Max Verstappen picked up his 17th win of the 2023 F1 season after another dominant run at the Brazil GP. With this, Red Bull has now broken Mercedes’ 2016 record for the most laps led in a season.
Lando Norris was P2, scoring his fifth podium in six races. Fernando Alonso returned to the podium for the first time since the Dutch GP after a thrilling last-lap battle with Sergio Perez. The Aston Martin driver out-dragged Perez to the line, bagging P3 by just 0.053secs.
- Verstappen wins, 8.277secs from Norris
- Alonso takes P3 by just 0.053secs
- Leclerc out on formation lap
Verstappen takes dominant Brazil GP win
Sao Paulo served up plenty of drama. Charles Leclerc pulled out of the race on the formation lap itself after suffering a hydraulics issue. Then the race was red flagged soon after the start following Alex Albon and Kevin Magnussen’s big crash.
But Verstappen remained in control throughout. He aced both starts and fended off any challenge from Norris to add another win to his tally. With 52 wins, he passes Alain Prost and moves to fourth on the all-time list.
"The starts were very important today; both of them were very good," said Verstappen. "Then after that the whole race was about the management of the tyres. We were good on any tyre, but I think especially that middle stint, we could create a bit of a gap, so I thought that was very strong there.”
Norris put in another impressive performance to finish second, and he bagged an additional point for setting the fast lap.
Alonso pips Perez to P3
Alonso spent a good chunk of the race trying to keep Perez at bay. The Red Bull driver finally found a way past on Lap 70, but Alonso launched an attack on the final lap. He passed Perez into Turn 4 and then out-dragged him to the line for a photo finish.
Aston Martin has endured a couple of tough races recently, with the team testing out upgrades. However, Sao Paulo saw them go back to the pre-upgraded car, and it paid off. Lance Stroll also collected a bunch of points, finishing fifth.
Carlos Sainz – the sole Ferrari to compete in the race – had trouble of his own with downshift issues. But he held on to finish sixth. Pierre Gasly was seventh, ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon.
Despite a recent upturn in performance, Mercedes had a Brazil GP to forget. Hamilton could only manage finishing eighth, while George Russell had to retire due to a cooling issue. Russell even called this Mercedes' "slowest weekend" of the year.
After a week off, F1 will now head back to the USA for the first-ever Las Vegas GP on November 17-19.
2023 Brazil GP results
Dinshaw Magol
