Hannah Ifri
Max Verstappen emerged victorious in a fiercely contested São Paulo Grand Prix, securing his eighth win of the season to the delight of a packed crowd at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace. Starting from P17 and climbing his way up the grid in the intense rain, the Dutchman was accompanied on the podium with both Alpine drivers, Esetban Ocon and Pierre Gasly.
The day began with an early qualifying session at 7:30am local time, marked by drama as Alex Albon was forced to withdraw after sustaining heavy damage just four hours before the race. Lando Norris secured pole position, with George Russell and Yuki Tsunoda lining up alongside him on the front row.
Amid the uncertainty, Lando Norris and George Russell moved off the grid and were subsequently penalised €5,000 each
The race began with an aborted start after Lance Stroll spun out and ended up in the gravel while trying to keep his engine running. This led to significant confusion among the teams about whether to proceed or remain on the grid. Amid the uncertainty, Lando Norris and George Russell moved off the grid and were subsequently penalised €5,000 each, a decision only announced after the race. The delay in issuing the penalties left many fans frustrated and angry.
With the lights finally out, the Sao Paulo Grand Prix saw George Russell take the lead, overtaking Lando Norris who was awarded Pole Position during qualifications, earlier in the day. While this was happening at the front of the grid, Max Verstappen who started P17 due to a 5-grid position penalty for change of engine, was climbing his way up to the top, passing Lewis Hamilton up to P10 in an exquisite overtake at turn 1.
Verstappen, setting a series of continuous fastest laps, overtook his rival’s teammate who let him slip in pretty easily going up to sixth all while Lando Norris began to voice his frustrations on the team radio over the fact that he was struggling to overtake with the new rear wing McLaren installed on the car.
Charles Leclerc, three-time Grand Prix Winner this season was slowly inching up to Esteban Ocon, who later ended up in second all while Verstappen was tailing him quite closely.
It wasn’t long before the rain began to pour down on the track
As it got darker on the track with warnings of rain impending, Ocon began to close in on Yuki Tsunoda who had hopes for a maiden podium by the end of this race. It wasn’t long before the rain began to pour down on the track, drenching the circuit as Nico Hulkenberg went for a spin in turn one.
With the virtual safety car out, both Mercedes and McLaren made what they, at the time, thought was a smart decision to pit and stay on a new set of inters, hoping to get their place back when the top three pitted. And while Lando Norris managed to overtake George Russell, it wasn’t long before their plans were ruined by a red flag as Franco Colapinto; Williams’ rookie, crashed into the wall.
The red flag did no good for both Norris and Russell as it fumbled their strategy as Verstappen, Ocon, Gasly and Leclerc got a free pit while they cleared up the track. All the while Hulkenberg was disqualified after reports that he was pushed back onto the track by race marshals.
The race continued 10 minutes later with a rolling start, seeing Esteban Ocon leading into turn one chasing his fourth podium.
Carlos Sainz, winner of the Mexican Grand Prix then took a spin, crashing and making the safety car come out for the sixth time that race, which Max took full advantage of as he overtook Esteban Ocon following its departure.
Verstappen had a 12 second hap from P2
By this point in the race, McLaren are not happy with their results with Norris in seventh and Piastri in 6th. Following team orders, the Australian driver let his teammate pass him all while at the front, Verstappen had a 12 second gap from P2.
Overall, a great race for Red Bull and Alpine, both ending up on the podium. This win brought back Red Bull hopes at the constructors, also severely boosting Alpine in the championship as they went home with 33 points.
With only three races left on the calendar, we now begin to wonder whether there even is a battle between the two drivers
The main question now is, are the championship battle hopes still alive. Last week the gap between Norris and Verstappen was 47 points, but after a P7 finish for the McLaren Driver and a P1 finish for the 3-time world champion, the gap has now increased to 62 points. With only three races left on the calendar, we now begin to wonder whether there even is a battle between the two drivers.
Following the race, many fines were handed out. A €10,000 fine handed to Mercedes because the team released pressure from their tyres on the grid while they waited for the aborted start. And Norris and Russell getting a reprimand alongside their fine for starting another formation lap during the wait for the aborted start. While Tsunoda and Lawson were also noted for the same incident, they were both let off the hook for being “influenced” by the two front drivers.
There was no doubt at all that this race was dangerous, with 4 DNF’s people began to argue that this race shouldn’t have even happened with the race conditions made well aware during qualifying. It has now been noted that the drivers of the grid have made a new Instagram under the name @grandprixdriversassociation.
Now we wait to see what will come from that Instagram. In the meantime, we eagerly wait for the Las Vegas Grand Prix in three weeks’ time.
Hanna Ifri
Featured image courtesy of Brad Barmore via Unsplash. Image use license found here (Unsplash). No changes were made to this image.
In article image 1 courtesy of @f1 via Instagram. No changes were made to this image.
In article image 2 courtesy of @f1 via Instagram. No changes were made to this image.
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