Yes, Max Verstappen won in Brazil. Again. The 17th victory of the season for the Dutchman, the all-time record for wins in a year even further. But the spectacle and mastery at Interlagos was put on by a stratospheric Fernando Alonso, who recovered all his magic to return to the podium seven races later with a movie overtake on Checo Pérez to achieve third place. A maneuver for the video library, like the final 20 laps in which he defended himself against the Mexican.
"It has been like 30 laps with the pressure from Checo. I thought that the podium was not possible, it is for the team, we have had two difficult months," Alonso explained at the end of the race in which he achieved his eighth podium of the year. He had resisted him since the Netherlands GP.
The Interlagos race began with a major surprise: the accident of Charles Leclerc, who was second on the grid, on the warm-up lap. The Monegasque lost control of the Ferrari due to a hydraulic problem and had to abandon. So Verstappen had no one next to him, and Alonso, behind him, had a clear path without a rival in the box in front.
The start was tumultuous, with an accident and a safety-car accident involving Albon's Williams and the two Haas of Hülkenberg and Magnussen. The Thai and the Dane were ejected, the cars destroyed in the middle of the straight and led to the neutralization of the race and a red flag that led to a new start from the grid.
It was a second chance for Fernando Alonso, who had a bad start, despite having a clear path. The Asturian was overtaken on the outside by an ambitious Lando Norris who placed second, the same thing that happened to Stroll, next to him, who was surpassed by Hamilton, who placed third. So Alonso remained in the same fourth place and Stroll, fifth, with Russell and Pérez threatening their positions. Sainz didn't win anything either, eighth, behind the Mexican.
In the second start, Verstappen once again maintained the privileged position of pole, Norris kept second position and Hamilton third, but he soon lost it when Alonso overtook him in turn 3 aggressively taking advantage of the slipstream. Sainz stayed in eighth place from which he started.
The race got off to a good start. Norris attacked Verstappen already on the eighth lap, putting his nose into him, although the Dutchman held on well and put his foot down to get away from the McLaren and avoid any scares. Behind, Checo Pérez was racing and overtook Russell to place fifth and go after Hamilton. He also devoured the seven-time champion due to the mechanical superiority of his Red Bull (v. 18/71) and went after Alonso, whom he had 8.2 seconds behind. He stopped the attack passing through the pit-stop.
The Mexican and the Englishman from Mercedes met again on the track upon returning from their respective stops, and Pérez once again overtook Hamilton for provisional seventh place. The Red Bull rider was Alonso's great threat, who stopped on lap 26, extending the life of the tire (5 laps younger than Checo's), so he was able to start ahead of Pérez (with 3.7s) and Hamilton ( with 7s) maintaining virtual third place.
The Mexican, very strong, reduced the distance with Alonso in just 10 laps; In lap 36 he already had the Asturian in his sights, 1 second away, with the DRS ready. A few places further back, Sainz, with good pace and newer tires, overtook the two Mercedes, Russell and Hamilton to take sixth place. In front he had Stroll in 5th place.
Once halfway through the race, Fernando Alonso changed pace and was able to stabilize his distance from Pérez and thus get out of the range of the Red Bull's DRS. With 3 seconds to spare (v. 45/71) he saved his podium position.
Red Bull took a chance by advancing Pérez's stop to attempt the undercut on Alonso (v. 47), with a disadvantage of 3.9 seconds. The Asturian stopped a lap later and saved third position with 3.8 seconds ahead of the Mexican. He had half a podium there... But Checo was very fast, half a second faster than the Aston Martin.
Pérez had 20 laps ahead (v. 51/71) to make up 2 seconds of difference with the Spaniard. His pace was much better. He put pressure on the Mexican, who was hot on the heels of the Aston Martin and entered DRS as he approached 9 tenths (v. 55/71). He set the best lap of the race and was only 4 tenths away, breathing down his neck. Although Alonso stretched to avoid the ax blow. He would make him sweat his Spanish if he wanted to overtake him.
The Mexican's first attempt came when braking for Turn 1 (v. 60/71), and then when braking for Turn 4; Alonso withstood both attacks well. He had 10 laps of resistance left to save the podium.
Alonso's defense was anthology, taking up the entire width of the track, sacrificing corner entries to exit faster and get away from the Red Bull threat, which could not find any space to attack. And so he was consuming laps until the checkered flag.
But with two laps remaining, Pérez hit him with the ax while braking for the first corner, the S do Senna. Alonso was unable to defend himself or recover the distance that the Red Bull took from him. On the last lap, the Asturian dived to the outside and overtook the Mexican superbly with a stellar, implausible, brave maneuver.
Pérez attempted a final overtake taking advantage of the slipstream of the Aston Martin. The two arrived almost on par at the finish line, with only 53 thousandths of an advantage for the Spaniard. Alonso returned to the podium after seven races, from Zandvoort.
