Pink Bull’s Max Verstappen has his fourth Formulation One title inside attain after a shocking drive to victory from seventeenth on the grid in Brazil, dealing a shattering blow to Lando Norris’s hopes.
Norris, who began the moist and chaotic Sao Paulo race in pole place and 44 factors behind Verstappen, completed sixth for McLaren on Sunday.
The title hole blew out to 62 factors with three rounds remaining and 86 factors nonetheless to be gained.
If outcomes go his approach, Verstappen might hit the championship jackpot within the subsequent race down the floodlit Las Vegas Strip on November 23.
In a crash-strewn race shortened to 69 laps, halted after 33 and restarted, Verstappen took his eighth win of the season – and among the finest of his profession – by 19.477 seconds and with a bonus level for the quickest lap.
“We stayed out of bother, we made the fitting calls and stayed calm and we had been flying so all of these items collectively made that consequence doable,” Verstappen mentioned.
“However I imply unbelievable, to win right here from thus far again on the grid.”
The win stopped the rot at Pink Bull, ending a 10-race shedding streak for his or her Dutch driver courting again to Spain in June.
Verstappen now has 393 factors to Norris’s 331, with Leclerc on 307.
McLaren lead the constructors’ standings with 593 factors to Ferrari’s 557.
“It was a tricky day, I did my finest. I’ve had numerous good races, it was about time that one thing didn’t go proper,” mentioned Norris, who gained the Saturday dash.
‘Like driving a jet-ski’
Verstappen was described as “insane” and “invaluable” after delivering one of many best moist climate drives in chaotic, rain-lashed situations.
“I used to be feeling in all places, a roller-coaster,” he mentioned.
“My feelings went from desirous to destroy the storage after qualifying to successful the race.”
Verstappen mentioned driving below these situations was akin to “driving a ship or a jet-ski”.
“The rain got here and we stayed out, which was sketchy, and I simply needed to preserve the automobile on monitor and the situations had been undriveable – so it was particular in the present day.”
Verstappen’s victory was additionally an emphatic assertion of intent as he reeled off 5 successive quickest laps within the closing phases and 17 altogether as he got here house 19.4 seconds away from Alpine’s Esteban Ocon.
His win made him the primary driver since Kimi Raikkonen on the 2005 Japanese Grand Prix to win from way back to seventeenth on the grid.
“He was insane in the present day,” his father Jos, a former F1 driver, mentioned.
Pink Bull staff boss Christian Horner described the world champion as “invaluable”.
“It’s unattainable to place a quantity on that. That was a champion’s drive. There’s some nice drivers on the market, however to face out and shine like that in the present day – that marks him out, I feel, with among the greats now,” mentioned Horner.
“The way in which he’s pushed, and even after we’ve had a tough automobile this yr, he’s by no means given up. He’s gone about accumulating the factors, he’s at all times attempting to get most out of the automobile.”
DRIVER STANDINGS (after 21/24 rounds)
Max Verstappen surges forward with simply three races to go#F1 #BrazilGP pic.twitter.com/7PezUcF3om
— Formulation 1 (@F1) November 3, 2024
