Anything can happen in Formula One, as they say, and today was one of those days where a lot did happen. Yes, Max Verstappen won from pole – that was to be expected – but Pierre Gasly finished second in a Toro Rosso! It was a crazy race indeed.
Off the start, Verstappen covered Sebastian Vettel going into turn 1 with Lewis Hamilton managing to squeeze around the outside of the Ferrari to take second place.
Further behind, Charles Leclerc, having started fourteenth due to a grid penalty, was very aggressive in his overtakes but was clinical and so moved up the field in no time at all.
Hamilton was the first to pit on lap 21 onto another set of the soft compound tyres, committing himself to a two-stop strategy.
This left Red Bull with no other choice but to pit Verstappen the following lap and he too went onto another set of the soft compound tyres.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing in the pits for Verstappen though. The Red Bull mechanics did all they could, changing the tyres in just 1.9 seconds.
However, this advantage was lost when Williams released Robert Kubica right into Verstappen’s path. Kubica was awarded a five-second time penalty for this.
Taking the positives from the situation, though, it did allow an on-track battle between Verstappen and Hamilton. Verstappen overtook the Brit up the inside into turn 1, before forcing Hamilton to the outside heading into turn 4, holding onto the lead.
The gap between the two stayed relatively the same for the next 20 laps or so before Hamilton came into the pits for the second and final time.
Verstappen made his stop next time round and it was another superb 1.9 second pit stop from Red Bull, which meant that Verstappen came out in front of the Mercedes when he exited the pits.
Another battle developing was that between Charles Leclerc and Valtteri Bottas. Bottas was closing up to the Ferrari on the main straight but just wasn’t brave enough to try a move into turn 1.
That said, Leclerc was defending brilliantly so that Bottas wasn’t able to get past.
Bottas’ race didn’t last for much longer after that as his car began to smoke and then lose power to force his retirement from the race.
A safety car was brought out soon afterwards by surprise but it was later revealed that Bottas had taken his steering wheel off the car but had left it in full lock so the marshals struggled to get it back behind the barriers, hence the safety car.
Verstappen pitted under the safety car with Hamilton staying out, having been told to do the opposite to what Verstappen did.
12 laps were left in the race when the green flag was waved and Verstappen got a good run on Hamilton off the restart, lining an overtake up around the outside of the Mercedes through turn 1 before executing it up the inside into turn 2.
Hamilton then tried to get back at Verstappen but thought better of going around the outside of turn 4.
With six laps to go, another safety car was brought out after the two Ferraris made contact, causing terminal damage.
It was the slightest of touches as Vettel came across to try and block Leclerc but it resulted in a double DNF for the Scuderia.
Bizarrely, Hamilton pitted under the safety car despite there being a threat of no green flag racing if the safety car went on for several laps.
He came out behind not only Alexander Albon but Pierre Gasly as well and was now running in fourth position.
With two laps to go, the safety car period ended and all hell broke loose.
Gasly was immediately overtaken by Lewis Hamilton into turn 1, which seemed to have ended hopes of a dream podium for the Frenchman.
However, later on in the lap, Hamilton tried to overtake Albon but the two made contact and Albon was sent spinning around. This promoted Gasly to second position!
In the final few hundred metres of the race, Pierre Gasly won the drag race between himself and Hamilton for the line to claim second position and his first podium in Formula One.
Hamilton finished third on the track but was later given a five-second time penalty for causing the collision with Albon and so Carlos Sainz was promoted to the final podium place, his first in F1.
After his fantastic result, Gasly said, “It’s my first podium in Formula One and, for sure, I will never forget it. That’s what I love about motorsport, the emotions and the fights.”
It definitely was a great day for Formula One with an action-packed Brazilian Grand Prix. The record books may say that Verstappen won from pole but that certainly was not the full story.
The final race of the season takes place at the Yas Marina Circuit with the traditionally anti-climactic Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in a fortnight’s time.
Classification (as of 7am Monday)
1: Max Verstappen: 1:33:14.678: 25pts
2: Pierre Gasly: +6.077s: 18pts
3: Carlos Sainz: +8.896s: 15pts
4: Kimi Raikkonen: +9.452s: 12pts
5: Antonio Giovinazzi: +10.201s: 10pts
6: Lewis Hamilton: +11.139s: 8pts
7: Lando Norris: +11.204s: 6pts
8: Sergio Perez: +11.529s: 4pts
9: Daniil Kvyat: +11.931s: 2pts
10: Kevin Magnussen: +12.732s: 1pt
11: George Russell: +13.599s
12: Romain Grosjean: +14.247s
13: Alexander Albon: +14.927s
14: Daniel Ricciardo: +15.541s
15: Nico Hulkenberg: +18.059s
16: Robert Kubica: +1 lap
Non-finishers:
Lance Stroll
Sebastian Vettel
Charles Leclerc
Valtteri Bottas
anon
Roar Pro
I agree with Vettel being to blame but how many times do we see drivers get away with being far more aggressive than Vettel. It seems like every time he does something aggressive it goes bad in the worst way. What Leclerc did to Norris early in the race was more aggressive but he’s lucky that Norris swerved out of the way. Ricciardo dive bombs Magnusson and still finishes with a solid points haul (for a Renault). I think it’s fair to say that RBR haven’t provided a great car for Verstappen. On the other hand, if RBR was the best On the grid over an entire season, I think Verstappen would completely dominate the sport and we’d eventually complain about how boring it is to see Verstappen win 20 races. With reliability like it is and the move to 25 races, Max can put up some scary numbers.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Agree to disagree there Ben. I'm not saying that this was on a par with Germany - that was better but this was probably the second or third best GP of the season.
