A wet and wild Brazilian Grand Prix was claimed by Max Verstappen who returned to the winning just in time, and probably took a Championship defining advantage. Talking of defining our 2024 Brazilian F1 Grand Prix Result Summary defines all the best of the action from the race.
This 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix Result, Laps that Matter summary, Review & Ratings which gives you just enough to catch up with. With just a hint of cynicism, bias, opinion and colour. The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered, or don’t have enough time.
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Latest 2024 F1 Driver Rankings – from Mexican GP
2024 Brazilian F1 Grand Prix Result Race Summary
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Here’s where we capture the laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the scene – This part could take longer than the actual race, if it happens. Lando Norris won the Sprint Race after Oscar Piastri handed his team mate the win due to the title race with a few laps to go. Piastri being the team man after taking Sprint pole and leading all the race.
Qualifying was meant to happen next, but the rain and gloomy afternoon light meant not a single lap was run. It was postponed until the Sunday. And Sunday was plenty wet too. Which caused the stewards to move the race time 1.5 hours earlier than originally planned and fit in qualifying before that.
Qualifying saw multiple Red Flags which caused issues in all sessions. The most notable was in Q2 when Lance Stroll’s crash at Turn Two effectively eliminated both Red Bulls from Q3 glory.
To compound that, Lando Norris took pole position for the race as he was sitting first when the fourth Red Flag in qualifying was brought out. The last was caused by Alex Albon binning it into the wall at Turn One. A shame, he qualified second before that. Oscar Piastri was third.
Some teams will have some big rebuild jobs in a very short time. Especially Alex Albon’s effort. But both Aston Martins, and Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari will need some big rebuild before the race in a few hours.
And a few hours later the race is on. The track is wet but it isn’t raining right now but is expected again soon. A mixed up grid and wet could produce the race of the season, or at least a Championship defining moment as Max Verstappen starts from 17th on the grid after his Q2 bad luck and a penalty for engine.
GRID (Starting Order) – NOR RUS TSU OCO LAW LEC ALB PIA ALO STR
Lap 0 – Lance Stroll spins off at Turn 4 and taps the wall on the Formation Lap. He does keep the car going long enough to then beach himself in the gravel and is out. What a muppet. Start is aborted and the cars head off on another Formation Lap while a tractor picks up the abandoned Aston Martin. There’s a bit of a wait for the next Formation Lap, almost long enough for the dark rain clouds to have enough time to arrive at the circuit. If it does, all the cars will be on the wrong wet tyre. This could be fun. There’s no way everyone’s getting through turn one is one piece.
Lap 1 – George Russell outdrags and outbrakes pole sitter Lando Norris and the Mercedes takes the early lead. The driver all behave themselves through turn one and everyone makes it through in one piece. What would I know. The midfield all tip toe through the first lap with an interesting battle between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. Halfway around there’s a Red Bull spinning off that you just know is Sergio Perez. And it was. By the end of the first laps Russell and Norris have cleared out a bit, and Max Verstappen is flying and up to 10th already.
ORDER – RUS NOR TSU OCO LEC LAW PIA ALO GAS VER
Lap 4 – George Russell sets a fastest lap as he increases his lead to 1.3 seconds while Norris has another three second between him and third. Importantly for the Championship Max Verstappen is still 10th and ten seconds behind Norris. It appears more rain is coming and soon.
Lap 5 – Max Verstappen passes Pierre Gasly for 9th as Norris begins to close on Goerge Russell. Verstappen is 8th two laps later after passing Alonso. Piastri is next and may not be as helpful.
Lap 6 – George Russell, Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson are all under investigation for starting procedures. Oliver Bearman (16th) gets a ten second penalty a few laps later for causing a collision with Franco Colapinto.
Lap 10 – Max Verstappen dive bombs Oscar Piastri for 7th from a long way back into Turn 1. Maybe Piastri didn’t see him coming or he is very careful, but that was almost too easy, maybe his team would have expected a tougher defense. Or maybe they’d prefer a little accident while Norris is going so well. Na, Verstappen is just flying and too good right now. A lap later he passes Liam Lawson for 6th. Charles Leclerc is next.
ORDER – RUS NOR TSU OCO LEC VER LAW PIA ALO GAS
Lap 12 – In a different world, Lewis Hamilton is 13th, having fell off the track, then it overtaken and outraced by Franco Colapinto to the delight of the crowd. His Mercedes team mate still leads by just under a second.
Lap 17 – With some more rain falling but not too heavy at the moment, there’s surprisingly little action on track. Battles maintaining the gap, no one spinning off, no pointless and talentless crashes. Yet. There’s time to pay tribute to Sergio Perez’s career. He is 16th and ahead of only Saubers.
Lap 20 – Lewis Hamilton’s miserable race continues as he is passed by Carlos Sainz and Oliver Bearman. Not much movement inside the top ten except for Gasly passing Alonso for 9th at some point.
