F1 Japanese Grand Prix LIVE: Stream, TV channel as Verstappen closes in on championship win – Qualifying updates

What Max Verstappen has said

Max Verstappen will be aware of how close he is from securing a second successive championship.

But the iconic F1 racer realises that he has a tough task at the Japanese GP with the ever-changing weather conditions.

Luckily it wasn’t a complete disaster with the weather at least we could get around and do a little bit of stuff. In terms of knowing where you are with pace, in the wet, it’s always a bit tricky.

We did the basic things (to learn) and not more than that so that’s why I’m looking forward to tomorrow to see how we can be in the dry.

How Verstappen can win the title 

Verstappen has one hand on the F1 title and he can incredibly clinch it without finishing first. 

But it would require him scoring a minimum of eight points more than Leclerc and a minimum of six more than Perez.

If the Red Bull racer was to finish second, Leclerc would have to rank fifth or higher to keep the title alive.

Verstappen finishing third with the fastest lap bonus point will mean Leclerc having to chart fifth or higher or Perez needs to finish a minimum of fourth to deny him.

But a third place finish without the bonus point means sixth place for Leclerc or fourth place for Perez would be enough for the title race to go beyond the weekend.

Fourth for Verstappen would see Leclerc needing only seventh place and fifth means that Leclerc just needs to avoid falling below eighth on the leaderboards to survive another day.

Crash but no burn

Here is the major talking point of the Practice sessions. Thankfully Mick Schumacher escaped the car with no injuries.

But my guess is that Haas will need to supply him with a new car. 

Current F1 standings

Here are the current top ten in the 2022 standings:

1. Max Verstappen – 341 points
2. Charles Leclerc – 237 points
3. Sergio Perez – 235 points
4. George Russell – 203 points
5. Carlos Sainz – 202 points
6. Lewis Hamilton – 170 points
7. Lando Norris – 100 points
8. Esteban Ocon – 66 points
9. Fernando Alonso – 59 points
10. Valterri Bottas – 46 points

Welcome to the Japanese Grand Prix 

Congratulations if you managed to drag yourself out of bed to tune in for this very early coverage of the Japanese GP Practice & Qualffying. We will make it worth it.

The rain in yesterday’s Practice sessions added to the ever-present drama in Formula 1. 

We had Mercedes duo George Russell and Lewis Hamilton seal a one-two in Practice Two.

Mick Schumacher CRASHED out of Practice and completely damaged his Haas car

And we even witnessed Michael Latiffi take a wrong turn during the second session, meeting with a dead end due to his visibility on the track.

But the Canadian cannot afford to do something like that again as today is the last chance for all the racers to get a good spot in Sunday’s race which, judging today’s weather, could be very difficult to overtake.

Keep up to date with our live blog as we will have ALL the latest gossip from Qualifying right through until the big race in Suzuka.