São Paulo, Brazil – It was a performance of a World Champion in São Paulo as Max rose from 17th on the grid at the start to claim an incredible eighth victory of the season at the end of a hugely dramatic, unpredictable torrential rain race at the Interlagos Circuit. Checo Pérez, meanwhile, finished in P11, narrowly losing out on points in the closing stages of a bruising race in a chaotic midfield.
At the start, Russell got away first , and on the run to Turn 1, he took the lead ahead of Norris. Behind the top two, Tsunoda held third, ahead of Ocon and Leclerc, who got past RB’s Liam Lawson.
Further back, Max made a super start from P17 due to a grid penalty, and as the field exited the Senna S, he had managed to charge through to 11th place behind Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton. There was no stopping the champion’s charge, however, and at the start of lap 2, he dived down the inside of the Mercedes to snatch P10.
There was trouble for Checo though. The Mexican got away slowly and was passed by Max in the opening corners. And on lap 2, spun midway through the lap and dropped back to P17.
Max was on a march though. After picking off Pierre Gasly’s Alpine at the start of lap 3, he muscled his way past Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso on the following lap. He then chased down Oscar Piastri and, on lap 10, launched a superbly controlled attack down the inside to power past the Australian into Turn 1. VCARB’s Liam Lawson was the champion’s next target, and on lap 11, he eased past the New Zealander in Turn 8 to claim sixth place.
At the front, on lap 20, Russell still led, just under a second ahead of Norris. Eight seconds behind the top two, Tsunoda headed a DRS train consisting of Ocon, Leclerc and Max. Being bottled up in sixth was costing the champion time and he was now almost 12 seconds off the lead.
On lap 55, Checo attacked Lawson, but though the Minister got the inside line into Turn 1 and drew alongside, the New Zealander refused to back out and there was brief contact. The VCARB driver managed to hold ninth, and in Turn 4, Checo went wide and Hamilton snuck through to bounce the Red Bull out of the points.
In the closing stages, Max took complete control, and after punching in a sequence of fastest laps that earned him a bonus point, the Dutchman crossed the line almost 20 seconds clear of the chasing pack to take a simply stunning eighth win of the season and his first since the Spanish Grand Prix in June.
“That was a master class today,” said Team Principal Christian Horner. “In those conditions, the driver’s skill really comes to the fore, and Max was in a league of his own. As a team, we got all the calls right, and the car had great pace. So, an outstanding drive to come from 17th this morning. It felt like everything had gone against us, but he turned it round. An incredible performance from him and one of his very best, absolutely.”
Max Verstappen, taking his 8th win of the season, said “My emotions today have been a rollercoaster, with qualifying being really unlucky with that red flag. Starting P17, 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”
Sergio Pérez, said “We were always on the wrong side of things today, we never got a lucky decision at any point. Starting with very cold tyres, and then pitting a couple of laps before the red flag. We started to make progress after, but it just wasn’t enough today. On top of the conditions this weekend which made everything difficult, passing was tricky throughout.”