F1: Verstappen Wins Unbelievable Brazilian Grand Prix As Ferrari Implode

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Brandon Dawe
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Max Verstappen celebrating with his team after a historic win at the Säo Paulo circuit. Image sourced from @RedBullRacing via Twitter.

Verstappen Victorious In Chaotic Brazilian Grand Prix At Interlagos.

The Flying Dutchman

The Dutch native bringing his number of career wins with Red Bull to eight.

Verstappen: “Straight away from Q1 the car was flying, that was an enjoyable drive.”

“We are very happy with this, I’ll try to finish it off now.”

Gasly’s Shock Podium

The Toro Rosso of Pierre Gasly claimed his maiden podium at Interlagos.

The young Frenchman pulling of a commanding drive to take second place.

Pierre Gasly celebrating his first career podium after a stunning performance in Brazil. Image sourced from @PierreGasly via Twitter.

Gasly: “This is my first podium, for sure I’ll never forget it.”

“Toro Rosso gave me a fantastic car. I’m so happy, it’s an amazing day!”

Hamilton Makes An Error

The shock result came after Lewis Hamilton spun round Alex Albon on the penultimate lap.

Albon, who was poised for a maiden podium, dropped down the order as a resukt, promoting Gasly into a podium position.

Hamilton, who admitted the crash was his fault, was awarded a five-second time penalty as a result of the collision.

Hamilton’s 5 second penalty drops him to seventh place. Image sourced from @MercedesAMGF1 via Twitter.

Hamilton: Pierre did a great job. He was very fair in how he positioned the car.”

“I massively apologise to Albon, I went for a move. The gap was kind of there, it closed at the end. It was my fault.”

McLaren & Sainz End Podium Drought

Hamilton’s penalty subsequently promoted Carlos Sainz into third place.

Giving the Spaniard his first ever career podium and McLaren’s first since Australlia 2014.

Valtteri Bottas and his W10 were running in a lonely sixth for the majority of the race.

However, the Finn suffered an engine failure during the latter stages of the race.

Forcing him to park up at Turn 4, bringing out the sfety car as a result.

Red Bull & Ferrari used this to their advantage as Verstappen and Charles Leclerc both pit for fresh soft tyres.

Although Verstappen lost the lead due to the stop, Hamilton didn’t under the safety car.

Enabling Verstappen to overtake him around the outside through Turn 1.

Verstappen’s team-mate Albon also had a great restart.

The young rookie sweeping past the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel into Turn 1.

The Thai now found himself in podium contention.

Once Vettel was passed by Albon he soon came  under fire from team-mate Leclerc, who also had fresh tyres.

Implosion At Ferrari

Leclerc later managed to overtake Vettel, however it didn’t last long as the Ferrari duo collided as they approached Turn 4.

With both their races ending as a result.

The incident brought put a second safety car, during which Mercedes opted to pit Hamilton for new tyres.

A call which left us with a Honda 1-2-3 of Verstappen, Albon & Gasly respectively.

However, once the green flag was dropped on lap 69 of 71, Hamilton passed Gasly with ease.

The Brit then turned his attention to Albon in the Red Bull.

Unfortunately the two collided, demoting Albon to the back of the grid, subsequently denying him his first podium.

As a result of the contact Gasly was able to move into the podium places

Passing Hamilton for second as he recovered from the collision.

Drag To The Line

However, The Brit fought back, leading to an extremely close finish between both Gasly & Hamilton as the pair drag raced to the finish.

The Toro Rosso beating the Silver Arrow by a mere 0.062’s of a second.

Carlos Sainz, who started from the pit lane, ended the race in fourth place.

Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen & Antonio Giovinizzi came home in fifth and sixth respectively.

With Daniel Ricciardo finishing in seventh, despite being a hit with a 5 second penalty.

A decision which came after Ricciardo collided with the Haas of Kevin Magnussen early on.

The Aussie sending K-Mag into a spin at Turn 4.

Behind was the other McLaren of Lando Norris in eighg and Racing Point’s Sergio Perez in ninth.

As Gasly’s team-mate Daniil Kvyat, who also got a podium for Toro Rosso back in Germany rounded out the top ten.

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