FORMULA 1
 Credit: Steven Tee In what could be a championship-defining drive, from Max Verstappen as he won a rain-soaked 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix from 17th on the grid - on Sunday afternoon. It was a rain-soaked race that saw five retirements, a red flag, a safety car and a virtual safety car which presented many strategical challenges for teams and drivers as they had to try and adapt and suffer set backs. Verstappen was a class above the rest and was able to take victory by almost 20 seconds by the time he took the chequered flag. The reigning world champion and championship leader won with red Bull ahead of the two Alpine drivers in a stunning drive from their lineup. Esteban Ocon would finish second after leading a large portion of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix with his teammate Pierre Gasly coming home in third for Alpine. The Endstone-based Alpine team have scored a double podium and have managed to leap from ninth in the Constructors championship to sixth, which could give them $50 million dollars worth of extra cash, which could help them a tonne. Lando Norris would end up finishing sixth in the provisional classification after a nightmare with strategy and after losing the race start at the very start to George Russell. Norris could be penalised after the Grand Prix following an aborted start infringement. Lance Stroll caused the aborted start after crashing and then beaching the car on the first of three formation laps. Alex Albon was withdrawn after too much damage was sustained in qualifying. Elsewhere, Franco Colapinto and Carlos Sainz also retired from the race after crashing while Nico Hulkenberg was disqualified. The gap in the championship has gained by 18 and therefore Verstappen has a 62-point lead in the championship over Lando Norris whose championship chances have been significantly disrupted following on the points haul in Verstappen's favour. How the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix unfoldedGrand Prix Sunday was greeted with a wet Interlagos circuit for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix and round 21 of the championship in what had already been a very busy day for the teams and drivers and therefore the pressure was high. Qualifying took place on Sunday morning instead of the originally scheduled Saturday afternoon as the session was postponed due to extreme wet weather that made the track very unsafe and therefore the session would be re-scheduled. It was a wet qualifying but the track conditions were nowhere near as bad as they were on Saturday afternoon. Due to the wet circuit, it was a qualifying that produced many shocks and surprises as well as five red flags across the three sessions. Lewis Hamilton would be knocked out in Q1 for the second Grand Prix in the last three and Max Verstappen was eliminated in Q2 alongside teammate Sergio Perez and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz who crashed in that session. Verstappen would qualify 12th would take a five-place grid penalty for an engine change and would therefore start 17th, whereas Carlos Sainz would have to take on new components to his engine in addition to a new gearbox and therefore would be forced to start from the pit lane. Franco Colapinto, Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso would all crash during qualifying and would bring out red flags in addition to Carlos Sainz. Also crashing would be Alex Albon but the Thai driver of Williams would have the biggest shunt of all the incidents into turn 1 and thankfully he was okay. The damage to the Williams car of Albon was too much to be repaired in the short time frame before the Grand Prix and therefore he would not take the start and would withdraw from the event. This would leave Franco Colapinto as the sole Williams and just 19 cars competing and 18 on the grid. As for the top end of qualifying, Lando Norris would not be a hugely surprising pole sitter as the McLaren driver would have to make good use of Max Verstappen being so far down the grid and would be hoping to make a hugely significant points gain on the championship leader Verstappen. It would be a British 1-2 as George Russell of Mercedes would qualify second and it would be the British pair who graduated from Formula 2 together in 2018 that would share the front row. In a surprising third place would be the Visa RB of Yuki Tsunoda and these three would share the top three grid spots with Esteban Ocon in fourth. Liam Lawson in his first Sao Paulo Grand Prix would also achieve his highest qualifying position of fifth. With all pre-race rituals completed it would be time for the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix. The Grand Prix itself...On the formation lap, there was drama before the race as Lance Stroll spun as he out-braked himself on Intermediate tyres