Brazil GP Race Report

There were umbrellas up and gazebos erected before the start of the Brazilian Grand Prix as it was raining steadily but not heavily.  The drivers did some extra laps to the grid to get a feel for the track; world champion Antonelli went off on turn 12 through the grass, mud and water.  It was the scene of doom for several drivers during qualifying and I wondered how many other drivers would caught out there during the race.

The grid looked nothing like the finishing order in qualifying; there were so many grid penalties.  Lawson would start in third and Hulkenberg in fourth.  Bottas was wheeled off the grid as well as a wheel nut was stuck on his tyre.

Antonelli got a much better start than Norris who ended up in third quickly, behind Lawson too.  Alonso and Linblad (I think, we never went back to look at their start) slid wide and went of the track, slickly rejoining.  Hamilton was in the points by the end of the first lap whilst Verstappen was in eleventh, both drivers starting at the back.    The two of them were battling by the fourth lap.

Hulkenberg was already under investigation for doing something wrong with his practice start.  Verstappen and Albon were scrutinised for being out of place on the grid.  Nothing came of it.

The Ferraris were really battling; good job Vasseur had that chat with them.  The cars were not even in the points but Alonso butted in and got between them.    On lap 15 of 71, after a lot of begging over the radio, Hamilton was the first driver to go on to dry tyres.  A random selection of others followed him.  After one quick sector by Hamilton, a flood of drivers came into the pits.  

Russell managed to spin coming out of the pits in the narrow lane.  Three drivers nearly hit him as he had to spin back around to be pointing in the correct direction.  His tyres looked awful afterwards and he had to scrape them along the wall to get out.  He was back in tenth.

At first the slick tyres looked great but then Antonelli spun off the track and Norris took the lead.  Hadjar was easily past him when he rejoined the track.  Another off gave his third place to Verstappen as he lacked control over the car.  The race was sliding away from him.

It wasn't even halfway through the race when Norris started overtaking backmarkers.  Those drivers included the second Brazilian Camara in his Haas in last place and Stroll, second to last.  Stroll would not last of course.  I think he must have a cause in his contract that if he runs for twenty laps and he is not in a better place than twenty, the team will call on him to pull over to the side of the track and he can go home early.

It looked like Hadjar could hold out in second ahead of his team mate but then they had to swap.  Verstappen may have been faster.  Leclerc let Hamilton past further down the field.  After what happened next, Antonelli was told to let Russell past.  What a world we live in.

We were waiting and waiting for more rain to come and with less than ten laps to go it arrived.  Most drivers pitted for Intermediate tyres.  Hamilton on dry tyres spun and was the last to come in alongside Sainz.

Everyone held it together in the wet conditions to come home and somehow there was no Safety Car, no VSC, no Red Flags and barely any Yellows one during the race.  Everyone made the right decision about when to change tyres.  Perhaps the days of rain spicing up races have come to an end?

The Racing Bulls really held their own during this event and Lawson deserved a higher place than eighth with a side order of worry about whether he will be dropped next season.  Red Bull are back and strong but need to stop this current trend of beginning each season slowly.  Russell had a strong weekend and really let himself down (again) with his pit lane spin, at least he finished one place ahead of Antonelli in fourth.  Piastri was five places behind his winning team mate and must be starting to fear questions about his own future.  The Ferraris extracted nothing from their performance and it was a disappointing seventh for Leclerc and ninth for Hamilton.  Williams also did nothing with the advantage they gained on the grid with Albon in fifteenth and Sainz in nineteenth and one from the bottom.  Camara managed to finish his first Grand Prix, which is a result.  I would like to have seen Alonso in the points not twelfth but he finished so that's something.

Mercedes won the Constructors Championship and would be celebrating.  Norris begged McLaren over the radio to keep up the momentum, presumably for next year.  There is a break now before the end but we come back to another difficult track to manage in terms of time difference and timing of sessions, Las Vegas.  I wonder what will happen there this year to amaze and astound us.