Lap 22 – Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen are really scrapping over fifth place now, and this should be interesting. Max Verstappen is complaining about being squeezed and not given a car’s width. Some would say Pot Kettle. We wouldn’t.
Lap 25 – Charles Leclerc dives into the pits as more rain falls. The Ferrari takes new Inters, which appears to be the wrong choice as it gets wetter.
Lap 26 – Liam Lawson spins out of 7th and drop to 9th. Nico Hulkenberg pits for Inters as well. A stewards investigation into Lawson and Piastri suggests a southern hemisphere incident.
Lap 27 – It is really raining now. Nico Hulkenberg has spun off and has beached his car. Surely a Safety Car is coming as the top two pass the start-finish line.
VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
Lap 28 – Oscar Piastri lucks in on his track position and pits for new tyres. He takes Inters too as does Alonso. Still surprised no one is taking full Wet tyres. The top two pit at the end of lap 28 just as the Virtual Safety Car ends, and Max Verstappen passes them both for second.
VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR ENDS
Lap 29 – It is so wet. So hard to see the cars through the spray. A few drivers are on the full wet tyres. Yuki Tsunoda in 6th, Liam Lawson in 12th and Sergio Perez in 14th.
ORDER – OCO VER GAS RUS NOR TSU LEC PIA ALO BOT (Top Three yet to pit)
Lap 30 – Lando Norris passes George Russell on the back straight which is effectively a net lead. Unless Max Verstappen can stay out on the old tyres.
FULL SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
Lap 31 – It’s got too wet for the drivers so the Safety Car is slowing them down. Which is probably a shame for the cars on full wets. Talking of which, a replay is shown of Liam Lawson barging past Lewis Hamilton into turn one.
Lap 32 – Pictures show a partially destroyed Williams belonging to Franco Colapinto. Which brings out the red flag.
RACE RED FLAGGED
Time is needed to clean up the Williams as tactics are discussed and time is filled in. All cars change back to Inters.
Lap 33 – RACE RESUMES under a rolling start which should be less dangerous but potentially as fun. Advantage Max Verstappen at this point. Not so Oliver Bearman and one of the Saubers who are off on the gras before the lap finishes.
ORDER – OCO VER GAS NOR RUS TSU LEC PIA ALO LAW
Lap 34 – Ocon does well with the restart and decisively keeps the lead. Further back all the car appears to behave themselves again. Further around Lando Norris slides off the track and loses a place to George Russell. By the end of the lap Ocon is 1.5 second ahead of Verstappen in a pretty impressive opening lap.
Lap 36 – Oliver Bearman continues an eventful race by hounding Carlos Sainz for 13th and then spinning off into the barrier lightly and continues.
Lap 38 – Talking of eventful races, Lewis Hamilton is up to 9th and hounding Tsunoda for 8th. A far cry from his car being undriveable earlier. Meanwhile, Ocon is now leading by 3.3 seconds and driving like a wet weather king. He may be on track for a second win to go with the one from Hungary a few seasons ago in the wet.
Lap 40 – Carlos Sainz is off into the barriers and out. Big difference from his winning weekend just a week ago. Safety Car comes out again.
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
Lap 43 – RACE RESUMES – Ocon bunches the field up and nice and good, which should cause chaos. It didn’t help him as Max Verstappen dives inside at turn one for the lead. Further back Lando Norris slides off again and rejoins behind his team mate in 6th. The restart is worse for Lewis Hamilton who drops multiple places. Fernando Alonso also spins off but resumes towards the end of the lap.
ORDER – VER OCO GAS LEC RUS PIA NOR TSU LAW PER
Lap 50 – Max Verstappen sets fastest lap and has over five second lead to Ocon in second. There’s another 11 seconds back to Lando Norris in 6th.
Lap 54 – Sergio Perez racing Liam Lawson again. Which based on last weekend should be fun. At least they’re racing for 9th this time. A lap later Perez tries into turn one, Lawson says no, they almost touch or do, then that slows Perez down enough to let Hamilton pass on by with momentum. So Perez loses his one Championship point rather than gaining one.
ORDER – VER OCO GAS RUS LEC NOR PIA TSU LAW HAM
Lap 58 – Max Verstappen sets another fastest lap and is now nearly ten second ahead of Ocon is second. The Alpine driver himself is a comfortable 3.6 seconds ahead of his team mate who is being closed in on by George Russell for the final podium spot.
Lap 59 – The Hamilton-Perez-RB battle continues as the drivers scrap over the final Championship points. It rages until the end of the race.
Lap 62 – Oscar Piastri gets a ten second penalty for a clash earlier in the race. McLaren tell Lando Norris ahead of him to get closer to Charles Leclerc ahead of him so they can create a ten second gap to Yuki Tsunoda behind (currently 6.6 seconds).
Lap 65 – Either bored or determined to make a point, Max Verstappen sets another fastest lap. The lead is now 15 second to Ocon. An extra point for Fastest lap won’t hurt his Championship lead increase either.
