Verstappen counters critics with champion’s drive in soaking Sao Paulo · RaceFans

Over the opening two legs of F1’s triple header tour of the Americas, Max Verstappen’s uncompromising, unforgiving defending from championship rival Lando Norris had drawn criticism from fans, rivals – and eventually the stewards.

So when the world champion was slapped with dual penalties in Mexico for bullying the McLaren off the circuit twice in half a lap, the team’s CEO Zak Brown fired some pretty pointed words Verstappen’s way.

“Max is such an awesome racing driver, I just don’t think you need to drive like that,” Brown said in the aftermath of a heated race in Mexico City. “Just drive like the world champion that you are.”

Flash forward a week later, Norris was poised to turn the pressure on his rival to critical levels. Just a handful of hours after he’d grasped his seventh pole of the season in a postponed Sunday morning qualifying session, Norris sat with his back to the wall on the Interlagos grid, psyching himself for the most important two hours of his motorsport career to date.

Norris was out to do damage. While Verstappen, starting all the way down in the 17th grid slot, was focused on damage control.

The race start had been moved 90 minutes earlier the evening before. Not to avoid the rain, but the worst of it. As the mechanics evacuated to the sides of the track, all 19 cars taking the start sat with intermediate tyres. But with a cell of rain lurking just south of the circuit approaching the Senna Esses, drivers would have a long and difficult afternoon ahead of them.

The severity of the challenge laying before the drivers was made clear on the formation lap. After Norris led George Russell, Yuki Tsunoda, Esteban Ocon, Liam Lawson and the rest of the field away, Lance Stroll demonstrated how risky every corner and every braking zone would be as his car suddenly snapped right under braking for Subida do Lago, sending him spearing right and skidding slowly into the wall. Although Stroll got his Aston Martin going again, he tried to rejoin the circuit by driving through the gravel trap, which did its job by holding his car in place and forcing Stroll into possibly most embarrassing retirement of his career.

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It was clear to all watching the race could not start, but for the next three minutes confusion reigned. Drivers were warned the start would likely be aborted, but it was not until the remaining cars had lined up on the grid that race control finally flashed the signal on the gantry. There was notice of an ‘extra formation lap’, but out of habit, Norris automatically pulled off the grid again without prompting by his team, leading to Russell and the cars behind them following suit.

Those who had their wits about them realised what the error and waited on the grid, until it eventually dawned on race control that the only solution to this bizarre mess was to send everyone around again and start afresh. So around ten minutes later, following the first ever aborted-aborted start in Formula 1 history, it was finally time for the racing to commence.

When the lights went out, Norris and Russell both matched each other for the quality of their launch. But as they crested the small rise approaching the first corner, the Mercedes crept up until Russell was far enough alongside to command the inside line for the first corner. Russell led them through Curva so Sol for the first time, with Tsunoda still third, having repelled a challenge from Gasly into the opening sequence.

Behind, Verstappen had already jumped from 17th to 11th as he entered the back straight – two places gained from cars ahead failing to start before passing four cars into the first three turns. By the time Verstappen rounded the Senna Esses at the start of lap two, he was already in a points scoring position – dispatching Lewis Hamilton as if he was lapping the Mercedes.

But while one Mercedes dropped a place, the other was making the most of the clear track in front of it out in the lead. McLaren had bolted as much wing on Norris’s car as they dared heading into the morning qualifying session, but while Norris was sticking close to Russell, he could not draw alongside without DRS to assist him due to the top speed of the Mercedes.

“I’m just struggling to overtake,” Norris complained. “I’m just so slow on the straight.”

However, Verstappen behind was having no such difficulties. He picked off Pierre Gasly and Fernando Alonso with ease, but Oscar Piastri in the seventh-placed McLaren would surely prove more of a challenge. Entering the start of the tenth lap, Piastri lifted off early approaching turn one to coast into the braking zone in a bid to help his tyre temperatures. Verstappen sensed an opportunity and dived inside the McLaren, which was taken so much by surprise that Piastri seemed to forget that he could even offer a defence. In the space of a single corner, Verstappen had neutralised Piastri as an obstacle and had gained seventh place along with it.

As the rain continued to build up and dissipate in waves, managing the life of the intermediates was priority one for drivers. By lap 20, a new patch of rain was approaching, but some in the pit lane were beginning to question if another set of intermediates would offer better grip to handle it.

After Lawson offered little resistance to him, Verstappen came across his first true challenge in the form of Charles Leclerc’s fifth-placed Ferrari. Despite swarming all over Leclerc over the opening sector on lap 22, Verstappen was rebuffed confidently by his oldest rival. But as the skies darkened with heavier rain, Ferrari decided now was the time to sharpen Leclerc’s weapons and pit him for a fresh set of intermediates.

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Almost immediately, those threatening clouds gathering overhead began depositing their contents around the 4.3km circuit. Although the new water did not seem to affect lap times, the impact on visibility and the margin for error was evident when Nico Hulkenberg spun off circuit entering the first corner. As the stranded Haas received outside assistance – dooming it to a rare disqualification – the Virtual Safety Car was deployed.

The track was getting wetter, and rapidly so. Some drivers further down the field took advantage of the opportunity to fit new tyres, a few even taking full wets.

Despite Russell’s misgivings, Mercedes called the race leader in at the end of lap 28, moments before the VSC period ended. Norris followed him in while, behind, Ocon, Verstappen and the gaining Gasly braved it out on their used intermediates.

By now, the circuit was as wet as it had been at any point when cars had been running on it over the weekend. Russell was so cautious to not lose his car simply by driving along the back straight that he only used 60% throttle on the run to Subida do Lago. Norris reached 80% throttle, with the 30kph extra it gave him proving easily enough to finally drive by the Mercedes and claim the net lead of the race.