and as he tried to get back going and rejoin at turn 4, he got himself beached. This would lead to an aborted start and before the green light on the second formation lap Lando Norris would set off and a lot of the cars would continue on their second formation lap apart from the back markers. Due to this, the pole sitter would be put under investigation while the Stewards would take a look at exactly what went on in a truly bizarre incident. There would then be a 10-minute delay to the actual start of the next formation lap and therefore it would be a case of waiting around. There would also be an additional investigation after the race involving both Mercedes cars, which were George Russell and Lewis Hamilton. Mercedes would have their drivers under investigation as the team ended up adjusting tyre pressures in between the initial formation laps and the end of the delay to the start of the Grand Prix. Sure enough at 12:47 local time, the third formation lap would be underway and the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix was about to begin. The lights would go out and it would be a great start from George Russell who took the lead into turn 1 and overtook pole sitter Lando Norris and the Mercedes driver would lead while the two RB drivers and Alpine's Esteban Ocon would be battling through the Senna's which would leave Lawson squeezed out and that would allow Charles Leclerc through. Also on the first lap, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen would be making their way up a few positions and they would be 10th and 11th at the end of the first lap. Verstappen's Red Bull would be keeping the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton. Verstappen's teammate Sergio Perez would have drama in the latter stages of the first lap as he would spin and fall completely down the order and to last out of the 18 drivers that were remaining. Onto the second lap and Max Verstappen would find it easy and pretty comfortably would make a move down the inside of Hamilton and would be up into 10th place with a fantastic pass that was clean but it would have been more difficult than had he made that move in the dry due to the slippery track condition. Verstappen was impressing in the early stages and just a couple of laps later he would make the move into ninth place with a move on Pierre Gasly of Alpine and on lap six it would be a move for Verstappen on Fernando Alonso, which would be eighth place for the reigning world champion. Oliver Bearman would be running in 12th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg his Haas teammate but would end up falling down the order following an incident with Franco Colapinto of Williams and the incident would be under investigation for causing a collision. Bearman would receive a 10-second time penalty for the causing of a collision. He had dropped down to 16th overall and now the Brit, who would be racing for Haas in 2025, would have a penalty to go alongside. Also being looked at by race control would be a starting procedure infringement by George Russell and the two RB drivers who are Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson. They were not under investigation by lap 7 but they could have been. Verstappen had made great progression and was in possession of the fastest lap of the Grand Prix and in eighth place at the end of lap nine he would make a move on the McLaren of Oscar Piastri, who was not expecting the Dutchman to make a move. The championship leader would send a lunge to the inside of Oscar Piastri and at the start of lap 10 and would be up into seventh place and very shortly Verstappen would be up into sixth as he made a pass on Liam Lawson. Verstappen was in a very good position with only 11 laps completed. A moment would then arise for Lewis Hamilton as the Mercedes man would lock the brakes into turn 12 and he would go onto the grass and would rejoin in 12th place, behind Nico Hulkenberg and as he was offset and had so much lesser grip, Franco Colapinto would be able to get a pass completed and would be into 12th with Lewis Hamilton up into 13th. Lap 15 and Lando Norris had been catching up to George Russell. The British pair as well as Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson would be investigated after the race for a starting procedure infringement. The FIA needing to assess everything properly by speaking to different individuals. Lewis Hamilton would have another moment as he would go onto the white painted line on the edge of the track and this would lose him traction. He would be immediately overtaken by Carlos Sainz and before long he would be overtaken by the Haas of Oliver Bearman. Charles Leclerc would now be under pressure from Max Verstappen as he had a bit of over-steer and the Ferrari would have to defend to the inside with Verstappen unable to get through as a bit of