FINAL LAP – Max Verstappen cruises out in front, with a lead of almost 20 seconds by the time he crosses the line. The Alpine team would be delighted with a double podium that very few would have tipped pre-race. Lando Norris finishes 6th and has possibly thrown away his chance at the Championship. Piastri drop behind Yuki Tsunoda to 8th after his ten second penalty is applied.
FINAL ORDER (Across the line) – VER OCO GAS RUS LEC NOR TSU PIA LAW HAM
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
THE GREAT-EST – MAX VERSTAPPEN
Could have been a Championship defining weekend in a negative way, but it ended up quite the opposite. Started 17th after being caught out by a Red Flag in Q2 and also having a penalty, he made a great start to make the top ten soon after the first start. Then got lucky with the race Safety Cars and Red Flag. Dealt with Ocon decisively for the lead and never looked back. Meanwhile his Championship rival Lando Norris, who had held 2nd for a lot of the early stages of the race kept dropping places as he slid off.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
ESTEBAN OCON – Led the race with little trouble at one stage and was even pulling away from Max Verstappen. A far cry from some of his quite mediocre recent races. Second is a great result.
PIERRE GASLY – A great run, basically unseen by cameras to hold third behind his team mate to continue a great recent run.
GEORGE RUSSELL – Did well with a car that his team mate described as undriveable. Led easily for the first part of the race.
RBs – Solid points and decent race pace early, all while their rivals Haas have an off day.
THE GRAPE-EST – LANDO NORRIS
Had a great weekend on track at one stage. Gifted a Sprint Race win, and Max Verstappen demoted from 3rd to 4th in that Sprint Race gave him valuable extra points clawed back in the Championship. Had plenty more clawed back as Max Verstappen started 17th and Lando Norris started from pole. Norris dropped to second but was still far ahead of Verstappen in the race. Then came the Red Flag where he fell behind Max Verstappen on track, then left the track a few times to compound being behind Max Verstappen and lost more Championship points. Will find it hard from here to beat Max for the title.
DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS
SERGIO PEREZ – Knocked out in Q2, spun on lap one. Spent most of his race in the lower midfield. Put on Full Wets when it may have transformed his race. Then the Red Flag came out and ruined that.
CARLOS SAINZ – What difference a week makes. Wins last weekend in Mexico, spins out of 13th place in the Brazilian rain.
LEWIS HAMILTON – Knocked out in Q1 and had a car which appeared to be undriveable for him. Made little progress through the midfield and was constantly on the radio about how bad his car is. Red Flag helped and spent the second half of the race in the top ten, but regardless, that Ferrari can’t come quick enough.
OSCAR PIASTRI – Took Sprint Pole and then on track for Sprint Race win until he gave that up for his Championship chasing team mate. But was quite underwhelming in the main race. The ten second penalty late in the race sealed the deal.
LANCE STROLL – Bins car before the race even starts, what a muppet.
Was it a good race, loads of action, a tense ending, a surprise result or DNF, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest?
We rate the big race itself, so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
ON TRACK ACTION – 9 / 10
Enough action on track to almost not keep up with it all. Brazil usually provides action and a wet race almost certainly will.
ANY SURPRISES? – 5 / 5
Esteban Ocon leading with authority was surprising all right. Max Verstappen leading by Lap 43 after starting last is also a decent eyebrow-raiser.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 5 / 5
What could have been a decisive cutting into Max Verstappen’s Championship lead has ended up giving Max enough cushion to cruise to the title over the next three races.
ENDING 4 / 10
With a wet track you can never be sure if the action is going to come, but the ending was on the mild side of interesting. But who can complain after the laps the preceded it. Can’t have everything.
OVERALL RATING 23 / 30
Usually a classic race, add water and it’s guaranteed. Good Championship defining moments too.
2024 F1 Race Rankings
R19 – Mexican Grand Prix….24/30
R19 – US Grand Prix….23/30
R18 – Singapore Grand Prix…10/30
R17 – Azerbaijan Grand Prix…25/30
R16 – Italian Grand Prix…21/30
R15 – Dutch Grand Prix…15/30
R14 – Belgian Grand Prix…23/30
R13 – Hungarian Grand Prix…19/30
R12 – British Grand Prix…25/30
R11 – Austrian Grand Prix…27/30
R10 – Spanish Grand Prix…19/30
R09 – Canadian Grand Prix…22/30
R08 – Monaco Grand Prix…17/30
R07 – Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix…23/30
R06 – Miami Grand Prix…23/30
R05 – Chinese Grand Prix…15/30
R04 – Japanese Grand Prix…18/30
R03 – Australian Grand Prix…23/30
R02 – Saudi Arabia Grand Prix…9/30
R01 – Bahrain Grand Prix…13/30
2024 F1 Season Power Rankings
Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the race soon as it is currently being calculated and will be ready on Monday.
Why not check the latest race ratings – 2024 Singapore Grand Prix Ratings
Or our 2024 F1 Half Season Report.
Or check out our 2023 Season Driver Rankings and Stats
