As the triple header comes to a close in Brazil, Formula One experienced it’s most chaotic weekend of the season. The rain poured down at the Interlagos circuit in a race where Max Verstappen came from P17 on the grid to take victory. For others the rain caused anything but happiness and certainly dampened their weekend.
Image Credit – formula1.com
Qualifying on a Sunday?
The weekend took an unexpected turn on Saturday afternoon when the weather rolled in and water flooded the track.
After many delays to the session on Saturday, time was running thin and qualifying was ultimately postponed until Sunday morning. This being race day meaning an early start for all. However, the rain did not ease as Sunday morning arrived.
With qualifying due to start and the bad weather still hovering over the circuit, doubts the race would even go ahead became prominent.
However, soon after we had cars on the track and then the chaos really began. First to fall victim to the slippery conditions was Franco Colapinto, whose Williams spun out and hit the barriers early into the session bringing out the first of many red flags. Q1 already saw some close calls and an early exit from seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton who was clearing struggling with his Mercedes. The dangerous conditions only continued as qualifying went on.
“That car was undriveable”. – Lewis Hamilton during qualifying
The second red flag was caused by Carlos Sainz occurred when he lost control of his Ferrari, thus colliding with the barriers.
Qualifying restarted. With seconds remaining on the Q2 clock, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was next to hit the wall, resulting in a red flag.
This was controversial as there was a delay in it being shown by the stewards. The timing of this red flag saw both red bulls knocked out of qualifying- Perez qualifying 13th and Verstappen 12th. This would change in due course and left Verstappen starting 17th as he served his 5-place grid penalty due to a power-unit replacement on his Red Bull.
The remaining ten were left to battle it out in Q3 as the weather conditions started to worsen. Soon enough the red flags were out again as the second Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso spun out.
With just over 3 minutes remaining of qualifying the session was stopped again, with the fifth and final red flag being waved for Alex Albon who’s Williams was severely damaged after a big moment at turn 1.
Qualifying resumed for the final few minutes and the grid took a different form than usual. Norris claimed pole which was promising for him as his championship rival was due to start all the back in 17th. Russell lined up alongside Norris in P2, despite the sister Mercedes of Hamilton starting outside the top 10 in P14. Taking the third spot with his highest ever start was Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda, following him was Esteban Ocon putting his Alpine in an unlikely fourth position. Rounding off the top 5 was Liam Lawson and further down the grid Albon was set to start 7th. However, due to outstanding damages to his car he would not take part in the race leaving his grid spot empty. Carlos Sainz started in the pit-lane after recovery from damaged caused earlier in the day.
Wet and wild race
Only hours after qualifying the race was due to start, a wet track and more rain on its way set up for an exciting race to come.
The cars set off on the formation lap but before they could even complete it Lance Stroll spun off and beached his car. This then lead to an aborted start, meaning all mechanics are allowed back onto the track to reset the cars for a second formation lap. However, this caused confusion for some of the drivers who instead of remaining in their grid spots, moved off and completed another lap. Pole sitter Norris along with Russell, Tsunoda, Lawson and Leclerc were all noted for a starting-procedure infringement.
With this initial delay the rain started just in time for lights out.
Lap 1 saw George Russell overtake Lando Norris at the first corner. Perez having a spin, knocked himself down to 18th. Verstappen and Hamilton gained positions. By lap 10 Verstappen showed his strength and had already passed Oscar Piastri for P7.
Leclerc was the first to pit for a new set of intermediate tyres however an early move from Ferrari was detrimental as the rain only got heavier a few laps later. This spell of heavy rain saw Hulkenberg off the track which resulted in a Virtual Safety Car. The majority of the grid took this as an opportunity to pit. Russell and Norris pitted just as the VSC ended which was also detrimental to their race. After this series of pit stops Ocon was leading the grand prix with Verstappen close behind in second.
On lap 32 Colapinto crashed and brought out a red flag stopping the race all together and benefitting those who had not yet pitted. This meant Ocon, Verstappen and Gasly got a “free pit stop” by changing their tyres under the red flag.
The race restarted as a rolling-start and saw Ocon lead Verstappen, with Norris and Russell still battling for position behind. Not long after the safety car was deployed due to a Carlos Sainz crash. Only 2 laps later the safety car ends and Verstappen then takes the lead into turn 1.
From then on Verstappen sailed ahead of the pack and came home to take a victory with a 19-second lead. The current world champion went from P17 to claiming the win, taking maximum points on race day. Verstappen showed his experience this weekend as he became only the fifth driver starting 17th or lower to go onto win.
Alpine filled the other 2 podium positions with Esteban Ocon finishing 2nd and Pierre Gasly in 3rd. A successful Brazilian grand prix allowed Alpine to move up to 6th in the constructor’s championship and if they can hold onto this the team would receive an extra $50 million.
The 2 hour and 30 minute long race finally came to an end after a washed out weekend. Much success for some and very little for others. It was a bad day at the office for Lando Norris who only managed 7th place after starting on pole, which will prove to be crucial regarding the championship battle. Max Verstappen has now stretched his lead sitting 62 points ahead of the McLaren driver with only 3 races remaining. Verstappen can be crowned world champion at the next race in Las Vegas in 3 weeks time if all goes his way.
