Flawless. Unimpeachable. Masterclass. There are such a lot of phrases you possibly can use to explain Max Verstappen’s run from seventeenth to the race victory on Sunday, however someway none of them are sufficient. This was, I consider, the defining race of Max Verstappen’s profession in System 1, and probably the defining race of F1 historical past. I’ve by no means seen something fairly like this. On a day when each different driver on the grid was caught up in unforced error after unforced error, Max merely put his head down and screamed by means of the sector on a day when no one else may discover a option to move. Full cease, this was championship-level driving. Within the moist, with out DRS to assist.
I depend myself amongst Max’s largest haters. For years I’ve been pissed off by his stone-faced killer mentality, utilizing his automobile as a weapon within the fog of conflict. He is aware of that he can dive-bomb different drivers and are available out smelling like a rose as a result of they’ll race honest and provides option to him. It’s a ruthless and cutthroat driving model. I didn’t prefer it when Senna or Schumacher did it both. However none of that was on show final weekend in Brazil as Max did every little thing he needed to to be able to climb as excessive as doable and take benefit when his opponents faltered.
This race was a shit present from starting to finish. Rain pushed qualifying from Saturday to Sunday morning, and moist climate circumstances meant a number of the so-called greatest drivers on this planet couldn’t hold their vehicles pointed in the fitting route. Max was caught out in Q2 with a late purple flag whereas he was on a flyer and acquired bumped to twelfth on the grid. The group selected to alter his energy unit, incurring a further five-place penalty, giving him the seventeenth beginning place. A driver beginning seventeenth or worse has solely gone on to win the grand prix 5 occasions within the sport’s historical past, and this one might be the most effective of all of them.
By the tip of the primary lap Max had already moved up into the factors paying positions, getting an unimaginable begin from the second the lights went out. Admittedly Max gained a place earlier than the race even began as billionaire dipshit nepo child Lance Stroll spun on his option to the grid and beached the automobile within the gravel by his personal doing.
All through an almost five-hour Grand Prix pockmarked by security automobile and purple flag circumstances, Max managed to maintain his automobile on the island. After all Max’s unimaginable drive was helped by some severely good luck and a few technique from the group. Whereas the leaders pitted for brand new intermediate moist climate tires, Max stayed out and waited for race management to cease the race as extra rain fell, leapfrogging from fifth on the observe to second behind Alpine’s Esteban Ocon. All of it fell his means when Williams driver Franco Colapinto crashed onerous beneath security automobile circumstances, bringing out the purple flag and garnering him (and Ocon) a free tire change.
Ocon managed to carry Verstappen off for some time, however a restart on lap 43 of 69 noticed Max go down the within at flip one and transfer into the lead with a clear move. From seventeenth to the lead in 43 laps is mighty spectacular. I feel even when Lando Norris and George Russell had not pitted for contemporary tires and waited for the purple flag as Max had, they nonetheless wouldn’t have been capable of maintain him off for the remaining laps of the Grand Prix, as Max was merely the quickest man on the observe on that day in these circumstances.
Settling that argument was the masterclass of driving that Max placed on throughout the closing phases of the Grand Prix. As soon as he’d discovered the lead of the motor race, he set about pulling as huge a spot from the sector as he probably may. When it got here to the checkered flag, Max had set 17 quickest laps, every time going sooner than his earlier because the observe dried out and his gas burned off. In the long run he completed 20 seconds away from Ocon in second. It was really a race for the ages, and doubtless clinched the 2024 title for Max, barring any important failures within the remaining three races of the season.
This race was completely Lando Norris’ to lose, and he did rattling close to every little thing he wanted to do to be able to lose it. He failed to carry the lead from pole on the primary lap (once more) and McLaren made a foolish technique error to lose what observe place he had. I nonetheless don’t like Max, and hoped somebody could be ready to problem him this yr, however I feel this race just about proves that Max deserves to be champion once more this yr. Yeah, he had a contemporary engine and a fortunate pit cease, however after ten races with out a win, this was a formidable return to kind. They are saying rain is the good equalizer.
