Ryan Malesevich

amateur runner, technology enthusiast, and friend to all dogs

2024 Brazil Grand Prix Recap

03 November 2024

We’ve been really lucky the last few weeks with Formula 1. The Driver’s Championship being close has turned to some great story lines, but it was going to be more of the same this weekend except we had some intervention with the weather. Oh my goodness! This was one crazy weekend. It cultivated in one of the most impressive feats I’ve seen that really reiterated that it’s important to be good, but sometimes it’s great to be lucky.

Let’s kick off the summary of this incredible weekend in São Paulo, Brazil.

Sprint Qualifying

The big news going into the weekend is that Kevin Magnussen is ill so Oliver Bearman is making his third start of the season. After a stable year on the grid, we’re seeing a lot of new faces and I’m all for it. Let’s see more youth on the paddock!

  • The McLaren’s look really fast with the setup for the Sprint.
  • In SQ1, it was great to see Bottas make it through. It was surprising to see the Mercedes in P10 and P13.
  • It looked really windy in São Paulo. The weather is going to do some wild stuff this weekend.
  • SQ2 saw some drama with Sergio Perez not timing things well and missed getting another attempt. He’s eliminated early again. He just can’t seem to get anything going.
  • I did not think anyone was going to go faster than Lando, but Oscar Piastri put in a fantastic lap when it counted for pole.

Here’s how the grid will line up for the Sprint:

  1. Oscar Piastri
  2. Lando Norris
  3. Charles Leclerc
  4. Max Verstappen
  5. Carlos Sainz
  6. George Russell
  7. Pierre Gasly
  8. Liam Lawson
  9. Alex Albon
  10. Oliver Bearman
  11. Lewis Hamilton
  12. Nico Hulkenberg
  13. Sergio Perez
  14. Franco Colapinto
  15. Valtteri Bottas
  16. Fernando Alonso
  17. Esteban Ocon
  18. Yuki Tsunoda
  19. Lance Stroll
  20. Zhou Guanyu

Sprint

I caught the sprint on delay due to some personal things going on but I was glad I caught up with it. It was pretty darn exciting. I do think I’ve started to dislike the radio messages that come up during the broadcast. You only see portions of it, and every driver looks like a whiny bitch during them. It only adds to drama that really doesn’t need to be there.

  • Oscar got a really good start. The top 4 separate from the rest of the pack pretty quickly.
  • Oscar asked to keep Norris within DRS to keep the train going on. There isn’t a lot of opportunity for passing.
  • Max finally gets around Charles on lap 18.
  • The McLarens didn’t really have many opportunities to swap the driver. I get that they want to give Lando the opportunity for the championship, but not for a win. Lando could have qualified better and done it on the track, but I get it.
  • Hulkenberg’s car starts smoking and gives us a VSC. It allows the McLaren’s to swap.
  • Max tries to time the end to get around Oscar but has to bail. The stewards found that he was in breach of a rule and gets a 5 second penalty. It’ll drop him back to 4th.
  • Lando does get the win and the 8 points. Max gets 4. It means the lead is cut by 4 points.
  • The 1-2 of the McLaren’s will help their Constructor’s Championship bid.

Here’s how things ended:

  1. Lando Norris (+8)
  2. Oscar Piastri (+7)
  3. Chalres Leclerc (+6)
  4. Max Verstappen (+5)
  5. Carlos Sainz (+4)
  6. George Russell (+3)
  7. Pierre Gasly (+2)
  8. Sergio Perez (+1)
  9. Liam Lawson
  10. Alex Albon
  11. Lewis Hamilton
  12. Franco Colapinto
  13. Esteban Ocon
  14. Oliver Bearman
  15. Yuki Tsunoda
  16. Valtteri Bottas
  17. Zhou Guanyu
  18. Fernando Alonso
  19. Lance Stroll
  20. Nico Hulkenberg (DNF)

Qualifying

I mentioned that I missed the sprint. I watched it while Qualifying was supposed to happen. I finally tuned in and the rain was crazy. Qualifying was ultimately delayed and messed with the schedule. I woke up for the 4:30 local start (thanks to daylight saving time ending, I felt good waking up that early) to watch Qualifying. The rain was still there and it was one of the wildest Qualifying sessions I’ve seen (plus the first time I’ve seen it hpappen on Sunday - the first time it’s occurred sinced 2019 in Japan).

  • The news is that Max is taking an engine penalty and will get a 5 grid penalty. It’ll be important that he qualifies well if he wants to slow down Norris.
  • The first of the red flags starts with Colapinto crashing in Q1.
  • Hamilton is knocked out in Q1. Lando is in P15 and barely ekes out of Q1. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.
  • Q2 saw two more red flags as Sainz crashes into the wall and Lance Stroll crashes late.
  • Crucially the red flag for Stroll was called late after the Red Bulls had to slow down but others ahead were able to finish their laps. I don’t know the rules, but it meant that both Red Bulls are knocked out in Q2. The 5-grid penalty means Max starts in P17!
  • Lando does enough to take provisional pole. The top 10 is really crazy with the Red Bulls and Sainz out. Albon at one point was in P2 before he crashed. His crash was really bad and ultimately he wouldn’t be able to take part on the race.
  • I’ve never seen 5 red flags before: Colapinto, Sainz, Stroll, Alonso, and Albon both crashing. I felt bad for the Williams and Aston Martin engineers.
  • Norris does take pole but the big news is Russell in P2 and Yuki in P3. I love the names in the top 7: Norris, Russell, Tsunoda, Ocon, Lawson, Leclerc, and Albon.

