A wet and chaotic Sunday in Brazil delivered a scintillating come-from-behind win by Max Verstappen, which helped the Red Bull driver create some breathing room in the championship fight as the season winds down.
After getting knocked out of qualifying early and starting 17th, Verstappen sliced through the field to put himself in a position to capitalize when the opportunity presented itself.
“My emotions today have been a roller coaster,” said Verstappen. “We made all the right calls again, stayed calm, and executed when we needed to, so incredibly happy with today. Honestly, it’s crazy; I never expected to go from P17 to P1. I was hoping for good points, but this is absolutely crazy.”
Verstappen took the lead on a Lap 43 restart, with a bold braking move on leader Esteban Ocon of Alpine going into Turn 1, and never looked back. His win extended his points advantage in the title battle to 62 over McLaren’s Lando Norris, who saw an opportunity to gain more ground slip through his fingers.
“I did all I could today, that’s all,” said Norris, who started on pole. “Max was easily quicker than us and I think if he went from the front he probably would have lapped us. The pace was good, I think similar to George [Russell] but the Red Bull was very fast today. I made a couple of mistakes, which I own up to, and cost me a couple of positions in the end but that’s it.”
Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri let him past on Lap 46 to help mitigate the damage and get him an extra two points for a finish of sixth, but the hill he needs to climb still got much steeper with three race weekends to go in 2024.
Realistically, Verstappen would need to flounder badly for Norris to make up enough ground to be in any position to challenge for the title at the season finale in Abu Dhabi.
In the constructors’ standings, McLaren now leads with 593 points, Ferrari stands second with 557 points and Red Bull sits third on 544 markers.
Behind Verstappen, the Alpine team scored a huge result with both of its cars on the podium, when Ocon took second and Pierre Gasly finished third.
“What a day that was,” said Ocon, about the double podium. “The car was extremely difficult in the dry. I felt that ease when it started to rain this morning, and last night I really wanted to get some laps in the rain. I really love it here when it rains. Today has brought a special race for us.”
The 33 points for second and third saw Alpine jump from ninth to sixth in the constructors’ standings, with 49. An equally happy Gasly said that he was “absolutely buzzing” after the race.
“It’s incredible for the whole team; we had such a tough season, we’ve struggled to score points,” he said. “In these conditions everything was possible…no one believed it until the end – two cars on the podium, I don’t think anyone would have got that on their bingo card ahead of this season.”
Norris started on pole in a car that looked to be the class of the field, but lost the lead to Mercedes driver George Russell off the line. Meanwhile, Verstappen moved up fast, getting into the top-five by Lap 25, when Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc made an early pit stop for new intermediate tires.
When Russell and Norris peeled off into the pit lane during a virtual safety car on Lap 28, for Nico Hulkenburg’s stalled car, they dropped to fourth and fifth and left Ocon leading, Verstappen second, and Gasly third.
The safety car came out on Lap 30, before a red flag, due to Franco Colapinto crashing his Williams behind the safety car, and gave the top-three a free change of tires for the restart. The trio kept ahead until the race got interrupted by another safety car, on Lap 40, caused by Carlos Sainz going off at Turn 8 in his Ferrari, which set the stage for Verstappen’s race-winning move.
A drenched qualifying on Sunday morning jumbled up the grid, with several drivers crashing heavily and causing red flags to add to the bedlam. In the end, Norris was quickest, followed by Russell, with Visa RB drivers Yuki Tsunoda third and Liam Lawson fifth, sandwiching Ocon in fourth.
Alex Albon of Williams and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll did not start the race after accidents in qualifying and following an aborted start respectively, while Sainz took the green flag from pit lane.
Saturday’s sprint race in Brazil saw Norris eat three points out of Verstappen’s lead, with his win and his rival’s fourth-place finish, to bring the gap down to 44 before the Red Bull driver responded decisively on Sunday.
“A few hours ago, it was definitely the other way around and looking like we were going to lose a lot of points” said Verstappen.
The Sunday victory snapped a ten-race winless streak for Verstappen, which dated back to Circuit de Catalunya, in Spain, on June 23.