Ben Waterworth
Roar Guru
I agree with your Vettel comment. I think a lot gets lost on him "making mistakes" which 95% of the time I think is unfair. Your examples are spot on. Compare that to Hamilton, who I swear is the luckiest driver in the history of F1. Admittedly I think Vettel was in the wrong for this incident (very reminiscent of Turkey 2010) but as you mentioned, terrible luck for that amount of damage to happen for such a small touch
Ben Waterworth
Roar Guru
My viewpoint has nothing to do with the drivers I was following. I genuinely thought the middle section was lackluster. Yeah I get the strategy was interesting and I enjoy that, but I think people are talking this up like it's on par with what we saw in Germany and I think the difference is that was one of the rare races that come around every 3 or 4 years and is full of incredible action and you'll remember for a long time. This one was about 35% great, 40% meh and 25% bleh
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
1. Max Verstappen is a great talent and I think Hamilton cannot keep up with him even though he knows how to battle him having done so for many races over the past two years. Hamilton is an arrogant, self-absorbed idiot of a racing driver who only cares about himself and doesn't like it when things aren't going his way and that is why I do not think he is the greatest F1 driver of all time. (Senna is in my opinion by the way.) 2. Max overtook Lewis twice in that race and both overtakes were clinical and perfect. Given the right machinery (and do not take this as a negative against Red Bull because they have supplied Max with a relatively competitive car this year but not across the whole season) and Max can definitely become a world champion. It's just a case of wait-and-see - Max has got plenty of time left (remember Lewis didn't start F1 until he was 22, Max has already completed 100 grand prix). 3. Vettel didn't help himself I'm afraid. He didn't need to move over. And all those examples you provide (Vettel in Monza 2018 and Suzuka 2018) were entirely Vettel's fault, coming from over-aggressive driving. I think you'll find that Vettel caused the accident in Singapore 2017 contrary to your opinion - he moved over, squeezing his teammate (and Max) and sending all three of them out of the race! Over-aggressive driving yet again from frustration stemming from the fact that he hasn't won a world championship at Ferrari.
anon
Roar Pro
I thought it was an incredible race. Verstappen will eventually find himself in a dominant car like Hamilton has had since 2014 and he'll smash every record in the book. He doesn't just beat teammates he destroys. Hamilton has never really done that. The high point of his career was probably against Alonso in 2007. I don't think he's ever really evolved. Just listen to his constant whining, complaining, panicking on the radio throughout the race (or any race where he doesn't have a huge car advantage). Max on other hand was just in complete control of the race and his emotions throughout. You would have thought that he was the 6 time champion. Kubica getting in his way in the pits didn't rattle him, restarts executed flawlessly. Give Verstappen a dominant car like Hamilton has had and Verstappen will win 19 races in a 22 race season. The only thing that can stop him is reliability or bad luck. I'm going to say that Vettel is one of the unluckiest drivers going around. The slightest of touches causes a double DNF. Leclerc early in the race aggressively swerved into Norris and nothing came of it. Leclerc pushed Hamilton off the track in Monza and nothing came of it, Verstappen hung Leclerc out to dry in Austria nothing came of it. Hamilton punts Albon off the circuit and get some minor front wing damage. Think back to last year and the slightest touches in Monza sends Vettel spinning, sends him spinning in Suzuka, Singapore 2017 was pinned on Vettel but I thought Kimi was more to blame.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
I think we will see the race in completely different ways because all your drivers crashed/retired while mine flourished and got onto the podium. The middle of the grand prix is always strategy and this was no exception - the excitement was the strategy. You may have had a different perspective because you were following Lance. I needed that result and that race to brighten my spirits after a pretty rubbish week! :unhappy: Carlos did get his podium - and thanks should go to those who stopped taking down the podium to allow Sainz to have a mini-podium 'ceremony'. Agree that it should have been a priority though.
Micko
Roar Rookie
Stroll? You're a fan?
Ben Waterworth
Roar Guru
Honestly this race was only exciting for the last 15 or so laps and maybe the first 2-3 laps. Everything else in the middle was pretty uneventful. Case in point watch the official highlights package. It basically skips everything until the latter half! Sad for Carlos that they couldn't make that penalty decision a priority and have him up on the podium properly. Remember Mexico 2016? They made a decision quick enough then, why not now? It's great he got a bit of podium joy later on but I mean the guy has been waiting for over 100 races to get up there and then it still wasn't proper. And just think of poor Nico watching on as two drivers get their first podiums and he probably has one more race left. Poor guy... I'm just going to slowly drink more alcohol to forget about Ferrari and Lance in this race...*sigh*