Sunday Debrief: Verstappen wins a chaotic São Paulo Grand Prix from P17

Verstappen put in an excellent recovery drive to go from P17 to the lead at Interlagos, in a race plagued with red flags and safety cars. Verstappen holding the lead in the championship with 3 races left to go this season.

 

Sprint

McLaren locked out the front row for the sprint, led by Piastri. Leclerc and Russell occupying the second row. In the other Mercedes, Hamilton failed to make it out of the second session once again in this tripleheader Bearman taking over for Magnussen this weekend, who was recovering from illness, lining up the Haas in P10.

 

After a disastrous qualifying, with all 3 drivers failing to make it out of SQ1, Zhou, Alonso and Stroll started the race from the pitlane.

 

Going into turn 1, Piastri held onto the lead, keeping his teammate behind. Piastri staying in the lead for a majority of the race, up until the closing stages. Hulkenberg brought out the yellow flag after he stopped his Haas with exhaust issues, McLaren with threats from behind after Verstappen moved up into P3 on lap 19 after going down the inside of Leclerc.

 

With Norris in a championship battle with Verstappen, McLaren played the team game and switched their drivers, cautious of a potential safety car. The move proving to be the right one, with the Virtual Safety Car coming out on lap 21. With a few corners left in the race, the VSC period ended on lap 22, leaving Piastri to defend of Verstappen.

 

As they crossed the line, Norris took victory, as Piastri fends off Verstappen to cross the line in P2.

 

Qualifying

With wet conditions on Saturday, qualifying was postponed and moved to Sunday a few hours ahead of the GP. the conditions remaining wet as the cars entered the track ready for qualifying.

Hamilton’s weekend went from bad to worse when he failed to make it out of Q1, Hamilton expressing dissatisfaction with the car over the weekend. Colapinto crashed out of Q1 bringing out the red flag, with Colapinto qualifying P19, ahead of Hulkenberg and Zhou and behind Bearman and Hamilton.

 

Sainz was first to bring the red flag in Q2 after he put his Ferrari into the barrier, the session resumed moments later, but Stroll was next to bring out the red flag in the final minute of the session with no plants to continue bringing an end to qualifying for Bottas, Verstappen, Perez, Sainz and Gasly. Verstappen qualifying P12 but dropping to P17 with the 5-place grid penalty for taking a new power unit.

 

In Q3, Norris took pole, for the race, followed by Russell. Tsunoda and Ocon taking the second row, followed by Lawson and Leclerc on the third row, Albon and Piastri sharing the fourth row and the two Aston Martins led by Alonso to conclude the top 10.

 

Race

Chaos started from the formation lap onwards, after Stroll locked his rears and beached his Aston Martin on the formation lap. The race start was aborted, many of the drivers confused by the aborted start as Norris on pole, led many drivers on for another lap, those drivers being investigated after the race for start procedure infringement. Under the aborted start, Albon made his exit from the race, retiring his Williams.

 

After a short delay the race was finally underway, Russell coming from P2 to take the lead of the race with a stronger launch off the line. Meanwhile, from behind Verstappen was climbing up the grid from P17.

 

The VSC was brought out on lap 27, when Hulkenberg beached his Haas, the VSC period ending on lap 29, Russell and Norris missing out on a cheap pit stop as they came into pit just as the Virtual Safety Car period came to end. With more rain spraying the track, the red flag was eventually called out a few laps later on lap 32, following a crash from Colapinto.

 

With Norris and Russell compromised in the race, Ocon led from Verstappen and his teammate Gasly when the race resumed. The safety car was brought out once again on lap 40 for Sainz who went into the barrier. Following the safety car period, Verstappen surged his way back into the lead and won the race in a unforgettable drive from P17.

Ocon held onto his position behind Verstappen to lead both the Alpine drivers to the podium. A dream finish for Alpine with a first double podium, as the constructor jumped from ninth to sixth in the championship standing.