The Brazilian race weekend ended on a high note for Lando Norris. In Ayrton Senna's homeland, the McLaren driver racked up the spoils by taking the top slot in the two qualifying sessions and winning the two races held without ever making a blunder.
Behind him, as in the Sprint, was Andrea Antonelli, scoring his second podium in a Sunday race. Third, on the other hand, was a phenomenal Max Verstappen, who started from the pit lane to give his mechanics time to work on the car after the critical issues that emerged on Saturday afternoon, and was also able to make up for a puncture that further slowed him down. Aided later by a hard tyre that allowed him to run a very long stint, the defending champion was able to climb uo through almost the entire field, so much so that when in the closing stages he mounted the softs, he missed overtaking the Italian driver of the Mercedes by a whisker.
Just off the podium because of a brake problem on his W16 was George Russell, while Oscar Piastri had to settle for fifth position because of the first-lap incident with the Bologna native that cost him a 10-second penalty. Excellent performances by Oliver Bearman for Haas and Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls). Ninth place went to Nico Hulkenberg in the Sauber, ahead of Pierre Gasly (Alpine).
As for Ferrari, its race was a disaster. Charles Leclerc ended up in the gravel at the start with his wing knocked off, a blameless victim of the domino effect triggered by Piastri, while Lewis Hamilton's retirement came on lap 40 after a first contact with Sainz's Williams that damaged his floorpan, and a second with Colapinto's Alpine that forced him to stop.
"It was a fantastic race, as was the work of the team. We are pushing hard on and off the track, so I'm happy to have brought home this win," were the words of the winner.
"The last few laps were stressful with Max coming in on fresh tyres, but having found the rhythm I was able to push a little harder. With the dirty air it becomes difficult to stay in the slipstream, so I tried to take advantage of that and it paid off," was the comment from the day's second-placed driver.
"It was a full-throttle race. I had a very good pace, although getting on the podium after starting from pit lane and puncturing exceeded my expectations. It's an incredible result. We never gave up. I tried to make overtakes as quickly as possible, but some cars had DRS, so it wasn't so immediate. To finish ten seconds from the top is just unbelievable," declared an excited Mad Max.
For details here is the link to Motorsport.com.
