Max Verstappen almost took a fourth Formula 1 title in a row with a drive from 17th to win a wet São Paulo Grand Prix.
Verstappen took the lead for good after a restart on lap 43 of the 69-lap race when he passed Esteban Ocon for the lead. Verstappen then pulled away from Ocon and the rest of the field when Lando Norris went off track at Turn 1, just before Verstappen took the lead and won the race by just under 20 seconds.
The entire race was held on a wet track, with rain pounding the entire Interlagos circuit. Norris ultimately finished sixth after reducing Verstappen’s points lead to 44 points in Saturday’s sprint race.
Verstappen now leads Norris for the time being with 62 points, with three Grand Prix races and one sprint race to go. Given that there is a maximum of 86 points available across the four events, it will be virtually impossible for Norris to win the title unless Verstappen inexplicably has problems over the final three race weekends.
Norris’ deficit is also unofficial. It could be bigger. He and many other drivers started the race under investigation by race officials. We’ll come back to that in a moment.
The look of the race changed immediately after a virtual safety car for Nico Hulkenberg’s stopped car on lap 28. Norris followed George Russell for the lead as both drivers decided to pit for new intermediate tires as the virtual safety car ended.
This allowed Ocon, Verstappen and Pierre Gasly to pass them while they were in the pits. And just after the top two drivers had made the pit stop, a safety car was deployed due to heavy rain.
While the safety car led the field, Franco Colapinto lost control of his car and immediately hit the wall on the main line. That led to a red flag and each team was brought into the pit lane.
In Formula 1, teams can change tires and make adjustments during the race break. Essentially, Verstappen and the two Alpine drivers were given a free pit stop and restarted the race with new tires because they had not pitted.
Verstappen also made his way through the field before the red flag. Race victory may have been out of reach, but he was in 10th place by lap 2 and had picked off cars in the top 10 one by one ahead of Hulkenberg’s car before the VSC. He qualified twelfth earlier on Sunday due to a red flag in the second qualifying round and had to start five places lower due to a penalty for bringing a new combustion engine.
Unofficially, Ocon finished second and his Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly third. Thanks to the finishes, Alpine has risen to sixth place in the constructors’ standings.
A crazy start
The race did not start as planned after Lance Stroll went off track and hit the wall during the formation lap.
Stroll’s car became stranded in a gravel trap with nowhere to go. While Stroll was stuck in the gravel, the rest of the field approached their starting positions on the grid.
F1 officials aborted the start but did not order the drivers to leave their positions for another formation lap. Norris, who started from pole, pulled away from his spot along with Russell, Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson, while many other drivers were left standing in their starting spots wondering what on earth had happened.
Ultimately, each driver completed another formation lap, but F1 officials flagged Norris, Russell, Tsunoda and Lawson for starting violations. They can be penalized after the race.
After the field completed another formation lap, the teams were given another 10 minutes to touch the cars as they would during a normal start. During this period, the Mercedes crews of Russell and Lewis Hamilton adjusted the cars’ tire pressures while the tires were on the car. That is also a breach of F1 rules and was noted due to a possible post-race penalty.
Due to the many investigations, it can take hours before the race results are official. Meanwhile, Hülkenberg was disqualified from the race after marshals pushed his car to get him out of a drain and he continued driving. Once a car receives assistance to get back on the road, it is considered out of the race.
Unofficial results
1. Max Verstappen, Red Bull
2. Esteban Ocon, Alpine
3. Pierre Gasly, Alpine
4. George Russell, Mercedes
5. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
6. Lando Norris, McLaren
7. Yuki Tsunoda, RB
8. Oscar Piastri, McLaren
9. Liam Lawson, RB
10. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
11. Sergio Perez, Red Bull
12. Oliver Bearman, Haas
13. Valtteri Bottas, Sauber
14. Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin
15. Zhou Guanyu, Sauber
Not classified: Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), Franco Colapinto (Williams), Nico Hulkenberg (Haas), Alex Albon (Williams), Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
