By: Rishi Mistry
Brazil just hosted the most recent F1, and wow, what an eventful weekend.
To begin, the championship battle was starting to heat up when Lando Norris was slowly catching Max Verstappen in the drivers championship. To make things even more interesting, Max Verstappen was handed a 5-place grid penalty for the race on Friday after replacing his engine. The sprint qualifying and spring race brought a positive beginning to the weekend for Mclaren as they finished 1-2 in both events. Verstappen was also handed a 5 second time penalty during the sprint race after a safety car infringement where he went too fast during a virtual safety car. Mclaren seemed to be on the rise to a very successful weekend and it could bring Norris very close for the lead of the drivers championship.
On Saturday, qualifying for the race was delayed until Sunday morning because of the amount of rain. Later during the day, Lewis Hamilton, the 7-time World Champion was able to drive Ayrton Senna’s 1990 championship car, the Mclaren MP4/5B. It was very emotional as it has been 30 years since Ayrton Senna, one of the greatest drivers ever, died in an accident. The late Brazilian driver was not only honored by Lewis Hamilton, but by the whole grid in his hometown. This legendary image of Hamilton driving Senna’s car will never be forgotten.
Now is where it gets really interesting. On Sunday morning, qualifying occurred. To our surprise, Lewis Hamilton qualified 16th, and Vertsappen qualified 12th, with the 5-place grid penalty bringing him down to 17th for the race. This was an absolutely crazy qualifying because 5 red flags were thrown out during the hour due to the amount of rain (a red flag is when the whole session stops because of a big crash). Things really looked amazing for Norris as he took pole position with Verstappen very far behind him. During the race, there was lots of rain, but Verstappen thrived in it. He made his way all the way up to 5th, and a lucky red flag saw him in second place for a restart. Unfortunately for Lando Norris, his team messed up on his strategy, and he fell to 5th place. Vertsappen stayed in second for quite some time, as it looked like the first place car of Esteban Ocon was pulling away, but Carlos Sainz crashed, and it brought out a safety car. Verstappen was able to make a pass for the lead when the crash was all cleaned up, and Norris lost 2 more places and fell to 7th. Verstappen went on to win a brilliant drive from P17, while Norris trundled his car home to take P6. After the race, Norris described Verstappen’s heroics as “luck and not skill.” This statement angered many as most agree that Verstappen has more talent than Norris. Racing in the wet removes the skill of the car, it is up to the skill of the driver to create results. Overall, this has been an eventful weekend, and pretty much sums up the results for the drivers championship. It seems that Vertsappen will once again win for a fourth time in a row, but all eyes are on next season. With Red Bull on the downfall and multiple driver changes, it’s anyone’s game in 2025.
World Cited
Kanal, Samarth. “Winners and Losers from F1’s 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix.” The Race, The Race, 4 Nov. 2024, http://www.the-race.com/formula-1/winners-losers-f1-2024-brazilian-grand-prix/.
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