squeezing was done by Leclerc. Carlos Sainz would have a moment himself a few laps later and would fall behind Bearman and Hamilton. A nightmare for the Ferrari driver as rain was looming in the air and starting to fall, it was a heavy shower that was to be expected too. Liam Lawson would have a spin for Visa RB and that would be down to Oscar Piastri in the McLaren colliding with him in an overly-ambitious move from Piastri. Lawson's race would be ruined. This would bring about a 10-second penalty for Piastri which would go against his race time. The incident would fall on lap 26. A tonne of pit stops were soon to be undertaken as the rain had got extremely worse and some drivers had burnt their intermediate rubber as they were racing hard and trying to make progress. Charles Leclerc would be the first driver to bolt onto change the tyres and this would also see Lewis Hamilton and Oliver Bearman would also find their ways into the pits. Leclerc would do it under green flag conditions but Hamilton and Bearman would pit under a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) period The rain was continuing to fall and it was falling harder and there was a lack of visibility on circuit but they were continuing on in the race and Nico Hulkenberg would go off at turn 1 and he would receive assistance from trackside marshals. Hulkenberg's stationary car would cause the VSC and would continue on. George Russell and Lando Norris would come into the pit lane as the virtual safety car would end and therefore they would be serving a large section of their pit stop in green flag conditions. This would drop them down to fourth and fifth as Esteban Ocon would take the lead as he overtook Yuki Tsunoda. The rain would be continuous and it would be heavy too and the Visa RB cars would eventually both pit for the full wet tyre compound as they felt the wet weather was too bad to use intermediates. George Russell would be under pressure since he left the pits and would be overtaken by Lando Norris but Norris would only be in fourth place behind Yuki Tsunoda who had changed onto the full wet tyre compound as well as his teammate Liam Lawson who was running in 10th. The safety car would be deployed though as the surface would be too wet to leave the race under green flag conditions and therefore the race would be neutralised. However, it would not be long before the red flag would be brought out but this would be enforced. Franco Colpainto would find the wall under the safety car in a heavy crash and therefore he would be out of the race and this would cause the red flag due to the car and a lot of debris in the middle of the track. It would take a while for the race to get back going again and the race restart would be a rolling start as that was the safest way Niels Wittich, the FIA race director would decide to go back racing once again. Once the race would restart, Esteban Ocon would get away well and would maintain the lead from the charging Red Bull of Max Verstappen from behind and would keep the car going at a decent point. Meanwhile, Lando Norris would have a nightmare of restart as he would go off at turn 4 and would end up losing fourth to George Russell. A nightmare for Lando Norris as his championship rival was ahead of him and would gain nine points if the positions were to stay the same as Verstappen had hold of the fastest lap. At the end of the restart lap of the 34, Lewis Hamilton would find his way up into ninth place as he would make a move on Fernando Alonso and make his way into ninth place. Oliver Bearman would be hounding Carlos Sainz and the young Brit was having a rather eventful race for Haas, standing in for Kevin Magnussen who was sidelined with food poisoning. however, disaster would strike for Bearman as he would spin round and collide with the barrier damaging his front wing and would continue. Bearman would have another off moments later but would be nothing race-ending for the Haas driver and he would carry on but in 16th place and last of the current runners. 16th would become 15th for Oliver Bearman as Carlos Sainz himself would have an off at turn 7 in the same area where Bearman had his off but this time for Sainz it was race-ending and the Spaniard would spin and make contact with the barriers. Extensive damage was to Sainz's Ferrari and the safety car was deployed. At the end of lap 42, the safety car was brought back into the pit lane and the restart was far from as good as the initial restart after the red flag and Verstappen would take his opportunity and would take the lead of the Brazilian Grand Prix after starting 17th on the grid! Meanwhile Lando Norris would have another poor restart and would go down the runoff at turn 1 incredibly so and the McLaren driver would drop down the order to behind his teammate Oscar Piastri, all the way into seventh! A race where Lando