In the 69 laps of the Brazilian Grand Prix, Verstappen displayed his very best. A perfect start, blending aggression and confidence as he passed Lewis Hamilton, Pierre Gasly, Fernando Alonso, Oscar Piastri, and Liam Lawson within the first ten laps. Then came the management phase, staying behind Charles Leclerc for thirteen laps, with an apparent truce even when the Russell-Norris tandem returned to the pits for a pit stop.
Then the red flag – a good sign, but with half the race still to go. Once racing resumed, Max switched to “hammer mode,” overtaking Ocon and clocking 17 fastest laps, allowing him to cross the finish line with a 20-second lead over the Alpine behind him.
An outstanding performance that extinguished any world championship ambitions for Lando Norris, propelling Max Verstappen toward securing his fourth world title. Much has been said about the role of the driver in modern Formula 1, often downplaying those who sit between the wheel and the fuel tank.
Max proved everyone wrong; his contribution to the team in recent years (as Red Bull itself acknowledges) has been enormous. However, to make this contribution more visible, it took the team’s technical struggles, which began in early summer and may not yet be over.
Max Verstappen has shouldered the team, consistently securing placements when victory wasn’t possible, occasionally showing some of his less favorable traits. But he has always brought points home, maintaining the morale of a team enduring, for various reasons, its most challenging season. “Without Verstappen, Red Bull would collapse,” many experts in the paddock have said. Though this phrase may seem ungrateful to the Milton Keynes team, there is some truth to it.
The driver who led Red Bull to victory in the Brazilian Grand Prix is a formidable asset; in 69 laps, he overturned an entire weekend and, with it, an entire season. Max himself was the first to understand the magnitude of his accomplishment, visibly elated after the race as he climbed out of the car.
He has won a lot in his career, but rarely has such satisfaction been visible on his face as it was today at Interlagos. After enduring three penalties (rightly so) over seven days, he redeemed himself in his own way. In that relentless pace, even when the race was well in hand, there was a desire to prove that he is number one, despite everything.
The 62-point lead over Lando Norris with which he arrives in Las Vegas is enough to hope for a mathematical conclusion with two races to spare, the final step before his fourth world title. This will likely be his most personal, most meaningful, and most deserved title, earned without the rocket-like Red Bull from Adrian Newey that was previously credited as the primary reason for his success.
This will be Max Verstappen’s championship, earned through different battles than his fierce 2021 showdown with Lewis Hamilton, because even Max himself has changed. There are still some rough edges, and perhaps the new FIA guidelines on overtaking will be a gift to him. Max Verstappen doesn’t need to go over the top, as he demonstrated brilliantly today in São Paulo with a victory destined to be remembered for a long time.
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