Lining up on the starting grid for the São Paulo Grand Prix, the track damp beneath him and the air heavy with the threat of rain, Max Verstappen knew how crucial this race would be.
The reigning Formula One world champion was in unfamiliar territory: Starting seventeenth on the grid, with only two cars behind him (and one in the pit lane), and his title rival, Lando Norris, way, way ahead of him on pole position.
His championship lead, one that had ebbed away in recent weeks to just 44 points after his sprint race penalty on Saturday, looked precarious. There seemed a real chance that Norris could make the kind of gain on Sunday that would turn the tide in the championship battle.
That discounted a drive for the ages from Verstappen. A victory that, of the 62 he has scored to date in F1, except for the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP that clinched his maiden title, could be the most iconic.
It’s the one that will likely be remembered as being instrumental to his fourth world championship. The one that snapped an 11-race winless drought, scored in a car that had long robbed his confidence and is no longer the quickest on the grid, made possible by bravery and brilliance in the trickiest conditions.
One race, one performance, turned this from a season slowly moving Norris’ way to Verstappen standing on the brink of yet another championship.
“Wow,” his race engineer, GianPiero Lambiase, said on the radio after Verstappen crossed the line for the first time since the Spanish GP in June. “It’s been a long time coming mate, but boy, was that worth the wait. You are the man.”
Rain is referred to as the great leveler in F1. Today, it made Verstappen’s natural gifts come to the fore, allowing him to produce a drive even he did not think was possible after his Q2 exit earlier in the day.
“Starting P17, I knew it was going to be a very tough race,” Verstappen said. “We stayed out of trouble, we made the right calls, we stayed calm, and we were flying.” Ten of Verstappen’s final 11 laps would have been good enough for the race’s fastest lap. His best was over a second quicker than any other driver managed.
In the history of the F1 world championship, only three drivers have won from further back on the grid than 17th. Verstappen’s voice caught as he smirked at how far back he’d started, almost in disbelief at his achievement.
Verstappen’s brilliance in the rain has long been common knowledge. It was on the same track in 2016 when he pulled off some moves and saves few could believe, finishing third after dropping as far back as 16th. He was always expected to make his way back up the order today — but not so far, so quickly.
The Dutchman wasted little time making up places. He’d already gained two spots before lights out, thanks to Alex Albon’s withdrawal and Carlos Sainz’s pit lane start. While most hung to the inside at Turn 4 on the opening lap, Verstappen took to the outside, sweeping past the train of cars. By the end of the first lap, he’d risen from 17th to 11th.
Then came the Turn 1 moves. While others stayed high to the outside, Verstappen found plenty of grip on the inside, confident on the brakes. No lock-ups, no mistakes. Lewis Hamilton and Pierre Gasly were picked off with ease. Oscar Piastri, Norris’ teammate and the one driver whose job it would be to make life really difficult, was breezed past as Verstappen launched from a long way back, making the move stick. RB driver Liam Lawson, who would love to be Verstappen’s teammate next year, put up zero fight for sixth later on the same lap.
Not every move was so easy. Verstappen spent 10 laps toiling behind Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, briefly considering a couple of aggressive moves around the outside at the first corner, only to back out. Smart move, given the conditions and what was at stake in the championship.
It was what made this drive different from 2016 to Verstappen. “This one is definitely much more crucial,” he said. “There, I had nothing to lose. Now, there was a lot more at stake. I had to be a lot more controlled, more aware of the championship.”
Then came the brave part from Verstappen and Red Bull. As the rain grew heavier and drivers started to dive into the pits for a fresh set of intermediates, Leclerc being the first, they decided to try and stick it out. The Virtual Safety Car for Nico Hülkenberg’s stricken Haas prompted the leaders, George Russell and Norris, to come in. Hoping the heavy rain would pass, Verstappen stayed out, only trailing Esteban Ocon on the track. Verstappen admitted afterward that it felt “sketchy” to stay out and that the race needed to be stopped.
Did the win take some luck? Yes. The red flag came in response to Franco Colapinto’s crash and gave Verstappen and Ocon a chance to make a free tire change in the pits, vaulting them — and Pierre Gasly — ahead of Norris and Russell. Post-race, Norris lamented the rule, but it has been in the regulations for a very long time.
Yes, it was a bit of luck, but luck Red Bull was ready to take advantage of. The team knew staying out and gaining track position would have opened the window for this possibility. By pitting, McLaren knew what it was giving up.
Even with track position over Norris, Verstappen had a job to do. Under the safety car for Sainz’s crash, Lambiase reminded Verstappen on the radio of the need to focus. He’d been unable to stick with Ocon after the rolling restart; such was the benefit of clean air and clear vision ahead of the Alpine driver. But opportunities would come.
He pounced when the race returned to green. In his favorite spot, Turn 1, Verstappen sent it up the inside and found more grip. Ocon didn’t try to fight back, slotting in behind in P2. A moment later, Norris was going straight on and dropping back to seventh.
In an instant, the championship battle was all but over.
From there, Verstappen did what Verstappen does best. Reminiscent of his dominant days of last year, he was metronomic at the front, easing clear by finding grip and adhesion where no one else could. He set the fastest lap 17 times. In the final 29 laps, he pulled out 19 seconds on the field. The gap to Norris, down in P6, was 31 seconds.
Verstappen’s cry back to Lambiase on the radio, his celebrations with his mechanics and his reaction on the top step of the podium when listening to the tones of the Dutch national anthem made clear how important the result was to him. “You don’t often see him that animated,” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said on Sky Sports after the race. “You can tell that meant a lot to him.”
It’s the kind of display that will stand out in Verstappen’s career among his most significant, further cementing his legacy. All the greats have these kinds of drives, be it Michael Schumacher at Barcelona in 1996 or Lewis Hamilton at Silverstone in 2008. Performances where they were on another level to everyone else. Verstappen himself, rarely one to be drawn into comparisons, admitted it was among his best.
“It was an incredible, incredible performance from him, one of his very best,” Horner said. “That marks him out with some of the greats now.”
The championship impact must also be recognized. Before Brazil, the momentum was all flowing one way, toward Norris and Verstappen, and the chances of the title race going all the way to Abu Dhabi in December seemed to be increasing. On Sunday, such hopes were extinguished in emphatic, comprehensive fashion.
It also shifted the mood at Red Bull, a team of serial winners that had gone through this dry spell that caused it to slip to P3 in the championship. The idea of winning neither championship, something Verstappen himself feared as early as Monza, could not be allowed to creep in.
“It’s been tough for us,” Verstappen admitted. “We always kept pushing. We didn’t understand why the others were so fast in the race especially. We’ve been trying a lot of things to improve the car. Starting P17 this morning, it looked like (McLaren was) going to win the race again. It’s an incredible result for us. A massive boost for the team, because honestly, it’s been tough.”
Verstappen said he was confident Red Bull could be back fighting for wins in the final three races, but he knows the championship picture is now stacked well in his favor. He’s 62 points clear with 86 remaining, meaning Norris must outscore him by three points in Las Vegas just to keep the race alive to Qatar.
For now, Verstappen isn’t interested in when he wraps it up. Nor does he want any of the stress like on Sunday morning in Brazil when the red flag left him wanting to “destroy the garage” over what he called a “bulls—” decision.
“This was now, of course, looking at it, it was incredibly important (for the championship). I was expecting to lose points today,” Verstappen said.
“From now I just want clean races to the end. I’m not thinking about clinching the championship in Vegas or anything. I just want clean races.”
Top photo: SIPA USA