With Williams not able to recover Albon’s car, he was out. Sainz ends up starting in the pitlane. Max takes a 5 second penalty. Here’s the grid starting line up for the race:

  1. Lando Norris
  2. George Russell
  3. Yuki Tsunoda
  4. Esteban Ocon
  5. Liam Lawson
  6. Charles Leclerc
  7. EMPTY SPOT (Alex Albon withdraws)
  8. Oscar Piastri
  9. Fernando Alonso
  10. Lance Stroll
  11. Valtteri Bottas
  12. Sergio Perez
  13. Pierre Gasly
  14. Lewis Hamilton
  15. Ollie Bearman
  16. Franco Colapinto
  17. Max Verstappen
  18. Nico Hulkenberg
  19. Zhou Guanyu
  20. Carlos Sainz (Pit lane)

The Race

The teams only had a few hours to get things ready. I can’t believe that Ferrari got Sainz ready, Aston Martin got both Stroll and Alonso ready, and Williams got Colapinto ready. I would have bet a lot of money that there would be more DNS from the qualifying red flags. Only Albon was not able to get ready and with his crash that makes sense.

There was still rain so everyone was on the inters to start. We got one of the craziest starts that I’ve ever seen! Let’s hit the bulletpoints:

  • Lance Stroll spins out in the formation lap and then proceeds to beach himself in the gravel. Why the hell did he choose to drive right into? The Aston Martin engineers must feel dejected.
  • It was an aborted start and we were going to get another formation lap. Some cars started going before Lance Stroll was cleared. No one realy knew what was going on. We get a total reset. It came out a little while ago that Lando and George were at fault for going before it was clear and were reprimanded and fined.
  • The start was crazy. Russell jumps ahead of Lando. Somehow Max goes up to P11 in the first lap and then continues to pass a driver almost each lap until he gets behind Leclerc at P6.
  • Russell continues to lead. Leclerc is one of the first to pit and drops into heavy traffic. It demonstrates it is better to stay out.
  • Hulkenberg crashes and a Virtual Safety Car is started. Norris and Russell both pit. Checo pits to put on full wets. Ocon and Verstappen stay out and go to P1 and P2.
  • Lando is able to pass Russell before a full Safety Car is called.
  • Colapinto crashes on lap 32 and gets out of the car while the Safety Car leads the cars around. I couldn’t believe he got out of the car considering he crashed at low speed because conditions were horrible. The Williams engineers who got the car ready must not be feeling good.
  • Race is eventually Red Flagged. It means those that stay out get a free tire change without any impact. That means that Max is in P2 from P17. Ocon still is in P1. Gasly also stayed out and was P3. Before this, the Alpine team completed no laps in the top 5 and now both of their drivers are in it.
  • At the start, Russell gets past Lando again.
  • To demonstrate how unsafe the conditions were, Sainz crashes and we have another Safety Car. Again, I feel for those engineers.
  • On the first safety car restart, Ocon gets off perfectly and keeps a big distance from Max. He wasn’t so lucky on the second one. Max gets around Ocon and then just methodically hits fastest lap after fastest lap as he cruises to P1 by almost 20 seconds. His first win in 10 starts with the fastest lap bonus point, gives him 26 for the day and gives him 393 points.
  • Ocon finishes P2 and Gasly finishes P3. This is enough points for Alpine to jump from P9 to P6 in the Constructor’s Championship. I was so happy for the drivers but I was most happy for the engineers. That team has gone through some shit this year and they deserved this one.
  • McLaren asks the drivers to swap at one point but Norris isn’t able to do much. Piastri had a 10 second penalty from earlier in the race that he wasn’t able to serve. It knocks him down to P7. Lando gets 8 points and now is 62 points behind Max with 3 races to go.
  • It was a good day for VCARB with Yuki in P7 and Lawson in P9.
  • Checo was on the verge to get points, but tries to get frisky with Liam Lawson which allows Hamilton to sneak past. There wasn’t a chance for him to get the spot back.
  • I normally don’t like the radio messages because it typically is the driver complaining. I did like Alonso’s message at the end. He did complain about his back (and old people don’t recover well when their backs are involved) but said he was going to finish for the engineers.

At this point, it looks like Max has the Driver’s Championship locked up. The guy was pissed at qualifying but drove an incredible race in tough conditions. It was a clinic. He showed why he is one of the best racers out there. You can’t help but be impressed. McLaren still has a healthy lead in the Constructor Standings. It’s amazing when both your drivers score points, that’ll happen. Ferrari didn’t do themselves any favors and Max single handedly got Red Bull within 13 of P3. Personally, I think the top 3 are going to finish in the curren torder: McLaren, Ferrari, and Red Bull.

Here’s how everything finished:

  1. Max Verstappen (+26 with fastest lap)
  2. Esteban Ocon (+18)
  3. Pierre Gasly (+15)
  4. George Russell (+12)
  5. Charles Leclerc (+10)
  6. Lando Norris (+8)
  7. Yuki Tsunoda (+6)
  8. Oscar Piastri (+4)
  9. Liam Lawson (+2)
  10. Lewis Hamilton (+1)
  11. Sergio Perez
  12. Oliver Bearman
  13. Valtteri Bottas
  14. Fernando Alonso
  15. Zhou Guanyu
  16. Carlos Sainz (DNF)
  17. Franco Colapinto (DNF)
  18. Alex Albon (DNS)
  19. Lance Stroll (DNS)
  20. Nico Hulkenberg (DQ)

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