Verstappen makes history with Brazilian Grand Prix win, Piastri ...
Red Bull superstar Max Verstappen made history on one of Formula 1’s most dramatic days to tighten his grip on a fourth-straight drivers’ championship trophy.
The forecast wet weather arrived to wreak havoc across both qualifying and the race, and it was Verstappen who navigated it best – storming through the field from 17th on the grid, overtaking seven cars on the opening lap, and winning the Brazilian Grand Prix by nearly 20 seconds.
Lewis Hamilton held the previous record at Sao Paulo’s famed Interlagos circuit as the driver to win from the lowest grid position (10th), but Verstappen blew that out of the water in more ways than one – claiming his first grand prix victory since round 10 in June.
Max Verstappen’s drive in Brazil had to be seen to be believed.Credit: AP
Verstappen’s generational talent had somehow taken a back seat to the woes of his team in recent rounds as Red Bull struggled to keep both McLaren and Ferrari at bay. But at Interlagos, the 27-year-old delivered the most emphatic reminders that he remains the top dog of the grid.
The race started in the same chaotic, even shambolic, manner that so much of qualifying was held in, with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll spinning off on the formation lap.
The aborted start triggered bedlam across the grid, with Verstappen’s title rival Lando Norris right in the thick of it. With four rounds remaining in the season, it was clear the battle for the drivers’ title still had plenty of twists and turns to come, but no one would have predicted they’d all come at once.
Starting on pole, Norris was noted by the stewards for a “starting procedure infringement” for moving off the grid on another formation lap without a green light, but he wasn’t the only one – George Russell (started second), Yuki Tsunoda (third), and young New Zealand star Liam Lawson (fifth) were in the same situation. Stewards opted to investigate the situation after the race, with Norris and Russell ultimately reprimanded.
Verstappen, starting from the rear of the grid, was unperturbed, slicing through the field, despite facing some of the most challenging racing conditions imaginable with teeming rain drenching the newly resurfaced track.
A host of the world’s best drivers struggled to keep their vehicles on the track as they searched to find not only grip but a clear line of sight through the spray of water from the other cars.
Melbourne’s Oscar Piastri was one such driver. At one stage, he launched a dive move down the inside of Lawson’s car at turn one, only to make contact and be sent spinning. He later apologised during one of the race’s red-flag stoppages.
The car of Williams driver Franco Colapinto after a crash during qualifying.Credit: AP
Starting eighth on the grid, Piastri crossed the line in seventh but was hit with a 10-second penalty by the stewards for the incident with Lawson, relegating him a position further back.
The wet weather is notorious for dishing up all kinds of unpredictable race results, and in this race it led to two Alpine drivers appearing on the podium.
French pair Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly stayed out of trouble and had their share of luck to deliver a bank of points that rocketed their team from ninth of 10 in the constructors’ standings to sixth.
Only three points separates Alpine from RB in eighth, but according to host broadcaster Sky, that could be worth as much as $50 million in prizemoney for the team should it stay there. Red Bull received around $140 million for winning the constructors’ crown last year.
Verstappen pulled off a remarkable win amid the chaos at the Interlagos track in Sao Paulo.Credit: AP
Arguably the most telling moment of the race, and in potentially Verstappen’s fourth-straight title season, came 27 laps in, when a spin from Nico Hulkenberg triggered a virtual safety car and a flurry of pit-stops across the field.
Verstappen, Ocon and Gasly chose not to stop, while Norris and George Russell paid the price for doing so. Franco Colapinto’s heavy contact with the wall at the end of lap 32 triggered a red flag, where every driver in the field essentially got a free tyre change.
Russell stole the lead from Norris on lap one and held it for much of the race’s opening stages, but he and Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton were later investigated by stewards for having their tyre pressures adjusted (against the rules) before a race restart.
With the final standings still subject to change, Russell crossed the line fourth in a marathon race that finished after 5am (AEDT). Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc crossed the line fifth, with Norris, Tsunoda, Piastri and Lawson behind him.
Melbourne’s Oscar Piastri had an eventful Brazilian Grand Prix.Credit: Getty Images
Staggeringly, Verstappen extended his lead over Norris in the drivers’ standings by 62 points, despite starting the Brazilian Grand Prix 16 places behind Norris.
Red Bull is still third in the fight for the constructors’ title, on 544 points – trailing McLaren (593) and Ferrari (557).
For just the fifth time in Formula 1 history, qualifying and the race were both held on the Sunday (overnight Sunday into Monday morning AEDT) as organisers had to adapt to the conditions.
Qualifying was marred by five red flags due to an array of crashes and spin-offs, and Verstappen was hardly immune from the early drama – failing to advance into the third session and then handed a five-place penalty for having to change his engine for the sixth time this season.
But he was all smiles in his post-race interview.
“My emotions today have been a rollercoaster,” he told Brazilian Formula 1 legend and Sao Paulo favourite son Rubens Barrichello.
“With qualifying – being really unlucky with that red flag and starting P17 – I knew it was going to be a very tough race, but we stayed out of trouble, we made the right calls, we stayed calm, and we were fine.
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“All of these things together, of course, made that result possible but [it’s] unbelievable to win here from so far back on the grid.”
There are three rounds of the season to come – in Las Vegas from November 21 to 23, Qatar from November 29 to December 1, and the season finale in Abu Dhabi from December 6 to 8.
There are 112 points still on offer (given the Qatar round also includes a sprint race), so both the drivers’ and constructors’ championship battles are still wide open.
But Verstappen, who broke one of Michael Schumacher’s seemingly untouchable records for consecutive days as leader of the championship, now has all the momentum to claim his fourth-straight crown. Schumacher at one stage led for 896 consecutive days. Verstappen is now on 897.
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