Or, rather, it would have been the next lead of the race had it not been for Safety Car being deployed a matter of seconds later. Not for an incident, but for the conditions having deteriorated so much.

Ocon, Verstappen and Gasly were now the leaders under the Safety Car, with Norris fourth ahead of Russell and Tsunoda – all three having fitted new tyres and poised to pounce on those ahead with their well-worn rubber. But when Franco Colapinto lost control of his Williams heading up the hill on his way out of the pits while attempting to catch the pack, the resulting crash forced race control to suspend the race with a red flag.

The aggressive call from Verstappen and the Alpines to stay out on worn intermediates even as the rain intensified had been immediately validated. Not only was Ocon now genuinely leading the race, Verstappen was ahead of Norris. They all had an ability to fit new tyres under the red flag, meaning that Verstappen had managed to completely overturn his disadvantage to his rival and now was in a much stronger position than Norris for the second half of the race.

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Conditions were still heavily wet when the race resumed around half an hour later, but the intermediates were still the preferred choice. Ocon headed the field to the restart as he led his first Formula 1 laps since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. But despite Verstappen sticking as tightly with him as possible, the Alpine held the lead. Behind, Norris handed Russell back the fourth place he had toiled for so long to take from the Mercedes when he slid off at Subida do Lago at the restart, dropping him behind Russell once again.

Despite new or newer intermediates for everyone, the track was wetter and more treacherous than it had been prior to the downpour that ultimately led to the Safety Car. Oliver Bearman touched the white line on the way into Ferrardura, resulting in him spinning into the tyre wall but lightly enough to continue.

Soon afterwards, Carlos Sainz Jnr – race winner the previous weekend in Mexico – committed the same error as the rookie into Laranjha. Unfortunately for Sainz, the barriers were much closer to this corner and his resulting impact with the tyre wall put him out of the race and resulted in the second Safety Car deployment of the day.

Verstappen had not pressured Ocon for the lead after the initial restart, but with a second attempt, he was determined to make it count. Ocon waited until the DRS activation zone to launch this time around, but Verstappen was all over it and did not brake as hard for the first corner as the Alpine, trusting his RB20 to find the grip it would need to the inside to take the corner and, with it, the lead. It proved to be a risk worth taking as he moved into the lead before cutting off the inside of turn two to prevent any replays of their 2018 contact.

Aware or not that his championship rival was in the process of taking first place, things were about to get worse for Norris as he locked up his rear brakes and slid off the circuit, narrowly avoiding hitting Russell and rejoining behind Piastri in seventh. An afternoon that had started off with Norris looking to land his biggest blow against Verstappen in the championship to date now saw him doomed to lose significant ground in the title chase.

Now in front for the first time, Verstappen did what he does best and started to slowly but surely pull away from the two Alpines behind him. Russell was around a second behind the third-placed Gasly, but despite his early race leading pace, the Mercedes struggled to get close enough to him to think about a pass without the benefit of DRS. However, Russell’s persistent presence alone was putting Gasly under enough pressure.

“He was quite big in the mirrors,” Gasly later described. “But I always had him at bay. I don’t think he ever had the idea of trying anything. So I knew as long as I keep him within one second, it’ll be good enough.”

With the laps ticking down, it became increasingly clear the front of the field had reached equilibrium. With no further rain expected, conditions would only get better until the chequered flag, limiting the overtaking options for anyone looking to advance their position before the end of the race.

Verstappen lowered the fastest lap 14 times over the final 24 laps of the race, pulling out an advantage of over 15 seconds despite being told “no risks” by race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase. A day that had started with Verstappen raging with frustration after a Q2 elimination gave him his worst starting position on the grid for three years had seen him put in a drive more than equal to his famous Sao Paulo performance in 2016 and his championship rival capitulate in the conditions.

Verstappen completed lap 69 to take the chequered flag first for the eighth time in the season but the first since the Spanish Grand Prix back in June. A ten-round win drought had finally ended in the most impressive manner imaginable.

“I don’t even know where to start, because my emotions today have been from almost trying to destroy the garage to winning the race,” he said. “I was just very motivated to get a good race and just let the race pan out and see what happens. Because in a wet race, always some crazy things can happen.”

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Verstappen’s point was proven by the two drivers joining him on the podium: Ocon and Gasly. Neither had finished higher than ninth all season, yet in just a single afternoon, Alpine’s annus horribilis now had a double podium and a monster haul of 35 points to leap them from ninth to sixth in the championship.

“We were very, very quick as soon as these conditions pulled out today,” Ocon observed. “It really levels out the field in here. And it feels great to be just able to fight with other cars, to fight with the guys that are at the front as well. It shows that we’ve still got it and when there’s an opportunity, we are always there to be able to take it.”

Russell could not find a way by Gasly and had to settle for fourth, the highest placed of the drivers who had made a racing pit stop for another set of intermediates. After a day that promised so much, Norris limped home in sixth behind Leclerc, having seen his deficit to Verstappen in the championship balloon back up to 62 points, his slim hopes of somehow beating the world champion all but lost.

Yuki Tsunoda claimed a strong seventh for RB ahead of Piastri who dropped to eighth after a ten second penalty for hitting Lawson, who finished ninth. Hamilton took the final point in tenth after describing his Mercedes as the “worst he’s ever driven” after taking the chequered flag.

But after many months of frustration, fighting against the limits of his car and the regulations, Verstappen had returned to the top step of the podium after what will likely be the defining drive of his fourth world championship. Having been told to “drive like the champion he was”, Verstappen had given Zak Brown exactly what he’d asked for, and virtually ended anyone else’s hopes of beating him to this year’s title.

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