Sun Nov 05, 2023 8:00 PM
Grand Prix of Brazil
Autodromo José Carlos Pace
Lots in Brazil, but not for Max Verstappen. The three-time world champion saw Charles Leclerc suddenly crash in the warm-up lap, followed by an incident-rich start. Although that didn’t bother Verstappen. He easily drove away from Lando Norris towards his 17th win of the season, Alonso held off Perez after a sprint to the finish line.
A crash that you rarely see in the premier class of motorsport.
In the warm-up round, plumes of smoke suddenly startled the Brazilian public. Charles Leclerc – who had to challenge Verstappen from the second starting spot – lost his rear end and flew into the wall.
End of race for the Monegasque. Not yet the end of an incident-rich race start.
At the start, Kevin Magnussen flew his Hare like an arrow from a bow. In all his enthusiasm, the Dane veered too much to the right. The result: a sandwich effect with Alex Albon (Williams) and teammate Nico Hulkenberg.
Debris flew around, the red flag was so unavoidable.
At the restart, Max Verstappen suddenly had Lando Norris next to him on the front row. The Briton took advantage of the chaos to move up from sixth place.
The McLaren remained visible up close for a long time in the side mirrors of Verstappen’s Red Bull. Lando Norris even attempted an attack, the signal for the Dutchman to press the accelerator extra hard.
The victory had flown by, but it was still exciting for the final podium spot.
Fernando Alonso had rolled up the square-turning Mercedes of Hamilton and Russell on his way to an unexpected third place. In the end, Sergio Perez – who made it a fun catch-up race – was very hot on his heels.
With leapfrog, the Spanish-speaking gentlemen provided a spectacular ending, which ended with a true drag race to the finish.
Alonso won by the smallest margin. Yet it will be Max Verstappen who will be making headlines. With his 52nd victory he passes Alain Prost and can still overtake Sebastian Vettel this season.
Alonso: “Duel with Perez felt like 30 laps”
“For me, the last minutes felt like 30 laps,” sighs Fernando Alonso after the intense duel with Sergio Perez.
“When he passed me I thought it was over, but I fought back.”
With a drag race to the finish, he gives Aston Martin an unexpected podium spot. “It’s nice for the team because we’ve had some tough times in the last few races.”
rankings
PositionRiderConstructorTimePoints
1
Max Verstappen
Red Bull Racing
1u56’48″894
25
2
Lando Norris
McLaren
+ 8″277
19
3
Fernando Alonso
Aston Martin
+ 34″155
15
4
Sergio Perez
Red Bull Racing
+ 34″208
12
5
Lance Stroll
Aston Martin
+ 40″845
10
6
Carlos Sainz
Scuderia Ferrari
+ 50″188
8
7
Pierre Gasly
Alpine
+ 56″093
6
8
Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes
+ 1’02″859
4
9
Yuki Tsunoda
AlphaTauri
+ 1’09″880
2
10
Esteban Ocon
Alpine
+ 1 card(s)
1
11
Logan Sargeant
Williams Racing
+ 1 card(s)
0
12
Nico Hülkenberg
Haas F1 Team
+ 1 card(s)
0
13
Daniel Ricciardo
AlphaTauri
+ 1 card(s)
0
14
Oscar Piastri
McLaren
+ 2 card(s)
0
15
George Russell
Mercedes
DNF
16
Valtteri Bottas
Alfa Romeo
DNF
17
Guanyu Zhou
Alfa Romeo
DNF
18
Kevin Magnussen
Haas F1 Team
DNF
19
Alexander Albon
Williams Racing
DNF
20
Charles Leclerc
Scuderia Ferrari
DNS
