After 69 laps, defending World Champion Max Verstappen from Red Bull Racing won round 21 of this year’s Formula One season, which took place Sunday in Interlagos, Brazil at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace.
Verstappen returned to the top of the podium after 11 rounds and took his eighth victory of the season, the 62nd of his career.
“You know what that is? Simply lovely,” Verstappen said on the radio after his victory. “I knew that it was going to be a very tough race, but we stayed out of trouble, we made the right calls, we stayed calm and we were fine. All of these things together of course made that result possible. I mean, unbelievable to win here from so far back.”
Verstappen started the race at the back of the grid in P17, qualifying P12 the morning after a red flag prevented him from setting a faster time. He took the lead in lap 43 and held it until the end. He finished ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon in P2 by 19.477 seconds. Apart from finishing P1 and earning 25 points, Verstappen also took an extra point for setting the fastest lap of the race with a time of 1:20:47.2 seconds.
McLaren’s Lando Norris, who had qualified on pole position, finished P6 after losing the position in the first corner and encountering a number of issues during the race, including driving his car off the road multiple times due to the slippery road.
The qualifying session this weekend was held on Sunday just hours before the race, after its original time on Saturday was canceled due to heavy rain. The rain continued during the race, which had a delayed start and had its length reduced from 71 to 69 maps. Due to the rain, the entire event was raced on intermediate and wet tires only. Five cars did not cross the finish line due to accidents, with dozens of yellow flags deployed and a red flag being called on lap 32.
After this weekend, which also held a shorter Sprint Race that Norris won, the gap between him and Verstappen widened to 62 points. With only three races remaining, Verstappen could win his fourth title as soon as the upcoming race in Las Vegas in three week’s time if he finishes far enough ahead of Norris, his alleged championship challenger.
Pole-sitter Norris was unhappy about the result, believing the red flag that permitted Verstappen to change tires without losing time mid-race to have been unnecessary.
“It’s not talent,” Norris told interviewers. “It’s just luck.”
He himself had pitted for new tires a few laps before the red flag and had lost various positions to Verstappen because of it. After the race restarted, he was unable to regain sufficient places to reduce the point-gap.
Sunday’s race was held in Brazil, the home country of F1 legend and three-time World Champion Ayrton Senna, who passed away after a crash 30 years ago in 1994. Among his many accolades, he was nicknamed ‘Rain Master’ and ‘King of Rain’ in his time. Led by retired World Champion Sebastian Vettel, this year’s grid paid tribute to Senna on Friday by gathering in a giant replica of his iconic yellow helmet created by Vettel and the Instituto Ayrton Senna.
Round 22 of the 2024 season will take place at 12 a.m. on Monday Nov. 24 at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit.
