31.10.2023Max Verstappen 2022: World-champion title in the cooldown room

The latter is the youngest member of this select circle after the Dutchman recently secured his third world title at the Qatar Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen celebrated the three world championship successes in a variety of different and sometimes strange ways. First, in 2021, he emerged as a narrow and controversial winner in the unforgettable showdown against Lewis Hamilton at the final in Abu Dhabi. Most recently, he secured the 2023 World Cup crown in Qatar through points in the sprint race on Saturday. And in 2022, Verstappen's title win in Suzuka was somewhat atypical. Due to a change in results and ambiguities regarding the awarding of points, it was questionable shortly after the race whether Verstappen had already been declared world champion ahead of time or whether he could still be caught mathematically. Minichamps has now released the Red Bull RB18 as a limited model in scale 1:18 to mark the somewhat bumpy World Cup decision.

Before the Japanese Grand Prix, Max Verstappen already had eleven victories and a huge lead over Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari and his Red Bull teammate Sergio Pérez. With pole position, the Dutchman had a good chance of becoming world champion early in the fifth to last race.

As is often the case in Suzuka, the weather was a decisive factor. The race started in pouring rain. Charles Leclerc got away better than pole-sitter Verstappen and seemed to take the lead heading into the first corner. But Verstappen moved decisively on the outside and was in the lead again when he turned into the Esses. Behind the two, the first cars slipped off the wet track, including Leclerc's Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz, whose car was stranded after the impact. The safety car was initially deployed, but shortly afterwards the race was stopped due to the weather conditions. After patiently waiting, the Grand Prix resumed in better conditions with 40 minutes remaining.

Max Verstappen won the race confidently, but it was not obvious that he was also world champion. His World Championship pursuers Leclerc and Pérez fought a close duel for second place on the last lap. Leclerc crossed the finish line in second place, but because he took a shortcut in the last chicane, he received a time penalty shortly after the race and second place went to Sergio Pérez. In addition to the position shifts among Verstappen's pursuers, it was not clear after crossing the finish line that full points would also be awarded for the shortened race. With half the points, Max Verstappen would not have been able to extend his championship lead sufficiently to win the title early. But in the cooldown room before the award ceremony, confirmation came that the race would be counted with full points. Max Verstappen thus stepped onto the podium not only as race winner, but also as world champion.

The Minichamps model in scale 1:18 of Verstappen's second World Cup victory is limited to 333 units exclusively for ck-modelcars and is delivered in a high-quality collector's folding box. In addition to the true-to-original cockpit replica including driver figure, a miniature version of the pit board with the inscription “Max World Champion 2022” is also included. The model also has the treaded intermediate tires that Verstappen used to finish the wet race in Suzuka. With these explicit details about the Japanese Grand Prix, this model is the perfect souvenir of Max Verstappen's turbulent second World Cup success.

M Verstappen Red Bull RB18 #1 Winner Japan GP Formula 1 World Champion 2022 1:18, RRP €179,95, item-no.: 113222801

produkter

M Verstappen Red Bull RB18 #1 vinder Japan GP formel 1 Verdensmester 2022 1:18 Minichamps

199,95 €