to reflect a bit on the weekend. And you realise that was, yeah, pretty crazy and pretty special."

Talking about the low points, Max Verstappen talked about the start of the season where he was 46 points behind Charles Leclerc at one point. This was due to two power unit-related DNFs in the first three races, leaving him with far too much to deal with. He said,

"The main low moments were in the beginning of the season with the retirements, because you know, even if you have a little bit of a bad race, you always have to score points, right. And retiring is the worst thing that can happen."

After staging a comeback in the championship with wins in Imola, Miami, and Barcelona, Max Verstappen admitted that it wasn't until the race in Paul Ricard where Charles Leclerc crashed out that he thought that the championship was now going his way. He said,

"I mean, there were a few moments where I thought, you know, we have a good chance of winning it. But I think the moment where I thought now we are going to win it was I think after Paul Ricard, where the lead, you know, increased by quite a bit. We had a quite competitive car, I knew it was going to be quite close, you know, in the coming races, but I was like, you know, this is a gap which we cannot give away anymore."

Max Verstappen reflects on the win at Suzuka

Max Verstappen secured the pole position for the race on Saturday, but the rain caused further delays for the race in Suzuka. Fortunately, when the rain decreased, the conditions were good enough for racing.

Starting the race on the pole, Max Verstappen was never challenged as he extended his lead to 27 seconds by the time the checkered flag fell. Reflecting on the race, he said,

"Yeah, of course it’s a great feeling. Of course when I crossed the line I didn’t believe that we would have won the title right there because I also didn’t know if we were going to get full points or not but nevertheless, great day. At the end, we could race and the race itself we could manage really well with the car, with the tyres so of course very happy to win here."

Max Verstappen is now a two-time world champion, and he's done it with four races to spare in the season.