CHAOS, RED FLAGS AND A WISE HEAD AS VERSTAPPEN REIGNS IN BRAZIL

It only goes to show how nature still has it over technology.

As the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend began it looked like another McLaren 1-2, while the Oracle Red Bull Racing team were close to each other on the time sheets, but alarmingly behind the papaya pair. Ferrari were also in the mix while Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 struggled for grip.

Norris led home Piastri in the sprint after his teammate moved aside just before the rain came. The pair finished 1-2 with Verstappen 3rd for a while. A latter Stewards investigation demoted the championship leader from the podium, handing another couple of points in favour of his British rival.

That rain changed the course of history.

First, it brought about the cancellation of Saturday qualifying. That saw cars take to the track just after 7.30am on Sunday morning for qualifying.

Cars juggled grip and rain squalls as they sought to remain in contention during the three-part qualifying session. First wets, then intermediates became the order of the day, with cars lined up around three minutes prior to the start of each session. The aim of the game was to optimise the better track conditions before more rain arrived.

Oscar Piastri had been the trailblazer in making the intermediate tyres work and, at one stage held almost a two-second gap to the rest of the field. That prompted Norris to do likewise as he stormed to the top of the leaderboard. Piastri held third until the final moments of Q3 when a lock up at Turn 1 ruined his lap. That saw the Australian fall to eighth for the race.

He wasn’t alone. Neither Max Verstappen nor Sergio Perez made it through to Q3 after a crash for Lance Stroll was followed by a forty-second delay before the red flag was shown. That saw Norris, who had been ahead of Stroll, leapfrog to the top of the field. Conversely Verstappen and Perez were behind the Aston Martin and were unable to finish their final lap at speed.

Franco Colapinto, Stroll and Carlos Sainz all had hefty accidents during the session, which left their respective teams just over three hours to complete some extensive repairs.

Somehow, all made it to the starting grid, with Sainz at the pitlane exit.

Lance Stroll’s race ended on the formation lap when he spun at Turn 4, tapped the wall and then rolled to a halt in the gravel trap. The red flag was shown with the race temporarily aborted.

That led to chaos on the start line. Pole sitter Lando Norris set out on a second formation lap as marshals still worked to recover the Aston Martin. Six other cars followed as the orange lights flashed from the overhead gantry. Max Verstappen was well versed on the restart procedure and stayed in his grid position whilst radioing through a complaint to his engineer.

It set in play a series of unfortunate moments which ultimately ruined the day for Norris and brought Verstappen within reach of another F1 World Championship crown.

“Yeah, this mess was caused from the front,” Verstappen’s engineer replied.

“We’re just trying to unpick it. You did everything right.”

When the race finally got underway it was George Russell who made the better start. He headed Norris, Tsunoda, Ocon, Leclerc, Lawson, Piastri and Alonso. The latter pair each tried unsuccessfully to move past the Kiwi rookie, who staunchly defended his ground. Verstappen was up seven places in the opening lap, while teammate Perez went the other way after a spin nearing the end of the first lap.

Russell and Norris raced away from Tsunoda in third, with Ocon and Leclerc similarly gapped as the water spray made close pursuits difficult. Lawson had created somewhat of a bottleneck as Piastri and Alonso took a cautious approach to the young driver ahead.

That aided the charging Verstappen. He closed and passed all three within the subsequent ten laps, moving from seventeenth to sixth, just behind Leclerc.

The parochial Brazilian crowd had been treated to a Lewis Hamilton led Senna tribute earlier in the afternoon, but now turned their attention to South American driver Colapinto, who overtook Hamilton for twelfth on lap 12. It was an excellent comeback from another rookie after his crash in qualifying a few hours earlier.

Though it was soon to end in a race defining moment for Norris and Verstappen.

As the rain became more pronounced, Ferrari rolled the dice and pitted Leclerc for another set of intermediate tyres on Lap 25. It was a rather perplexing decision given the advice of even heavier rain on the horizon.

The rain did intensify with Hulkenberg the first to feel the effects. He slid off the racing surface at Turn 1 on Lap 28 as Norris looked to mount a challenge for the lead. Double yellow flags waved as the Virtual Safety Car was called.

Piastri and Alonso were the first to stop in what was thought at the time to be a master stroke of strategy and good fortune for the pair.

Ocon, Verstappen and Gasly chose otherwise and stayed out to inherit a track position at the head of the field.

When Franco Colapinto crashed heavily on the approach to the front straight on Lap 32 it placed the Verstappen and the two Alpine drivers in a commanding position.

A red flag was waved with debris littering the racing line at the final corner.

As the wrecked Williams was collected and the track cleared, team were able to change tyres. That gifted the leading trio a free pitstop and consolidated their places at the head of the field. It also enabled four marshals to free the stranded Haas of Hulkenberg, though it was to no avail. Race Stewards disqualified the German driver for the outside assistance.

Ocon led Verstappen, Gasly and Norris as the race recommenced on Lap 34. Piastri found himself behind a VCARB once more, though this time it was Tsunoda. Piastri was soon ahead and in search of Leclerc in sixth. Norris had dropped a place to Russell and sat just ahead of the Ferrari as Ocon and Verstappen gapped third places Gasly by four-and-a-half seconds.

The race had only run six laps before another Safety Car rolled out onto the track after another crash for Sainz. It gave the Spaniard a rather unwanted statistic in joining Colapinto and Stroll in having two crashes on race day.

Verstappen snared the race lead from Ocon just moments after the race resumed. Conditions had not improved and the combination of water and cold tyres caught out Alonso, who spun in Sector 3.  Norris and Russell ran wide at Turn 1 and dropped to seventh and fifth respectively. Piastri duly followed team orders and let Norris pass soon after.

The Oracle Red Bull Racing #1 drove away from Ocon by the tune of 8.8 seconds by Lap 57. Meanwhile his teammate Sergio Perez resumed hostilities with Liam Lawson, his rumoured replacement in 2025. The pair touched as Perez looked to move ahead with Lawson immediately relaying that contact had been made to his team. That dropped Perez back into the clutches of Hamilton in a battle for tenth place.

Verstappen took the win and with it clenched one hand firmly on the F1 World Championship trophy. Ocon and Gasly completed the podium in a much needed show of support for the struggling Alpine team. The result moved the team up to sixth in the Constructor’s Championship earning an extra fifty-million dollars for the team.

Russell, Leclerc, Norris, Tsunoda, Piastri, Lawson and Hamilton completed the Top 10.

“It’s been a long time coming mate, but boy it was worth the wait. You are the man,” Verstappen’s engineer radioed to his driver.

“Ohh, Yes, ahha,” Verstappen yelled back. “What an unbelievable race guys. You know what that is… Jet clean, lovely. I tell you that!”

“He was in a league of his own,” Team principal said later of his star driver and few could argue.

“Oh what a race guys!” Ocon told his crew. “We didn’t think we were going to be there right?”

“Funnily enough, I didn’t think so no,” came the team’s reply.

Photos: F1 FB

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