It was a whale of a weekend for Max Verstappen and Red Bull Honda. As for Pierre Gasly? He took the first podium of his career.
INTERLAGOS, Brazil—Sunday, November 17th—Max Verstappen had a wonderful weekend at the Brazilian Grand Prix, taking the pole position and enjoying many fast laps. But on Sunday, the Dutchman had to endure Lewis Hamilton, two Ferraris colliding, and two safety car periods to take revenge from last year’s race when he was hit while leading the race. Verstappen won this time by a little over six seconds, beating Pierre Gasly, who finished second for the first podium of his career. Gasly edged out Hamilton, who took third.
Max Verstappen: Lewis (Hamilton) was very quick, so I had to keep pushing and all the time. He pitted early, so we had to be on top of our pitstops. It was a lot of fun out there and great to win the race.
Gasly, who had his best finish last year in Bahrain, could not keep his emotions. “This is my first podium in F1, and, for sure, I will never forget it. It’s such a special moment–so emotional,” said Gasly. “Toro Rosso have given me such a fantastic car. It’s an amazing day. I’m just so happy. I was praying for the engine to give everything it had. Without Honda, that would not have been possible.”
For Hamilton, he came up short but felt bad about his collision with Albon, which could have given him a penalty for his actions. “Max (Verstappen) did a great job,” Hamilton said, “he was very fair the way he positioned the car. Massive apologies to Albon–the gap was there, but it was completely my fault.”
Lewis Hamilton: They (Red Bull) did a fantastic job. They outperformed us on the straights. We threw the kitchen sink at it. We could keep up through the corners but, on the straights, I don’t think there was anything we could do.
Verstappen led most of the race, and only lost it when he pitted twice. Verstappen led Hamilton by just under two seconds early on. Hamilton complained to his team that he was not getting enough power to pass the Red Bull driver. Verstappen was nearly eliminated from the top of the grid. But an unsafe release in the pits from Williams’ pilot Robert Kubica gave the Pole a penalty, saving Verstappen from failure.
With fresh tires, Verstappen regained the lead again and increased his gap to 2.6 seconds on Lap 31 only to lose it by 1.9 seconds by Lap 50. But Hamilton caught a break three laps later when his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas, who was the only retirement of the race, pulled off the track at the Senna S with an oil issue. That brought out the safety car for the first time with the race resuming 12 laps from the end. Hamilton had a chance to pass the Dutchman on the restart, but Verstappen was waiting and passed the Briton with Alex Albon in third.
A few laps later, both Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc collided going down the back straight, shedding both of their tires and putting both out of the race. That incident brought out the second and final safety car period.
When the safety car period ended, only three laps remained, and Verstappen moved even further out in front–as Hamilton, who had just pitted, threatened Albon for second. But Hamilton’s left front wing caught the Thai and spun Albon around, throwing him down to 16th place and out of contention.
Hamilton regained his composure but, by that time, Gasly, who had been up front all day, passed Hamilton for second and–by the end–edged out the Briton for second. Further up the road, Verstappen took the checkered flag to get revenge from last season when he was hit while leading by the lapped car of Esteban Ocon.
Starting from 20th and last, Carlos Sainz Jr. defied all problems to finish fourth, while both Alfa Romeos of Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi took fifth and sixth, respectively. Daniel Ricciardo, who was penalized early on for striking Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen, rebounded to finish seventh. Lando Norris gave double points for McLaren by taking eighth. Sergio Perez and Dani Kvyat rounded out the top ten.
Verstappen was overjoyed, but also confident, because he knew his car was very good. “I was behind, so I was pushing flat out on my out lap,” he asserted. “I was close into the DRS, and we knew we had great top speed the whole weekend.” And, for sure, he did.
