Max Verstappen ended his 10-race winless streak since the Spanish GP with a rain-affected masterclass at the Brazilian GP.

However, despite his strong performance from start to finish, fortune was also on his side and a red flag caused by Franco Colapinto threw the door wide open to his chances of victory.

How Max Verstappen won the Brazilian Grand Prix

Verstappen officially started the race in 17th position – 16th technically due to Alexander Albon’s DNS – and he gained six positions in the space of one lap with a magnificent maneuver on the outside of Turn 3 where he overtook Oliver Bearman, Franco Colapinto and Valtteri Bottas.

The Red Bull driver took advantage of Lewis Hamilton’s rebound issues to easily overtake the Mercedes driver on the second lap and enter the points. In other words, seven positions recovered in two laps and on wet surfaces. Simply sensational.

From there, the comeback started to get a little more difficult for Verstappen, who had to deal with highly motivated on-track drivers after securing qualifying positions that were unnatural for their cars’ performance. It was only on the 5th lap that he managed to overtake Pierre Gasly, despite several laps at the back of his Alpine.

In the 6th round, he managed to get rid of Fernando Alonso, who offered him no opposition. The Spanish driver knew his race fight was not against Verstappen. The Dutch driver moved up to eighth position with Oscar Piastri as his next target with a +2.7 second lead.

And if Verstappen’s opening lap wasn’t enough, the skill and pace he showed to pass Oscar Piastri on lap 10 was actually a reflection of Max’s superiority in difficult track conditions and his thirst for return.

At the end of lap 11 he also passed Liam Lawson to take 6th place, who, believe it or not, wasn’t exactly docile in his defense of Verstappen and fought as hard as he could until the Red Bull driver was brave enough to make a move. inside turn 8.

On lap 14, Verstappen encountered his biggest obstacle yet in the form of Charles Leclerc. The Ferrari driver, in turn, was stuck in a “train” led by Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon who were defending their more than precious positions. In this group of four cars, it was clear that the Red Bull driver had the most pace to take the lead in search of the leading positions.

However, Max was to make no further progress. On lap 25, Leclerc stopped to attempt an undercut on Ocon and Tsunoda. But the Monegasque fell behind Lewis Hamilton and in an intense traffic situation. This is not ideal and is why Red Bull did not decide to use this strategy or why McLaren decided to ignore Lando Norris’ suggestion to also stop for a new tire.

On lap 28, the virtual safety car was deployed due to Nico Hülkenberg going off the track at turn 1, which George Russell and Lando Norris took advantage of in the final moments of the lap to fit a new set of intermediate tires with sufficient adhesion. and the ability to evacuate the greatest amount of water on the track and gain valuable time against drivers who were unable to take advantage of VSC, such as Max Verstappen, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly.

Unfortunately for the first three and fortunately for the last three drivers, the virtual safety car caused by Hülkenberg has “evolved”. First it became a safety car due to the large amount of water and low visibility on the track, then a red flag due to an accident involving Franco Colapinto. This caused the race to be neutralized, all drivers returned to the pit lane and Verstappen, Ocon and Gasly were able to change tires, keeping them in the top 3 of the race.

In this situation, Yuki Tsunoda was unlucky to switch to extreme rain tires as there was a lot of water on the track just as the VSC finished. It was a short-term success as he was five seconds faster than the drivers on intermediate tires just a lap later in the first sector.

It was a brave decision which, without the deployment of the safety car and Colapinto’s accident, would have given Tsunoda a big advantage on a restart with similar track conditions. But this “backfired” on VCARB because if they had stayed on track like Red Bull and Alpine once the VSC period was over, they could have had the virtual P2 just ahead of Verstappen before the red flag and made the change of tires in the pit lane. , keeping them in contention for the podium.

Still, great result for VCARB with a P8 for Tsunoda and Liam Lawson P9, cutting big points from Haas and just two points away from fighting for seventh against the American team in the Constructors’ Championship and five from Alpine in sixth .

The big winners in staying on track were the three drivers who ultimately reached the podium. The red flag saved them from greatly compromising their race, because after regrouping with the safety car, they still had to make their stop and stopping with a crowded group would have cost them a lot of time.

Only an increase in rain that would have forced everyone to make a second pit stop to fit extreme rain tires without a safety car on track would have been beneficial in this racing situation.

But Verstappen also had the champion’s luck to achieve a historic comeback. Since Kimi Räikkönen at the 2005 Japanese GP, we have not seen a return to racing from 17th place on the grid. Only the Finnish driver, then a McLaren driver, and John Watson at the 1982 Detroit GP had achieved such a feat until Max Verstappen did it again at the Brazilian GP in 2024.

After the red flag, Max only had to pass Ocon after the restart of a safety car deployed by Carlos Sainz’s crash on lap 39 while running in P13 chasing Sergio Perez.

From there, Verstappen linearly opened a gap in the clear air. Without the spray from the cars in front and gaining confidence as the track dried out again as the laps progressed, the Dutch driver set the fastest lap of the race on lap 67 with a 1:20.472 to score 26 points and achieve this which seemed impossible. just three hours earlier, when his bad luck in qualifying and his five-place grid penalty left him 17th.

Verstappen’s masterclass in the rain was the final blow to the World Championship. With 62 points ahead of Lando Norris and only 86 points at stake, the Red Bull driver could mathematically win his fourth World Championship at the next race in Las Vegas.

The race in Brazil reflected the evolution of the 2024 season since the Miami GP. Whatever happens, even in the worst situations, Verstappen has something extra, something special that makes him undoubtedly the best driver on the grid.

His good performance attracted luck. The luck of the famous champion. The luck of the future quadruple champion.

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