Max Verstappen won the FORMULA 1 HEINEKEN GRANDE PRÊMIO DO BRASIL 2019 having started from pole. But his victory did not come as easily as that simple sentence might sound, at the end of a race that can truly be described as crazy and was without doubt the most exciting Grand Prix of the season.

For the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing driver this was the third win of the year and for a while it looked as though it might have been a Red Bull one-two. It was not, although it was a one-two for Honda because in an incredible final lap, Pierre Gasly finished second for Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda. Joining them on the podium at the end of the 71 laps of Interlagos was Lewis Hamilton for Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, however, after the race, the Englishman was given a 5 second penalty for causing a collision with Alex Albon, thus delivering the most unexpected podium of the season, as Carlos Sainz stepped up to third place for McLaren.

Verstappen never really looked under threat, having started from pole, and a well executed strategy and brilliant work from his pit crew with tyre changes taking less than two seconds all helped him to control the race. But it was no stroll in the park and with Hamilton attempting the undercut, the Dutchman had to pass the six times world champion on track, not just once, but twice!

As for Gasly, he inherited second place when Hamilton and Albon collided on the penultimate lap, robbing the Thai rookie of his first F1 podium. The French driver kept his cool, placing his Toro Rosso in just the right part of the track coming out of the final corner to win the drag race to the line.

At the start, Verstappen kept the lead and Hamilton got ahead of Sebastian Vettel going into Turn 1 to go second. The Mercedes man was the first to pit on lap 20 of 71, attempting the undercut and committing to a two stop strategy as he again fitted Soft tyres. Red Bull covered the move, bringing Max in on the next lap. The Dutchman nearly got pushed into the pit wall by Robert Kubica in the ROKiT Williams and the delay ensured that Hamilton took the lead. However, the Mercedes man was also delayed, as he was caught behind the Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow of Charles Leclerc. That allowed Verstappen to catch up and eventually pass Hamilton going into the Senna S first corner.

The pit stop dance for the leaders resumed on lap 43, when Hamilton again came in trying for an undercut and again Verstappen covered the move next time round to keep the lead. With 18 laps remaining, fifth place Bottas retired his Mercedes with a mechanical failure and that brought out the Safety Car. Verstappen pitted for fresh rubber, but Hamilton chose to keep the lead and stayed out on older tyres. Hamilton backed up the field, hoping to prevent Verstappen getting by, but again the Dutchman retook the lead in the bottom of the Senna S. This was incredibly exciting but there was plenty more to come.

Alex Albon produced an aggressive move to pass Vettel and go third and began to challenge Hamilton for second, but instead the Red Bull man had to defend from a returning Vettel. With five laps remaining, Leclerc passed Vettel at the first corner, but the German fought back and they were side by side on the run down to Descida de Lago. The two Ferraris collided and both had to retire, Leclerc with suspension damage, Vettel with a puncture.

That triggered a safety car under which Hamilton dived into the pits yet again, dropping him to fourth behind Albon and Gasly. The Mercedes and the Red Bull collided forcing Albon into a spin, which allowed Gasly past into an amazing second, although it looked more like a dead heat. Hamilton admitted his mistake, which resulted in Carlos Sainz’s promotion to the podium.

For the Woking team today’s result marks an extraordinary achievement, considering that Sainz, who sealed the first podium of his career, started at the very back of the grid after the technical problem that effectively prevented him from taking part in yesterday’s qualifying. The team’s haul of points was also added to by Lando Norris with an excellent eighth place. This was the first time since the 2014 Australian Grand Prix that a McLaren driver had finished in the top three: that time in fact it was two of them – Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button – who finished behind the winner Nico Rosberg. 

Behind Sainz came the two Alfa Romeo drivers, with Kimi Raikkonen fifth and Antonio Giovinazzi sixth. This was the best result of the season for the Hinwil team – while for their Italian driver fifth place marked the best finish of his career.

Completing the top ten were Sergio Perez, taking his sixth straight points finish, and Daniil Kvyat. The Russian, who saw his points disappear due to penalties after the chequered flag both in Mexico City and Austin, this time didn’t have any unpleasant surprises!

There was so much on track action this afternoon – to the joy of the spectators who filled out the grandstands as ever (an attendance of 150,307 over the weekend) – it felt like a grand finale to the year. But that is yet to come, when racing resumes in a fortnight for the 21^st and last time in the FORMULA 1 ETIHAD AIRWAYS ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX 2019.

Brazilian Grand Prix Facts & Figures

• The last time that two cars powered by Honda secured a one-two finish was at the 1991 Japanese Grand Prix. That time the McLarens of Gerhard Berger and Ayrton Senna triumphed at the circuit of Suzuka. You have to go even further back, to the 1987 Italian Grand Prix, to find two cars from different teams – both powered by Honda – finishing in the first two places; on September 6 that year it was Nelson Piquet’s Williams which took the chequered flag ahead of Senna’s Lotus.

• For the third time in its history a Toro Rosso driver managed to make the podium. After Sebastian Vettel’s victory at Monza in 2008 and Daniil Kvyat’s third place finish at Hockenheim earlier this year, now comes Pierre Gasly’s second place, the best result of his career. The total of 83 points collected so far this year represents the best haul in the history of the Faenza team, beating their previous record of 67 from 2015.

• Ferrari today put an end to a series of 46 consecutive grands prix in which it has collected at least one world championship point. The last time this happened was at the 2017 Singapore Grand Prix, and there too it was due to a collision between the two drivers – then Vettel and Raikkonen – in which Verstappen was also involved. Now it is Red Bull which has the longest straight run of points-scoring finishes with 37 and counting.

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Final Classification

P.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Gap
1st	Max Verstappen	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	71	1.33.14.678
2nd	Pierre Gasly	Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda	71	+6.077
3rd	Carlos Sainz	McLaren F1 Team	71	+8.896
4th	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo Racing	71	+9.452
5th	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing	71	+10.201
6th	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault F1 Team	71	+10.541
7th	Lewis Hamilton*	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	71	+11.139
8th	Lando Norris	McLaren F1 Team	71	+11.204
9th	Sergio Perez	SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team	71	+11.529
10th	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda	71	+11.931
11th	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team	71	+12.732
12th	George Russell	ROKiT Williams Racing	71	+13.599
13th	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team	71	+14.247
14th	Alexander Albon	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	71	+14.927
15th	Nico Hulkenberg**	Renault F1 Team	71	+18.059
16th	Robert Kubica	ROKiT Williams Racing	70	+1 lap
17th	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow	65	DNF
18th	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow	65	DNF
19th	Lance Stroll	SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team	65	DNF
NC	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	51	DNF

Fastest lap: Valtteri Bottas (1.10.698 on lap 43)

*5 second time penalty – Causing a collision.

**5 second time penalty – Overtaking under safety car conditions.

	Drivers’ Championship	Constructors’ Championship
P.	Driver	Pts	Team	Pts
1	L. Hamilton	387	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	701
2	V. Bottas	314	Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow	479
3	M. Verstappen	260	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	391
4	C. Leclerc	249	McLaren F1 Team	140
5	S. Vettel	230	Renault F1 Team	91
6	P. Gasly	95	Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda	83
7	C. Sainz	95	SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team	67
8	A. Albon	84	Alfa Romeo Racing	57
9	D. Ricciardo	54	Haas F1 Team	28
10	S. Perez	46	ROKiT Williams Racing	1
11	L. Norris	45
12	K. Raikkonen	43
13	N. Hulkenberg	37
14	D. Kvyat	35
15	L. Stroll	21
16	K. Magnussen	20
17	A. Giovinazzi	14
18	R. Grosjean	8
19	R. Kubica	1
20	G. Russell	0