Ferrari’s weekend in Brazil turned into nightmare afternoon in a matter of minutes, it immediately ruined Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton’s race. Monegasques are innocent victims carrom hell triggered by a too decisive attack from Oscar Piastri on Kimi Antonelli: the contact was heavy, damaging the left front suspension and causing interesting from Monegasque. Even earlier, Hamilton had damaged the front wing due to rear contact: the British driver’s Ferrari was back in the garage but it’s no longer competitive.
After serving his sentence for the accident, the former world champion retired: since 2012 he has always scored points at Interlagos. Other people’s competition lives in Lando Norris’s solo but also in proof of applause by Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who finished in an impressive second place. So what is extraordinary is the return of Max Verstappen who, starting from the pitmanaged to finish at the bottom of the podium. Oscar Piastri, however, chewed bitterly: he was looking at fifth place experienced setbacks against his teammate, who is now the favorite to win the drivers’ title.
Two crashes in as many minutes, Ferrari out
After the disaster in qualifying, Max Verstappen was forced to start from the garage while Kimi Antonelli tried to take advantage of the first stint by immediately changing to soft tires. However, everyone in the paddock remained alert due to the changeable Brazilian weather: although there was water on the track in some parts, conditions remained suitable for slippery roads. In preparation, Norris started well, managing to repel a direct attack from the Mercedes driver from Bologna: but it was a problem for Hamilton who suffered damage to his front wing after making contact with Sainz. Before he had finished the first lap, the first accident arrived: at corner 10, Bortoleto’s Sauber still hit the wall, but fortunately the impact was not as hard as that seen in the sprint race. If the Brazilian’s race is over, the safety car will enter the track for the first time: the Ferrari garage takes advantage of the situation to call Lewis back, change his nose and put on hard tires. Once the safety car returned, the restart became complicated thanks to Oscar Piastri’s excessive aggressiveness: the Australian driver from McLaren went overboard in attacking Antonelli and touched his Mercedes, which also damaged Leclerc’s Ferrari. The Monegasque racer was the one to suffer the worst: damage to the left front suspension on his SF-25, forcing the Ferrari driver to retire which activated the virtual safety car. Although Piastri’s attack seemed very excessive, the FIA took a long time before opening an investigation.
Due to the prolonged break, Verstappen seized the opportunity to switch to medium but, once the race restarted, Norris was clearly separated from his teammate, whose car may have suffered damage in the crash that forced Leclerc out of the race. What made the night even more harrowing for Reds fans was the fact that Hamilton struggled to stay on track. Antonelli, despite the accident, somehow managed to keep up with the two’s speed Pawpaw but within a few laps he had to watch his back to Russell, who, after he passed Hadjar, launched in pursuit. On lap 15 Hamilton was forced to return to the pits for the second time: the mechanics again replaced the front wing and installed new medium tires. In the end, the FIA decided to punish Piastri’s mistake and handed him a ten-second penalty. As soon as the pit stops started, Verstappen found himself in fifth place when overtaking Albon: no mean feat considering he started from the pit lane. On lap 24 the Ferrari driven by Hamilton continued to experience big problems: the former world champion kept asking the wall to give up. Antonelli was very quick after the stop and started the comeback: however, in the lead, Norris had a lead of almost six seconds over Piastri, who had not yet served a penalty. Because it always rains when it’s wet, the FIA penalized Hamilton’s contact with Colapinto by 5 seconds: Lewis had to return to the pits to finish off another bad day for Ferrari.
Norris flies, who overtakes Verstappen
While Antonelli was getting closer to the podium, it was a very quick stop for Norris, who was on soft tires but trailing just behind Max Verstappen’s Red Bull: the world champion tried to do everything he could to fight back but was overtaken within a few laps. Meanwhile, the race director realized that Tsunoda had not carried out the penalty correctly and gave him another 10 seconds: Hamilton returned to the pits but, instead of retiring as expected, he returned to the track. Russell and Verstappen both returned to the middle of the road, both on medium tyres. Ferrari’s British driver was forced to step aside to avoid the blue flag and was lapped by Piastri: it was the final humiliation before his final retirement, something that had not happened since 2012. Piastri changed tires and served a 10-second penalty, handing the race lead back to Norris, who had a huge advantage over the Mercedes of Antonelli and Russell. Verstappen put in a crucial lap after the break and was already eyeing fourth place Bearman. If Norris gains up to 7 seconds on Antonelli, there are still 30 laps left to complete: given he has been on soft tyres, he will be forced to stop again to reach the checkered flag. Piastri tried to take advantage of this by continuing to press and setting fast turns one after another, but snatching victory from his teammate would not be easy. The Australian appeared in front of the mirror Verstappen apparently intent on reaching the end without having to return to the pits.
Both Mercedes were forced to change tires for a second time but Antonelli quickly reclaimed fourth place before Norris also returned to the pits on lap 51, handing over first place to Max Verstappen. The Briton was second when Piastri changed tires for the last time and caught up with the Dutchman: no one had yet managed to win a grand prix starting from the pits but McLaren was only 2 seconds behind the Red Bull. Despite rumors circulating in the paddock, Verstappen returned to the pits, returning to fourth and returning the Brazilian Grand Prix lead to Lando Norris. Antonelli went on to race what could be described as perfect but, with 15 laps to go before the checkered flag, he had more than 5 seconds to recover from the Briton. If the race ended now, Norris would be +24 off Piastri and +52 off Verstappen, a tough gap to recover at this point in the season. With eleven laps to go, Antonelli was nearly nine seconds ahead of Russell, making the prospect of seeing the Italian on the podium in Brazil 22 years after Fisichella’s win highly likely.
The final stretch of the race was animated by Verstappen snatching second from Russell: if he manages to reach the bottom of the podium, it would be a truly impressive feat for the Red Bull driver. The Dutchman was not discouraged and managed to catch Antonelli, going all out in the final laps: the Bolognese was not intimidated and maintained his impressive second place in great fashion.
