Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen drove a brilliant race in a wet Interlagos event and the championship leader recovered from P17 to come home first. A pure masterclass drive.
Alpine scored an awesome double podium with Esteban Ocon second and Pierre Gasly third ahead of early leader George Russell, which promote the team to sixth in the constructors’ standings.
Lando Norris came home sixth – despite starting on pole – behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, but the McLaren driver faces a post-race investigation for a surreal aborted start incident over two hours earlier in the heavily disrupted contest. In the end, the stewards decided to fine and a reprimand for not following the correct procedure at the start.
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 stuck in the gravel, after which Norris led several cars off the line again in reaction to an “Aborted Start” message, while Verstappen from P17 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 moved his way through several cars to run P11 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/overtakes at Turn 1, where the defending champion was super 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.
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 at Turn 1 with Russell on lap 27, 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 going steady 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, 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 3.3 seconds lead within a few laps.
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 Max constant lowering of the pace meaning he was a extending his lead to 19.3 seconds 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 Grand Prix victory since June’s Spanish race.
Oscar Piastri – who waved Norris through after his teammate’s second restart off – was seventh on the road by eighth in the results after a 10-second 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.
So a champion’s drive by Verstappen. After many critics complaining his aggressive driving in COTA and Mexico, this result is the best response. Despite starting P17 after a tricky qualifying and grid penalty for a power unit change, the Red Bull driver rise to the top to take a masterclass victory.
Sao Paulo Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 2:06:54.430
2 Esteban Ocon Alpine +19.477s
3 Pierre Gasly Alpine +22.532s
4 George Russell Mercedes +23.265s
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +30.177s
6 Lando Norris McLaren +31.372s
7 Yuki Tsunoda RB +42.056s
8 Oscar Piastri McLaren +44.943s
9 Liam Lawson RB +50.452s
10 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +50.753s
11 Sergio Perez Red Bull +51.531s
12 Oliver Bearman Haas +57.085s
13 Valtteri Bottas Sauber +63.588s
14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +78.049s
15 Zhou Guanyu Sauber +79.649s
Carlos Sainz Ferrari DNF
Franco Colapinto Williams DNF
Nico Hulkenberg Haas DNF
Alexander Albon Williams DNS
Lance Stroll Aston Martin DNS