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McLaren’s Lando Norris has won the Brazilian Grand Prix to further extend his Championship lead. Kimi Antonelli finished second for Mercedes but all eyes were on Verstappen who battled from the back of the pack up to a podium scoring 3rd place at the checquered flag.
After an clean getaway for everyone without any incidents lots of stuff happened in the lap that followed. Norris stayed out of trouble after an excellent start, followed by Antonelli and Leclerc, Piastri maintained fourth even though he had to fend off the two Racing Bulls.
At Turn 9 in the middle of the pack Stroll didn’t see or didn’t car about local hero Bortoleto, pushing the Sauber into the grass and into the wall. That was a yellow flag until race control decided to bring out the safety car. Meanwhile, just before that safety car, Hamilton ended up being surprised by Colapinto on the main straight, leaving him with a broken front wing. Hamilton had already had a very troublesome start after gettting bumped into by Albon at Turn 1.
So, behind the safety car, Hadjar was 5th, followed by Lawson, Russell, Bearman, Gasly and Alonso. Verstappen was 16th and Hamilton 19th, albeit reporting an unstable car due to possible damage on the Ferrari’s floor.
On lap 6 the race got going again. Norris’ late restart caused Antonelli and Leclerc to be surprised. Piastri took the opportunity and went for the inside in Turn 1. There though, he gave Antonelli a bump at the apex of the corner. The Mercedes driver then had the rear of his car slide into Leclerc’s front left wheel, immediately breaking the suspension. Leclerc parked his Ferrari alongside the track, triggering a VSC. Piastri was later given a 10s penalty for the incident.
Verstappen had gained another two positions on the restart but was then found to have a right rear puncture, requiring a pitstop and relegation to 18th place.
The VSC ended right on the main straight and Piastri once again was acing it, coming very close to Norris but unable to make a passing attempt. By the end of that lap however Piastri was 1.05s behind Norris and therefore didn’t have DRS.
On lap 12 Russell moved up into 4th by passing Hadjar. The other Racing Bull of Lawson lost 6th to Bearman one lap later. Verstappen meanwhile also made progress, passing Hamilton and Colapinto. Hamilton himself was struggling to make it past Colapinto, even noting “I’m going to crash out here” as his car was so unstable. He got pitted the next lap to change to medium tyres.
Verstappen went on to easily pass Tsunoda – who had just received a 10s penalty for causing a collision with Stroll – and then also overtook Hulkenberg and Alonso. The Red Bull clearly working a lot better as even while Alonso also had DRS, Verstappen had much better acceleration and top speed on the straight for an easy pass.
Between lap 17 and 22 those still on softs pitted with Antonelli the last one to do so. He returned to the track in 11th position, behind Stroll who, just like his teammate Alonso, used hard tyres for the first stint. The hard tyre really wasn’t the most enjoyable strategical choice as both Aston’s were being overrun completely by cars that had pitted and therefore enjoyed much better pace. Alonso pitted on lap 29, rejoining ahead only of Tsunoda. Stroll did the same the next lap but he didn’t manage to stay ahead of the Red Bull.
One lap later Norris was pitted, switching to soft tyres and returning in 4th position, behind Verstappen and ahead of Antonelli who had fought his way through the field.
Albon at that time was still 6th, closely followed by Hulkenberg. Both continued on the medium tyres they had at the start, notably overtaking Alonso on their way and outlasting his hard tyres as well.
Russell and Verstappen then pitted from second and third. Russell switched from medium to soft, Verstappen got a new set of mediums.
On lap 38, Piastri pitted to change to soft tyres after serving his 10 second penalty. Hamilton at the same time returned to the pit to retire his car, ensuring zero points for the Scuderia, a bad affair in the battle for second place in the Constructors’ Championship.
Piastri returned to the track in 7th place, just behind Lawson who he overtook one lap later. The next car up the road for Piastri was Verstappen, 5 seconds ahead but with medium tyres. The Australian wasn’t very happy with his situation and told his engineer the situation looks worse than what his engineer told him.
When the Mercedes duo pitted on lap 48 and 49 this promoted Piastri back to third, an later even up to second when Norris took on a new set of mediums. Two laps later Piastri was pitted himself for the same switch. He returned in 7th place while Verstappen led the race by 7s over Norris. Antonelli trailed Norris. Russell and Lawson were 2.5s further behind each, then Bearman and Piastri.
On lap 55, with 16 remaining, Verstappen pitted one final time to take on a shiny new set of soft tyres. The Dutchman ended up in 4th place, 2 seconds ahead of Lawson who was soon passed by Piastri.
Verstappen immediately pushed hard and set the fastest lap, triggering worries with Russell who had to manage fuel usage and saw his 2.6s advantage reduce rapidly. 4 laps later Russell was fairly easily passed. The Red Bull driver went on to pressure Antonelli but the tyre advantage had gone, enabling Antonelli to take second.
Piastri finished 5th, closely behind Russell. Bearman was 6th, followed by Lawson, Hadjar, Hulkenberg and Gasly, all very closely together.
F1: RaceGP Brazil
