This was one of the great ones one of the great races and certainly one of the great wins. From P17 on the grid Red Bull's Max Verstappen not only took the lead of the Brazilian GP with 26 wet laps still to run but also proceeded in setting fastest lap on 15 different occasions. Some will say that Max was massively helped today by a red flag "free" pit stop an unpredictable intervention that came on the wrong side of the McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes strategies. One of the reasons, though, that Max stayed out when others stopped was because of the way he was using his Pirelli intermediates. His almostperfect wear pattern was a testament to his driving on both fast corners and slow. He lost some grip with wear in that first phase; but, despite his numerous overtakes, he never lost the balance of the car. Alpine were strong from the start and undoubtedly did benefit from a "free" stop: Esteban Ocon finished an excellent second (from P4) and Pierre Gasly drove brilliantly from P13 on the grid to finish third. George Russell finished a titanic fourth after leading from the start in a Mercedes that Lewis Hamilton found virtually undriveable; Charles Leclerc was P5 in an equallydifficult Ferrari; and Lando Norris, after starting from the pole and winning the sprint race, finished only sixth. As a result of this astonishing win, Verstappen now has a 62 point lead in the FIA World Drivers' Championship with three races to go.
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Alternative race stats courtesy of Aleš Norskŷ:
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Images: Pirelli, Red Bull and McLaren
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