The Red Bull family survived an intense weekend in Mexico, and the Brazilian did not leave them high and dry either.
Characteristics of the Brazilian circuit
The Brazilian circuit was built on hilly ground, making driving harder and demanding more power from the engines. Behind Monaco and Mexico City, Interlagos is one of the shortest circuits on the F1 calendar. It’s also run anti-clockwise, so the drivers face a downhill section after the first corner. It’s followed by a long climb uphill with several winding turns. Finally, a long straight leads back to the finish line.
Qualifying madness
Qualifying did not get off to the best of starts after being postponed to Sunday morning due to the weather. On top of that, five red flags contributed to making the Brazilian GP qualifying session even more unpredictable. The drivers were still faced with tricky conditions as the rain-affected session played out.
Max Verstappen’s Brazilian GP qualifying session was abruptly ended after Lance Stroll’s crash in Q2. The stewards waited around 45 seconds to stop the session and many drivers managed to complete their laps. Verstappen’s lap was stopped in sector three when the red flag was thrown. This caused the discontent of the Red Bull driver who did not hesitate to be vocal about the situation. He was 12th at the time and with his five-place grid penalty, he was set to start the race in 17th place. In the other Red Bull, Sergio Perez was also unable to do any better and was set to start in P13.
Meanwhile, RB’s day could not have been better with both Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda in Q3. Lawson managed to infiltrate himself in P5 ahead of Charles Leclerc. Tsunoda instead managed to get an impressive P3. This marked both drivers’ best-ever qualifying result.
“It was very tricky, certainly I enjoyed it. I think we had a good pace from straightaway. Had a couple of mistakes but had a bit of luck as well. I think overall as a team, including Liam as well, we did a really good job.- Yuki Tsunoda reflecting on the session.
The race
The chaos began before the event even had the chance to get underway with Lance Stroll’s crash during the formation lap. When the Brazilian GP did eventually start, Verstappen started to work his way up to the top positions having started in P17. By lap 6 he was already in 8th position. After a sequence of red flags and Safety Cars, Verstappen surged and took the lead from Esteban Ocon. From then on he was untouchable, finishing the race with a margin of 19.477s.
The Dutchman is now 62 points clear of Lando Norris in the WDC standings.
“It felt really good to drive and was fast so I felt unstoppable today. It was definitely an emotional win; I was really motivated and put everything into this race and I surprised myself today as I wasn’t expecting to finish in P1.” – Max Verstappen.
Meanwhile, Sergio Perez and Liam Lawson were caught again in a fight on track. Lawson got the better of the Mexican and ended the race in P9 while Perez finished the race in P11. Tsunoda on the other hand made the mistake of pitting for the full wets when the rain got heavier. While he was set to climb back and was supremely quick, the Safety Car and red flag prevented that, and he didn’t quite have the pace after the restart.
“[…] We were in a very strong position in the first half of the race, with Yuki holding onto P3 with incredible pace alongside Liam defending amazingly. Our race was affected when the red flag came out however; it diminished both drivers’ advantage, but that’s part of racing in these conditions. We came away with eight points, which is a great result.” – Laurent Mekies, RB Team Principal on yesterday’s race.
