Max Verstappen said he “surprised himself” with his superb drive in the rain from 17th on the grid to win the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver is a step closer to securing his fourth world title as championship rival Lando Norris finished in sixth.
Verstappen has increased the points gap between him and Norris to 62 points and has the potential to secure the drivers’ championship in two weeks’ time at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
“It’s definitely an emotional win,” Verstappen told reporters. “This morning I was very upset, and my emotions have been going from left to right today. I surprised myself today to win here to be honest.
“We had a really good start, we stayed out of trouble, we made good overtakes and we were very fast. We had made the right calls with the red flag to stay out and after that the rain came down and it was even undriveable on the wet tyre.
“The calls with the team were super calm and amazing in helping me as well from the pit wall in making the right decisions. In races like this it’s just massive to have that.”
Verstappen’s championship lead looked to be unravelling as he took a five-place grid penalty for a sixth engine of the season coming into the weekend, and had a five-second penalty dropping him off the podium in Saturday’s sprint race. In Sunday morning’s qualifying session, the Dutchman was caught out by a red flag dropping him out of Q2, and causing him to start 17th with a grid-penalty as McLaren‘s Norris started from pole.
Verstappen made up eight places in the first few laps of the race and worked his way up the order before the rain intensified on Lap 28. As others pitted for wet tyres, Red Bull kept him out on intermediates, as he and the two Alpines stayed out to inherit the top three positions. Shortly after, Franco Colapinto crashed causing a red flag, and granting Verstappen and the Alpines a free pitstop.
As the race restarted, Verstappen made a stunning lunge on Esteban Ocon for the lead and thus secured his third win at Interlagos, with Ocon and Pierre Gasly claiming a double podium for Alpine.
“I never thought I would win today,” Verstappen said. “I had a good feeling that I could be P4. I feel comfortable, but of course from a young age I’ve been driving together in the wet with my dad and best friends and we’ve been practicing a lot of different scenarios every time.
“I think that naturally makes you comfortable in these conditions but in the end, the car still needs to work – it gave me confidence today and of course incredibly pleased with this result.
“It’s been an unbelievable race for us as well. I was confident that we could do a good job but this has been better than we could have expected today.”
Sunday’s victory was Verstappen’s eighth of the year, and first since the Spanish Grand Prix in June.
F1 has three races remaining with the Las Vegas Grand Prix next.
Source: espn.com