Verstappen victorious from 17th, Norris sixth in Sao Paulo thriller
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen sensationally won Formula 1’s 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix from starting 17th in a wet weather thriller, as his pole-sitting title rival Lando Norris faltered for McLaren.
Alpine scored a brilliant double podium with Esteban Ocon second and Pierre Gasly third ahead of early leader George Russell, which vaults the team to sixth in the constructors’ standings.
Norris came home sixth behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, but the Briton faces a post-race investigation for a bizarre aborted start incident over two hours earlier in the heavily disrupted contest.
The first start was aborted when Lance Stroll went off at Turn 4 on the formation lap and damaged his Aston Martin before getting it beached in the gravel, after which Norris led several cars off the line again in reaction to an “Aborted Start” message, while Verstappen from 17th on the grid was among a separate group that waited for green lights before going around again.
A 10-minute delay then followed, after which Russell jumped Norris on the run to Turn 1 from second on the grid, while Verstappen slalomed his way through several cars to run 11th at the end of the first lap.
He continued to carve his way through the field for most of the first half, with a series of bold dives at Turn 1, where the Dutchman was uber-confident on the brakes in his RB20.
At the front, Russell and Norris pulled clear of the chasing Yuki Tsunoda, Ocon and Leclerc, but the McLaren could never get close to make an attack on the leading Mercedes.
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38
Photo by: Lubomir Asenov / Motorsport Images
By lap 15, Verstappen had reached Leclerc at the end of the chase group, but he then became bottled up behind the Ferrari in a similar manner to Norris.
Leclerc was a surprise early stopper with a huge increase in rain coming as the clouds got heavier around lap 24, which eased Verstappen’s progress.
The race was then altered significantly when Nico Hulkenberg spun off solo at Turn 1 with Russell on the 27th tour, which led to a virtual safety car under which several cars far back in the pack pitted and then the leaders came in at the end of the lap 28.
But this was just as the VSC was ending with the Haas moving again after getting pushing assistance from four marshals and so when Ocon and Verstappen stayed out – plus Pierre Gasly from further back in the other Alpine – they cycled to the lead as Russell and Norris dropped down, along with Tsunoda who had been jumped by Ocon pre-VSC.
The rain was really coming down at this point, with Norris taking advantage of Russell’s timidness into Turn 4 on lap 30 to final get by and while he shot towards Gasly and Verstappen the safety car was called and the race neutralised.
Under this, Williams’ Franco Colapinto crashed and a near 25-minute delay ensued – during which Ocon, Verstappen and Gasly were able to switch to more intermediates without losing their places and Hulkenberg was black-flagged for being pushed backwards in the Turn 1 runoff and rejoining.
At the restart for the race’s second half, Ocon easily dropped Verstappen and then raced to a 3.3s lead within a few tours.
But Carlos Sainz crashing slowly on lap 39 meant another safety car, after which Verstappen brilliantly jumped Ocon at Turn 1 at the restart – despite the Alpine appearing to once again initially nail his getaway.
Behind, Norris slid off at Turn 1 under attack from Leclerc, who also moved ahead of Russell, before the Ferrari driver went off at Turn 4 a few laps later and ceded fourth back to the early leader.
Verstappen then checked out with a series of fastest laps to lead by over three seconds with 20 laps to go, with the Dutchman’s constant lowering of the pace meaning he was a whopping 19.3s ahead by the flag despite the rain briefly getting heavier again in the closing stage.
Ocon finished a chunk ahead of Gasly, who held off Russell to the finish, with Leclerc fifth and Norris seventh – losing significant ground to Verstappen, who scored his first GP victory since June’s Spanish race.
Oscar Piastri – who waved Norris through after his team-mate’s second restart off – was seventh on the road by eighth in the results after a 10s penalty he had accrued for colliding Liam Lawson pre-red flag.
Lawson took ninth after holding off Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez late on – the RB driver and the second Red Bull clashing again while the Mercedes driver was amongst those off the road at various stages.
Alex Albon did not take part as a result of his huge crash in qualifying.