Norris needed to capitalise and he would be about to lose a huge amount of points to Verstappen, which he could not afford if he wanted a realistic chance of taking the title. George Russell had found pace and in the early restart laps he would find a way through Charles Leclerc and would progress into fourth with a brilliant overtake from the Mercedes driver and he would be setting his sights on Pierre Gasly. Verstappen was taking charge out in front and he was pulling away from Esteban Ocon with the fastest lap. It was really turning into a champions' drive from Max Verstappen and he was showing incredible pace. Oscar Piastri would have a moment in the first part of the final sector and would be under pressure from Yuki Tsunoda and Tsunoda sensed a way through. Piastri though managed to keep ahead of Tsunoda and he would keep seventh. At the other side of the RB garage, Liam Lawson was under pressure from Sergio Perez and just one week on from the pair coming together in a fiery battle back in Mexico, the two drivers were back in battle again and would touch. Lawson would keep ninth and into turn 4 Perez would make an error and he would lose a place to Lewis Hamilton at turn 4. It was turning into another nightmare of a Grand Prix for Sergio Perez especially in comparison to the RB of Lawson who is linked with the Red Bull seat in 2025. Into the final 10 laps of the Grand Prix and Verstappen was so comfortable out in front for Red Bull. He would surpass Fernando Alonso on the current grid as the driver to have won from the furthest back grid position. He would become just the fifth driver in Formula 1 history to win from 17th on the grid. In the battle for third, Pierre Gasly was under pressure from George Russell. As it would finish it would be a double podium for the Alpine cars and this would be hugely significant for them in their Constructors Championship battle with the midfield team.  Credit: Mark Thompson Out front, Verstappen was simply outstanding out in front and he had managed to pull out a 19-second advantage over the rest of the field and he would be doing something that will be remembered for some time. He crossed the line at the end of lap 69 to take his eighth Grand Prix victory of the season as he won the Sao Paulo Grand Prix for the second successive season and it is one of the great drives in Formula 1 history. Verstappen won from 17th on the grid and won by just shy of 20 seconds by the chequered flag. a "simply lovely" performance from Max Verstappen. Over at Alpine, it was truly tremendous what was unfolding. The Endstone-based team who came into the weekend 19th would amount 33 points from the Grand Prix and therefore would leap to sixth place in the Constructors Championship, which could gain Alpine an extra $50 million dollars in funding, which could be hugely significant. Esteban Ocon would come home in second place ahead of teammate Pierre Gasly in third which would complete the podium positions as Gasly ended up doing enough to hold off a persistent George Russell. Russell would finish in fourth for Mercedes ahead of Charles Leclerc for Ferrari who would complete the top five. Following the top five finishers, the McLaren of Lando Norris would be forced to settle for sixth ahead of Yuki Tsunoda who was seventh. Their respective teammates were just behind them with Norris' teammate Oscar Piastri eighth after a 10-second time penalty with Liam Lawson in ninth. Lewis Hamilton would complete the top 10. Championship picture looks bleak for Lando Credit: Rudy Carezzevoli A stunning drive from Max Verstappen was really something that should be admired by all young aspiring racing drivers of how to race in wet weather conditions. When so many drivers were struggling out on track, Verstappen prevailed. One of the drivers struggling was his championship rival Lando Norris. A strategy which saw Max Verstappen gain a free pit stop under the red flag on Lando Norris as Norris had come into the pit lane as the VSC had ended and therefore served his pit stop in green flag racing conditions. With Verstappen accumulating 26 points and Norris accumulating just eight, that is an 18-point gain from the reigning world champion and with those points added, Verstappen could clinch the championship at Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Grand Prix will be the next Grand Prix but that will come in a couple of weeks before the triple header and the final three races of the season. Action begins with free practice 1 on November 21. 2024 FIA Formula One World Championship: Round 21 - Sao Paulo Grand Prix provisional classification
DNF. Franco Colapinto (Argentina, Williams Racing) DSQ. Nico Hulkenberg (Germany, Haas F1 Team) DNS. Lance Stroll (Canada, Aston Martin) DNS. Alexander Albon (Thailand, Williams Racing)  Brandon Whiteside
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