Red Bull’s Max Verstappen eclipsed 500 points on the year with a win at the São Paulo Grand Prix in Brazil, furthering a historic season from the Dutchman.
Verstappen won what was a hectic race at Interlagos, besting McLaren driver Lando Norris and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, who found himself back on the podium. Alonso and Red Bull driver Sergio Perez had a drag race to the finish line after a great battle on the last lap, and Alonso bested Perez by just five-hundredths of a second.
The race was chaotic before it even began when Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, set to start second, suffered a hydraulics failure and crashed on the formation lap. As such, his spot on the grid to start the race was empty, but the race was red flagged right after the start when both Haas cars pinched Alexander Albon and caused a massive crash with notable debris. Norris climbed up the rankings on the start, and thus started second on the standing restart — he fought Verstappen for a lap but was unable to pass him and used up his tires and battery in doing so. All in all, six drivers were out at the end of the grand prix.
Verstappen ended up winning comfortably by more than five seconds, with?Norris behind him and Alonso barely edging out Perez. Here’s how the order crossed the line at the end of proceedings in Brazil:
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
- Lando Norris (McLaren)
- Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
- Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
- Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
- Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
- Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
- Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
- Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
- Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
- Logan Sargeant (Williams)
- Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)
- Daniel Ricciardo (AlphaTauri)
- Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
- George Russell (Mercedes) [DNF]
- Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) [DNF]
- Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo) [DNF]
- Kevin Magnussen (Haas) [DNF]
- Alexander Albon (Williams) [DNF]
- Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) [DNS]