Max Verstappen won a thrilling wet Sao Paulo Grand Prix from 17th on the grid to move to the brink of a fourth successive world championship, as title rival Lando Norris faltered from pole position.
Verstappen produced a sublime display of driving to surge through the field during a chaotic contest, which featured a red flag and two Safety Car interruptions, ending a 10-race winless streak that stretched back to June’s Spanish Grand Prix.
With pole-sitter Norris ultimately finishing sixth after a questionable call to pit as rain intensified was compounded by two significant driver errors at later restarts, Verstappen extended his lead to 62 points with just three rounds of the season remaining.
Verstappen can seal the title in Las Vegas in three weeks’ time simply by finishing the race ahead of Norris, who now needs to take more than 20 points per remaining round out of the Dutchman to overhaul him.
“Starting in P17 I knew it would be a very tough race,” Verstappen said. “We stayed out of trouble, made the right calls, we stayed calm and we were flying.
“All of these things together. It’s unbelievable to win here from so far back on the grid.”
Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly followed Verstappen home to score a stunning double podium for Alpine, catapulting the team from ninth to sixth in the constructors’ standings.
George Russell, who overtook Norris to take the lead at the first corner but botched his chances of victory by pitting from the lead at the same time as his compatriot, took fourth for Mercedes ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Despite their inevitable disappointment at Norris’ title bid fading, McLaren were able to marginally extend their Constructors’ Championship lead over Ferrari to 36 points as Oscar Piastri took eighth.
Another pointless outing for Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez left Red Bull 49 points adrift of McLaren and appearing unlikely to extend their streak of two successive constructors’ titles.
Yuki Tsunoda took seventh and RB team-mate Liam Lawson ninth to leave Red Bull’s junior squad five points behind Alpine in the constructors’ standings. Lewis Hamilton rounded out the points after a miserable weekend for the seven-time world champion.
There remains the potential for the outcome to worsen for Norris, with the Brit facing a post-race investigation for wrongly pulling away from the grid after Lance Stroll’s formation-lap crash resulted in an aborted start.
Norris and McLaren appeared to confuse an aborted start – which sees cars wait on the grid and mechanics return – for an instruction to carry out another formation lap, and pulled away. Russell, Tsunoda and Lawson are also under investigation for the same infringement.
Russell, along with team-mate Hamilton, faces a further investigation for Mercedes changing the tyre pressures on their cars after the aborted start. The infringement could result in disqualification.
More to follow…
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