Max Verstappen wins the 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix after a great comeback. On the other hand, Lando Norris leaves Interlagos as a great defeat, especially on a moral level, and demonstrates this by “not accepting” his opponent’s triumph
November 3, 2024
It drops definitively, and we finally add given the exhausting duration between neutralizations and postponements due to rain, the Brazilian Grand Prix 2024the twenty-first round of the Formula 1 season. At the finish line, sealing a crazy race due to the various red, yellow and Safety Car flags, the winner was Max Verstappen. To get out of it real loser from this comparison which could have assigned the first real match point in the fight for the world title Lando Norris.
The McLaren driver had a golden opportunity in his hands. That is to make the most of this race weekend in Interlagos to try to close the distance to Max Verstappenahead by just over fifty points. Also favoring him in the undertaking five-place penalty for replacing the sixth element of the internal combustion engine of Red Bull number #1. Not only that, also the podium lost in the Sprintwhich Norris instead won thanks to the Scuderia’s order with Oscar Piastri, for having overtaken under the Virtual Safety Car regime on the penultimate lap of the 100km mini-race on Saturday. Furthermore, the British also had the disappointing qualifications for the Dutchmanwho was unable to complete his lap launched in Q2 this morning due to a red flag; thus the departure from the seventeenth place on the starting grid.
Nevertheless, Lando Norris failed to complete the only task which could potentially have allowed him to close the gap to Verstappen. Starting from pole position, the papaya team driver was burned at the start by George Russellreplicating the disappointing starts even when, during the race, the management gave the green light to fight after the various red flags and Safety Cars which made the Interlagos event one of the most exciting and complicated of the entire season. He thus only finished sixthbehind Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, and once again helped by his teammate Oscar Piastri who, thanks to the ten second penalty, let him pass to try to collect as many points as possible in terms of Constructors’ classification, with the distance between McLaren, the Scuderia di Maranello and Red Bull becoming ever smallermaking this title also uncertain, while the drivers’ title now becomes a very remote possibility.
Because if on the one hand Norris screwed it all upon the other there is an angry Max Verstappenthanks to the various penalties inflicted by the FIA and the constant criticism, decided to take everything he could take, including victory. A triumph that is the fruit of not just one splendid comeback from seventeenth position, but above all a period of fasting from the top step of the podium which had lasted since BarcelonaGrand Prix which took place in June. Max wanted the track to do the talking again and not the constant calculations for the world title. He then spoke too Lando Norris who, to the microphones of F1.TVhe did not hide his disappointment for what happened during the Sao Paulo match, belittling the rival’s result.
“Verstappen? He drove well and was lucky. I trusted the team and what they said, I trust them. This was one lucky for Red Bull because they benefited from a rule that is not appreciated by anyone. None of us drivers agree, but maybe they do now,” Norris continued, referring to the possibility of change tires under red flag regime; instead, he and McLaren made the stop just at the moment in which the VSC rejoined after Nico Hulkenberg had ended up in the barriers and then rejoined. Same strategy also for George Russell, while Verstappen and the two Alpines waited for the red flag to be neutralized after Franco Colapinto’s crash. “Sometimes things go one way and sometimes the other – added Norris – with the red flag the stops were free. George Russell deserved to win the race. The end result? It’s a gamble that paid off, it’s not talent, it’s just luck”. Norris, who arrived in Brazil as the favourite, is now well off sixty-two lengths from rival Verstappen. Three races and only one Sprint Race are missing, and the possibility of winning the first world championship for Lando Norris is now reduced to zero, while the Dutchman already in Las Vegas, in two weeks, could reach four world titles .
