Heavy rain, fog, red, yellow and black flags, surprises, overtaking, safety cars and entertainment. Everything happens in the Brazilian Formula 1 Grand Prix, brought forward by an hour and a half compared to the predefined time to avoid the downpour, but still soaked from start to finish by a perennial disturbance.
At the checkered flag, the Red Bull of a phenomenal Max Verstappen arrives ahead of everyone and signs a legendary comeback, from seventeenth to first position despite everything and everyone. According to an excellent Esteban Ocon on Alpine ahead of teammate Pierre Gasly who with the podium thus celebrate Flavio Briatore’s return to Formula 1. The McLarens did badly, sinking into the Interlagos quagmire, finishing in sixth place with Lando Norris and eighth with Oscar Piastri. Leclerc’s Ferrari finished fifth, missing out on the podium, while Carlos Sainz retired about twenty laps from the end after a bad spin.
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Returning to victory after ten races, in terms of the World Championship the Flying Dutchman rejects Norris’s assault, securing his lead at 393 points, with a 62 advantage over the Englishman from McLaren with three races remaining in the season. The Brazilian Grand Prix gets underway after a late start due to Stroll’s Aston Martin leading the way on the formation lap. On a wet track due to the rain that fell in the morning, Russell’s Mercedes takes the lead ahead of Norris’s McLaren who was in pole position. Leclerc’s Ferrari gains a position from sixth to fifth position, while Verstappen’s Red Bull immediately begins its comeback from 17th to 11th place at the green light. The start was postponed for 10 minutes to allow Stroll’s car to be moved from the track. And Norris ends up under investigation because he moved at the end of the first formation lap when the start was stopped due to the accident of the Canadian from Aston Martin. In light rain Russell manages to keep Norris behind quite easily.
The only one who managed to overtake was Verstappen who in a few laps moved up to sixth position behind Leclerc’s Ferrari, also managing to overtake Piastri’s McLaren without any problems. Then, with the rain tending to increase, Leclerc was the first to change to the wet intermediates, the virtual safety car was triggered after Hulkenberg’s Haas spun and many went to the pits. Ocon and Verstappen remain outside and start leading the race also thanks to the entry of the safety car. A couple of laps and the race was stopped, when we were about halfway through the race, due to the accident that occurred to the Williams of the Argentinian Colapinto who, on the increasingly treacherous track due to the increasing rain, turned and hit the barriers.
Red flag and all the cars in the pits, while the FIA stewards disqualified Hulkenberg’s Haas with a black flag as it broke the rules and managed to restart, aided by the stewards, after having turned off the engine on the track. After about ten minutes of stoppage, the Brazilian Grand Prix restarts with the single-seaters all lined up behind the safety car. Alpine is in the lead followed by Verstappen’s Red Bull, Norris’ McLaren is fourth and Leclerc’s Ferrari is seventh. It was raining heavily, there was little visibility and Russell took advantage of the situation to pass Norris and take fourth place, while Leclerc overtook the Racing Bulls Tsunoda to go into sixth place. But the surprises in the rain never end: with 29 laps to go the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz retires due to a spin and subsequent exit from the track with the Red car hitting the wall which also causes the safety officer to come onto the track. car.
At the time of the accident the Spaniard was thirteenth in a race which saw him start from the rear and never the protagonist. When the safety car comes out Leclerc is unleashed and jumps from sixth to fourth position, also overtaking Norris’ McLaren. Verstappen also took advantage of the situation up front, overtaking Ocon to take the lead with about twenty laps to go. Norris meanwhile climbed to seventh position. The rain eases and Verstappen’s Red Bull takes off followed by the two Alpines with the Maclarens and Leclerc’s Ferrari, fifth, overtaken by Russell’s Mercedes. And so, a legendary Verstappen confirms himself as the strongest of all in the rain, taking home a good chunk of his fourth title, while Norris but also Leclerc can only regret the great wasted opportunity.
