Max Verstappen wins with authority a crazy race in front of Gasly and Sainz, Ferrari suicide with a double retreat – OA Sport

<! – ->
A race simply absurd, full of emotions and twists up to the checkered flag with Max Verstappen winning the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix taking home the eighth stage success of his career in the Formula 1 World Championship. The Dutchman deservedly triumphed at Interlagos thanks to a Red Bull very competitive on the pace and surprisingly fast on the straight which allowed Jos's son to cross the finish line in first position in front of Pierre Gasly's Toro Rosso and the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, who was subsequently relegated to seventh place with a penalty of 5 ″ that allowed Carlos Sainz to get on the podium.

A podium impossible to predict on the eve of the French Toro Rosso protagonist of a very solid race able to take advantage of the misadventures of others to give the Faenza team the second podium of the season after Kvyat's third place in Germany. Lewis Hamilton was not perfect as he has accustomed us during the last years and threw away a good placement causing the spin of the Red Bull of an innocent Thai Alexander Albon forced to say goodbye to the podium.

Black day for Ferrari, coming out with broken bones from the Brazilian round because of the incident that knocked out both the Maranello cars. Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc, fighting for fourth place a few laps from the end, came into contact on the straight that leads to turn 4 both going to the hole and consequently to a double retreat which will certainly be discussed. Out also Valtteri Bottas for a problem to the engine of his Mercedes, to underline the resounding comeback of the Spanish Carlos Sainz from the bottom of the grid to the third place with McLaren in front of the Alfa Romeo by Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi.

THE CHRONICLE – Excellent start for Verstappen who retains the leadership quite easily while behind him Hamilton takes the best advantage of the Senna's exterior to overtake Vettel's Ferrari in second place. The comeback of Leclerc starts from the first lap with a good shot (from 14 ° to 13 °) and then with fantastic double overtaking against Ricciardo and Norris valid for the eleventh position.

Verstappen pushes hard to skim the group but fails to make the gap in the first phase of the race, while Leclerc exploits the power of his new Ferrari engine to pass without problems Giovinazzo, Grosjean, Raikkonen and Gasly reaching sixth place after just ten laps. Vettel is the first of the big to suffer from the tires and begins to lose ground progressively against Hamilton, meanwhile Leclerc approaches Albon with medium tires.

The Mercedes makes the first move by stopping Hamilton on lap 20 and mounting another set of soft tires, Red Bull reacts to the next pass with Verstappen who returns to the track behind the British also due to a misunderstanding in pit lane with the Williams of Kubica. Hamilton wastes his time looking for the overtaking on Leclerc and, after completing the maneuver, he has to undergo the decisive attack by a wild Verstappen that actually takes back the virtual leadership of the race.

Five laps later Vettel (medium tires), Bottas (hard) and Albon (medium) also stopped, keeping a possible strategy open to a single stop as opposed to the leading tandem. After the stop of Leclerc, gone on hard tires, the first pit stop waltz ends with Verstappen in front of Hamilton, Vettel and Bottas. The first two soon get into trouble with softer tires but maintain a good gap of 10 "on Vettel and 20" on Bottas, knowing however that they are forced to return to the pits for the second stop.

The Finn stops to mount medium tires on lap 42 and exits the sixth 5-inch pit lane from the Ferrari of Leclerc, while Hamilton complains by radio with the wall for not having called him to the pits before the dubbing operations. The Mercedes test the decisive undercut with Hamilton but Red Bull promptly responds and defends Verstappen's position by equalizing the strategy with the six-time world champion.

Vettel and Albon do not go all the way and have soft tires for a last aggressive and extremely lively stint thanks to the turn of the 53rd lap when Bottas parks his W10 on the track for an engine problem causing the entry of the Safety Car . Verstappen exploits the neutralization of the race to put the soft, but Hamilton does not imitate him and takes the first place with the worn yellow band tires in front of the Dutchman. Third Vettel, fourth Albon and fifth Leclerc with new soft tires.

At the restart Hamilton uses the experience making the elastic but Verstappen takes advantage of the wake and completes an overtaking to scream outside the S of Senna, Albon imitates his teammate and takes the third place with a beautiful maneuver on Vettel. The German Ferrari tries to respond to 7 rounds from the checkered flag but his attack is returned to the sender by a very careful Albon. For the -5 the two Ferrari drivers engage in a very tough duel that ends in the worst way: double puncture and double retirement.

Safety Car back on track with Hamilton taking the opportunity to mount new tire and to attack like a madman in the last two laps but the n.44 exaggerates and spins a blameless Albon forced to say goodbye to the podium. Verstappen crosses the finish line solo for a deserved triumph while behind him Gasly check on Hamilton in the sprint with Toro Rosso, fourth Sainz in front of the two Alfa Romeos.

Click here to put "Like" on our Facebook page
Click here to join our group
Click here to follow us on Twitter

Photo: Lapresse

<! – ->