F1 Brazilian GP: Verstappen fends off Norris for 17th win of 2023

The world champion-elect had been able to successfully convert pole position into a win to double up on his sprint race triumph from Saturday, having beaten Norris once again in an initially close-fought contest that eventually led to the two drivers diverging.

Verstappen was barely troubled beyond the opening 10 laps and, despite a Norris fightback towards the end as the McLaren driver had opted for a strategy offset in the final stint, had enough in hand to cross the line with a 8.2s advantage.

Although Norris was only sixth on the grid, the McLaren driver moved into contention with two key events either side of the start: first, Charles Leclerc had suffered a hydraulic issue on the formation lap and hit the wall at Ferradura, which killed his race before it had even begun.

This opened up a grid space on the front row, which Norris moved into as the slow-starting Fernando Alonso ahead offered a prime opportunity to break down the inside into the first corner and collect second, as Lewis Hamilton rounded both Aston Martins on the outside to slot in behind.

The race was red flagged thanks to a crash between Alex Albon and Kevin Magnussen at the first corner, and Norris crucially held off Hamilton at the restart to ensure he retained second place.

Norris began to put Verstappen under scrutiny over the next three tours and harried him on the eighth lap, when he attempted to prise open a gap on the outside of the first corner. He followed that up with a look at Turn 4, but this was countered by Verstappen and the McLaren driver subsequently had to back off having taken a hefty chunk of life out of his tyres.

The gap between the leaders soon opened to over two seconds as Norris struggled to get back on level terms, with the arrears continuing to increase as Verstappen had the pace advantage.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL60, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W14 (Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images)

Both drivers pitted on lap 27 with their delta now at 3.6s, but Norris lost a second through his spell in the pitlane to add to Verstappen's buffer.

Norris kept Verstappen in check over the middle stint, initially keeping the gap at around five seconds, but after half distance the difference between the two cars became more apparent and Verstappen was approximately eight seconds to the good when he stopped on lap 56 for a second time.

After pitting three laps later, Norris was 14 seconds behind as Verstappen benefitted from the undercut, but the Briton hacked away at the lead and managed to whittle it down to just over eight seconds by the chequered flag.

Alonso sensationally beat Sergio Perez to third place having come under sustained pressure from the Red Bull in the final stint for a podium position, overturning a penultimate-lap overtake on the final lap and crossing the line with just 0.053s in hand.

The Aston Martin driver had kept ahead of Perez over the previous two stints with apparent ease, but it was the Mexican who had the greater speed on the soft tyres at the end.

Alonso was forced into taking a series of different lines to keep Perez from gaining the better traction through Turn 8 and Turn 13, and managed to wave him away despite the threat of DRS.

But Perez managed to collect himself and powered through into the first corner on lap 70, and held off any threat through the Turn 4 braking zone at the bottom of the hill.

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL60, Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR23 (Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images)

To respond, Alonso stayed on Perez's gearbox throughout the rest of the lap and used the start-finish straight to draw close, capping off the overtake with a last-lap pass around the outside at Turn 4. Despite Perez's greater pace with DRS at the very end, Alonso had just enough to complete the top three.

Lance Stroll managed his best finish since the Australian Grand Prix to take fifth place as Aston Martin appeared to be in much stronger form over the Brazil weekend, as Carlos Sainz overcame late-race downshift issues to complete the top six.

Sainz had been able to work his way past the two Mercedes on his way to sixth and, thanks to Leclerc's failure to start the race, was the sole Ferrari interest over the grand prix.

The Spaniard was six seconds clear of an impressive Pierre Gasly, who had to deal with braking worries on his route to seventh having been upwardly mobile throughout the opening half of the race.

Lewis Hamilton's eighth-place finish summed up a miserable weekend for the Mercedes squad as a high-drag car and inability to find a competitive method of managing tyres left to a drop through the order. He had been accosted by team-mate George Russell for most of the race, but the younger Briton was called in to retire amid mounting struggles.

Yuki Tsunoda claimed ninth place, while Esteban Ocon made a three-stop strategy work to claim the final point available.

Logan Sargeant finished ahead of Nico Hulkenberg outside of the points, as Daniel Ricciardo and Oscar Piastri spent effectively the whole race a lap down after being caught up in the start incident between Albon and Magnussen.

Marshals remove the damaged cars of Kevin Magnussen, Haas VF-23, Alex Albon, Williams FW45, from the circuit (Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images)

Albon's rear-left was clipped by Nico Hulkenberg's front wing as the field compressed into the first corner, which pitched the Williams into Magnussen's flank.

The incident caused rear wing damage to both Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo; Piastri was hit by Magnussen, while the loose tyre liberated from Albon's car in the clash hit Ricciardo's rear wing. Both were set to retire, but the red flag offered the Australians' respective teams the opportunity to fix the issues.

F1 Brazilian GP results

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info

         

Driver Info			Main Information Additional Data
Cla	Driver	#		Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Pits	Points	Retirement	Chassis	Engine
1	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1		71	-			4	25		Red Bull	Red Bull
2	L. Norris McLaren	4		71	+8.277 8.277	8.277		4	19		McLaren	Mercedes
3	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14		71	+34.155 34.155	25.878		4	15		Aston Martin	Mercedes
4	S. Perez Red Bull Racing	11		71	+34.208 34.208	0.053		4	12		Red Bull	Red Bull
5	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18		71	+40.845 40.845	6.637		4	10		Aston Martin	Mercedes
6	C. Sainz Ferrari	55		71	+50.188 50.188	9.343		4	8		Ferrari	Ferrari
7	P. Gasly Alpine	10		71	+56.093 56.093	5.905		4	6		Alpine	Renault
8	L. Hamilton Mercedes	44		71	+1'02.859 1'02.859	6.766		4	4		Mercedes	Mercedes
9	Y. Tsunoda AlphaTauri	22		71	+1'09.880 1'09.880	7.021		4	2		AlphaTauri	Red Bull
10	E. Ocon Alpine	31		70	1 lap			5	1		Alpine	Renault
11	L. Sargeant Williams	2		70	1 lap			4			Williams	Mercedes
12	N. Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team	27		70	1 lap			4			Haas	Ferrari
13	D. Ricciardo AlphaTauri	3		70	1 lap			4			AlphaTauri	Red Bull
14	O. Piastri McLaren	81		69	2 laps			4			McLaren	Mercedes
dnf	G. Russell Mercedes	63		57	14 laps			5		Retirement	Mercedes	Mercedes
dnf	V. Bottas Alfa Romeo	77		39	32 laps			4		Retirement	Alfa Romeo	Ferrari
dnf	Z. Guanyu Alfa Romeo	24		22	49 laps			4		Retirement	Alfa Romeo	Ferrari
dnf	K. Magnussen Haas F1 Team	20		0						Collision	Haas	Ferrari
dnf	A. Albon Williams	23		0						Collision	Williams	Mercedes
dns	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16		0						Hydraulics	Ferrari	Ferrari
View full results

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