Formula One - Max dominated in a brilliant Brazilian weekend

A frantic dry to wet race with thrills, spills and plenty of hefty bills for all teams - Brazil delivered as it always does for a chaotic Formula One race weekend.

PRE WEEKEND NOTES

Max Verstappen took a five-place grid penalty as the Red Bull team decided to put a new internal combustion engine in the championship leader's car.

Rumours in the paddock that Flavio Briatore and Alpine have been keeping a keen eye on Franco Colapinto, even though Doohan has already been signed to the second seat for 2025.

SPRINT QUALIFYING

All three sprint qualifying sessions were rather calm this weekend, with a standout performance for Aston Martin, however not a positive one unfortunately, as their reversion to the Suzuka specification did not aid their pace at all.

Out in SQ1: Alonso, Ocon, Tsunoda, Stroll, Zhou

Out in SQ2: Hamilton, Hulkenberg, Perez, Colapinto, Bottas

Top 10: Piastri, Norris, Leclerc, Verstappen, Sainz, Russell, Gasly, Lawson, Albon, Bearman

Photo: Sam Bioxham/Motorsport Images

SPRINT RACE

Alonso and Zhou both started from the pitlane after making setup adjustments under parc fermé.

As the lights went out it was Piastri with the better start as he held the lead throughout lap one, meanwhile Verstappen struggled to get past Leclerc for multiple laps as Norris tactically dropped back to give the Ferrari driver DRS. Verstappen finally got past Leclerc on lap seventeen of the sprint race as it became clear that Lando Norris needed to get past Piastri to maximise his points result.

On lap twenty Nico Hulkenberg suffered an engine failure which caused him to come to a stop in the final sector. Crucially McLaren made the position swap before a virtual safety car came out that would last until the final lap.

On the virtual safety car restart Max Verstappen went too early and was later given a five second penalty for being under the minimum delta when the VSC ended. This meant the final points paying results of the Sprint race were:

Norris, Piastri, Leclerc, Verstappen, Sainz, Russell, Gasly, Perez

QUALIFYING

Qualifying was postponed due to extreme wet conditions on Saturday night and was moved to Sunday morning. If the session ran without any delays this would leave the team with just over three hours to prep the cars before the race began.

Qualifying one got off to a smashing start as the Williams rookie Franco Colapinto found the wall causing the first of many red flags across the main-race qualifying sessions.

Out in Q1: Hamilton, Bearman, Colapinto, Hulkenberg, Zhou

Photo: Getty Images

Qualifying two was equally as treacherous as the Ferrari of Sainz found the wall coming through turn one and two to cause the first red flag of the session. With just one minute and thirty-seven seconds remaining Lance Stroll crashed coming through turn three, it took forty seconds for a red flag to be called which many fans (especially Verstappen supporters) found controversial, however it was proven that Verstappen would have been out of the session even if an immediate red flag procedure was followed.

Out in Q2: Bottas, Verstappen, Perez, Sainz, Gasly

Qualifying three saw two more red flag crashes as Alonso found the barrier first coming around the penultimate corner and Albon wrecked his Williams coming into turn one. This late red flag would see Lando Norris take a crucial pole position whilst his title rival would be starting seventeenth. 

Top 10: Norris, Russell, Tsunoda, Ocon, Lawson, Leclerc, Albon, Piastri, Stroll

PRE RACE NOTES Sainz started from the pitlane after he changed the power unit and gearbox due to the damage sustained from the crash in qualifying two. The Williams team decided that Albon’s car would be unable to be repaired before the race start, and decided to focus on preparing Colapinto’s car ready to go to the grid, forcing Albon to take an early exit.

Photo: racefans.net/XPB Images

RACE

On the formation lap Lance Stroll suffered from rear brake locking coming into turn four and would beach himself in the gravel trying to rejoin the circuit, this led to a messy aborted start procedure as many cars pulled away from the grid before being instructed to start a second formation lap. Finally Stroll’s car was fully recovered and the race was started with two laps taken off of the race distance.

As the lights went out George Russell had an excellent start compared to pole-sitter Lando Norris, and led into turn one in a possibly crucial hit to Norris’s title hopes. Perez spun on his own on lap one and fell to the bottom of the running order. By lap three the rain had begun in sector three, meanwhile Max Verstappen had found his way from seventeenth on the grid to ninth by the start of lap four.

Verstappen continued his charge up the order, overtaking Alonso for eighth on lap six and then Piastri for seventh on lap ten. Meanwhile, Ollie Bearman was given a ten-second time penalty for causing a collision with Franco Colapinto, even though the Williams suffered no damage and Ollie Bearman subsequently spun from the contact. 

Max Verstappen found himself unable to pass the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc for multiple laps until the Ferrari driver became the first to pit for new intermediate tyres on lap twenty-five. At the same time it was revealed that both the Mercedes cars were under investigation for making adjustments to the tire pressures whilst the tires were still attached to the car on the grid. Just a few laps later Piastri was given a ten-second penalty for causing a collision with Liam Lawson at turn one. 

Norris managed to finally find his way past George Russell after both cars had boxed for new intermediate tyres, shortly after this move the safety car was called due to the worsening rain conditions. Under this safety car Franco Colapinto had a major crash coming down the front straight which totalled his freshly rebuilt Williams and caused a red flag. Crucially this allowed for the leaders to take fresh intermediate tyres during the red-flag period. This would mean upon the restart Ocon would be in the lead with Max Verstappen starting in an unprecedented second place. During the red flag there was drama for the Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg as it was found that he had been helped by the marshals when he was beached in turn one, he was disqualified from the race for receiving outside assistance. 

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

The FIA decided that the restart would be a rolling restart, on the second green flag lap, both Bearman and Zhou spun off track at the final corner before the race had resumed. Max Verstappen got past Esteban Ocon into turn one and began to extend his lead, Lando Norris also ran deep into turn one and lost position to both Russell and Piastri. Piastri would be asked to let him through to try and minimise the points loss to Max Verstappen who won the race by over twenty seconds.

The end results saw Max Verstappen take the win by over twenty seconds ahead of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, in a redemption weekend for Alpine who climbed from ninth to sixth in the constructors championship. Russell, Leclerc and Norris followed while Norris’s title chances minimised rapidly. The rest of the top ten were Piastri, Tsunoda, Lawson and Hamilton.

DRIVER OF THE RACE

Max Verstappen, without a doubt, starting seventeenth to finishing with a twenty second lead, even with the help of a red flag is an incredible achievement. He was one of very few drivers who made no mistakes during the race, while maximising his race to put one hand firmly on the drivers championship trophy.

FLOP OF THE RACE

Williams had a horrific weekend as they suffered three major crashes across both cars. With no points brought home to help in the constructors championship and what is rumoured to be over four million dollars in damages.

LOOKING AHEAD TO BRAZIL

We now enter another three week break before the final triple header of the season. Qatar is the sixth and final sprint-weekend, and the teams and fans will hope for a less chaotic race than last year when the Pirelli tyres forced teams to pit every seventeen laps. Lando Norris now has an almost insurmountable gap to Max Verstappen in the drivers championship and will need to win every race and sprint to maximise his chances of taking his maiden championship.