Max Verstappen achieved another victory, this time in the São Paulo Grand Prix of Formula 1. It was a race dominated by the three-time world champion at the Interlagos circuit, leading practically from start to finish.
Race summary
Right at turn four of the formation lap, Charles Leclerc suffered hydraulic problems in his Ferrari, lost control, and crashed into the wall. The end of the line for the Monegasque even before the start.
At the start, Max Verstappen (Red Bull) reacted well to the lights and comfortably remained in the lead, especially because with Leclerc out, he had no one beside him in the second grid position. Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martins did not have a good start, allowing Lando Norris (McLaren) and Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) to move up to second and third, respectively.
Alexander Albon (Williams) made contact with Nico Hülkenberg (Haas), lost control, and crashed into Kevin Magnussen (Haas), causing retirement even before the first corner, which required a safety car intervention… which turned into a red flag to clean up debris, remove the cars, and repair the barriers.
After almost half an hour, the race resumed with a standing start. Verstappen reacted well again to maintain the lead, while Norris held onto second place. Hamilton missed his braking point at the first corner and was overtaken by Alonso. George Russell (Mercedes) finished fifth, ahead of Sergio Pérez (Red Bull).
In the eighth lap, Norris launched two strong attacks on Verstappen’s lead, but the Dutchman defended well and from then on, began to pull away from his pursuer. The front positions settled, while further back there was an interesting battle for fifth place in which Pérez overtook Russell on lap 14. Four laps later, it was Hamilton’s turn to be overtaken by the Mexican, who then had over seven seconds to recover against Alonso.
Right after that, Hamilton made his first tire change, putting on mediums. He returned to the track in 11th position. It was the same operation that his teammate Russell did one lap later, rejoining the track right behind #44. Pérez followed the Mercedes into the pit stops, and on the return to the track, he lost position to Hamilton… quickly recovering it.
After Alonso changed tires, he was in sixth place, but ahead of him were three rivals still without pit stops… fulfilling them on lap 27. At the same time, Hamilton lost position to Stroll, just as Russell had done before.
On lap 28, the top two drivers stopped in the pits, with Verstappen and Norris returning to the track in the same positions. However, the distance between them increased to almost five seconds.
This second stint was disastrous for Mercedes, who were completely out of the podium fight. Sainz overtook Russell on lap 35, demoting him to eighth, and did the same to Hamilton shortly after. Thus, he moved up to sixth in exchange with the seven-time champion. Meanwhile, Pérez was about a second behind Alonso’s third place.
After the second tire changes on lap 48, Pérez was unable to catch up with Alonso, who thus consolidated a podium position.
On lap 54, Pérez finally managed to close in on Alonso to have the use of DRS available. Meanwhile, at the front, Verstappen gradually distanced himself from Norris, giving no chance of opposition to the rival. The leader changed tires on lap 57, unlike Norris, who stayed on track longer until the end of lap 59.
On his return to the track, the British driver held onto second place, far from Verstappen who had returned to the front. At that time, an exciting battle was being fought for the lowest step on the podium, with Alonso resisting Pérez as best he could. The dispute extended until the end. Pérez took the position on the penultimate lap, but on the last lap, Alonso returned the maneuver.
At the front, Verstappen sealed another victory, beating Norris, who set the fastest lap. Alonso held onto third place until the end to return to the podium… by only 53 thousandths of a second. Stroll finished fifth ahead of Sainz, who resisted hydraulic problems in the last laps. Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), and Esteban Ocon (Alpine) completed the points-paying positions in that order between seventh and tenth.
Results:
