by Linus O'Howell
A “simply lovely” afternoon for Max Verstappen saw the three-time world champion take his 17th victory of the season ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris whilst Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso rounded out the podium in some style.
The most notable moments
Before the Race even started, Charles Leclerc found himself in the wall at Turn 7 after a hydraulics failure, a disaster for him and his Ferrari team.
📸 A hydraulic failure for Leclerc ended his day before it even really started.
When the race actually got going, Verstappen kept the lead into Turn 1 as both Norris and Lewis Hamilton jumped the Aston Martin pair of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso. However, behind all that, carnage ensued as contact between Nico Hulkenberg, Kevin Magnussen, and Alex Albon resulted in the latter two being out of the race whilst both Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo were also caught up in it.
📸 Albon's crash brought out the red flag.
This brought out the red flag, and when the race got back underway, Verstappen was again able to hold the lead whilst Alonso was able to jump Hamilton for P3. Norris was able to get one run at Verstappen, but it quite literally only lasted one lap as Max bolted off into the distance and after the first round of pitstops, it became pretty clear that Mercedes had little to no pace as both Hamilton and George Russell were comfortably past by the likes of Stroll, Carlos Sainz, Pierre Gasly, and others (in the case of Russell).
Russell ended up having to retire the car due to his power unit overheating whilst both Alfa Romeo’s also had to retire which was unfortunate for them.
📸 2022 Brazilian GP winner Russell retired from tenth place.
Towards the end of the race, it became clear that the main fight was going to be the battle for the final spot on the podium between Alonso and Sergio Perez. After laps of trying to find a way past, Checo was finally able to clear Alonso on Lap 70 and it look for all the world that Perez was going to return to the podium. However, on the final lap of the race (Lap 71), Alonso re-took the position from Perez into Turn 4 before he eventually beat him to the line by just over half a tenth in a dramatic end to the 2023 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
📸 Alonso crossed the line just 0.053s ahead of Perez.
Drivers who impressed
There were three drivers that impressed me the most in 2023 Sao Paulo Grand Prix and the first one is obviously Verstappen. It was yet another day in the 2023 Formula 1 season where Max showed that he’s pretty much unstoppable.
📸 Verstappen broke another record in Brazil, setting a new highest percentage of race wins in a season, overtaking Alberto Ascari's record from 1952.
The second driver that impressed me quite a lot wass Lando Norris and that’s simply because Lando had a terrific race and he was the only driver that got anyway near to Verstappen in the entire 71 lap race. I
📸 Norris joined Verstappen and Alonso on the podium.
The final driver that I feel deserves the most praise is Fernando Alonso and in my opinion, this may well have been Fernando’s best Podium of the season because his driving in this Grand Prix was absolutely sublime.
📸 Alonso and Perez share an embrace in the media pen after their battle on track.
I was also impressed by both Lance Stroll and Pierre Gasly who had great days to finish fifth and seventh respectively whilst Yuki Tsunoda also scored some more good points for Alpha Tauri.
📸 Aston Martin took home a combined 25 points with P3 and P5 finishes.
Drivers who struggled
Due to lots of unfortunate retirements, it’s hard to really pinpoint a driver that performed poorly. However, the only driver I can really be negative about is George Russell as George seemed to have absolutely no pace during the Grand Prix.
Overall Race Results
1) Max Verstappen: Winner 2)Lando Norris: +8.277 3)Fernando Alonso: +34.155 4) Sergio Perez: +34.208 5) Lance Stroll: +40.845 6) Carlos Sainz: +50.188 7) Pierre Gasly: +56.093 8) Lewis Hamilton: +62.859 9) Yuki Tsunoda: +69.880 10) Esteban Ocon: +1 Lap 11) Logan Sargeant: +1 Lap 12) Nico Hulkenberg: +1 Lap 13) Daniel Ricciardo: +1 Lap 14) Oscar Piastri: +2 Laps.
DNF: George Russell (Overheating), Valtteri Bottas (Issue), Zhou Guanyu (Issue), Kevin Magnussen (Collision), Alex Albon (Collision).
DNS: Charles Leclerc (Hydraulics).
📸 Image credits: Formula Motorsport Limited, Mercedes AMG F1 Team, Aston Martin F1 Team.
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