Sao Paulo Grand Prix – Brazil – Max Verstappen (Red Bull), fatalistic but not defeated: “We have limited the damage”

“We tried everything we could, of course”. It is with his resigned words that Max Verstappen summed up his 71 laps at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, and recorded his defeat against Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), who started tenth on the grid at Interlagos.

In Brazil, the world No. 1 arrived confident in the possibility of increasing his lead by 19 points in the Championship over his British challenger. It left 14 lengths of margin.

With four victories obtained by his colt on circuits located at altitude earlier this season (Spielberg twice, Spa-Francorchamps and Mexico), Red Bull had claimed before the nineteenth round of the World that the Paulist circuit was much more suited to the DNA of its RB16B chassis and its Honda engine than the German package. The Austro-Japanese machine will have finally undergone the law of its rival, and especially the new V6 installed with a penalty in the W12 of a Briton himself at the top of his art.

On borrowed time

Max Verstappen came out of his Sunday experience disappointed but without regret about the verdict and the scenario, which quickly highlighted the superiority of his rival. He even has nothing to be ashamed of. He did all he could and even a little more. He did Verstappen on the track, that is to say he drove “the hard way” as he says.

The fastest at the start of the second position on the starting grid, he turned in the lead in front of Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes), the man in the pole position. He led as he likes to do, with in mind that he had to get as far ahead of Lewis Hamilton as possible. The day before, during the sprint race, the Englishman had recovered 15 drivers from last place and still had some under the pedal at the finish.

“Super Max” thought he could be on reprieve and he took all possible initiatives. Except that of going to the stand the first time to exchange his “medium” against “hard”. His rival pulled the rug out from under him on lap 27, and the extra lap he completed cost him a second. The blow even passed close: by blocking LH44, Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) saved him the day. “I don’t want to be fooled at the pit anymore”, he warned.

“I don’t think I can hold out until the finish”

Lesson learned: on the 41st lap, it was he who took the lead, leaving Lewis Hamilton three more laps. With his neat trajectory in Sector 2, the most twisty, he continued to try to push Lewis Hamilton out of his DRS zone, without success.

It was then that he added his personal touch on lap 48, blocking the trajectory of the W12 in turn 4. A maneuver that drove the two cars off the track, and damn people talk. Was it reprehensible? “Michael, is that exactly what we expect from letting them race?”, immediately pleaded Red Bull to Michael Masi, the race director. Which quickly closed the case.

“When you send someone out, doesn’t that require an investigation?”, then reacted Toto Wolff, the boss of Mercedes. “We looked at it from all angles, there was no need for an investigation”, simply argued Michael Masi. “It was a really bad move on the part of Max, who absolutely went over the limit, but he had to do it to defend himself, commented the Austrian a little later. Lewis did it even more brilliantly by avoiding contact. “

But this was a down payment for the sequel, and Max Verstappen was well aware of it when he blurted out on the radio on the 50th lap: “I don’t think I can make it until the finish.”

“The battle was good”

The checkered flag was still far too far for him indeed, and the Mercedes ace, driven like never before by his fresh V6, carried the blow with greater determination, on lap 59.

With a sufficient lead over Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), his teammate Sergio Pérez, fourth, deprived Lewis Hamilton of the best lap point in the last loop.

“The battle was good but we just lacked a little rhythm”, explained the leader of the World Championship, who specifically targeted turn n ° 1. “We still have a good advantage, we limited the damage over a weekend that was a bit more difficult for us, but I’m sure we’ll bounce back.”

All this season, he said he was convinced that the title would be played at the last Grands Prix, and he has not changed his mind. Better still, the unknown will now be on the menu for the next two circuits. “We are coming to Grands Prix (Qatar and Saudi Arabia) on which we have no information. It will be interesting”, he told Canal +.