Formula One - Brazilian Grand Prix - Mercedes Resurrection & Verstappen’s Real Self

Oh boy what an exciting weekend we have just witnessed! Due to my work at the moment I am not able to post quite as much and unfortunately missed the Mexican GP as well but this weekend I watched the whole thing again! Yes, this article is a bit delayed but I am also not living in the same time zone as the Brazilian GP.

Anyways, this weekend was supposed to be a pretty boring race. Both titles are already saved and the drivers are fighting for the last championship points. Well, at least we thought so! If you don’t go out there to win a race you should not race at all and that is what sports is about! So what were the main questions this weekend? Will Mercedes finally be able to win a race? Who is going to set himself up for the second place in the driver’s championship and can Mick Schumacher score some points in order to promote himself a bit more for next season?

Qualifying & Sprint Race: Haas Surprise & Mercedes’ Power

Well, the questions were certainly not answered on qualifying day, but we definitely got to see a real banger! I will start with the most surprising news of the weekend: Kevin Magnussen was able to take pole position for the Brazilian Grand Prix. This meant that he will be starting from P1 on Saturday for the sprint race! Yes you are reading right, a Haas was able to get pole position. Well, it was not really for the performance of the car but more or less lucky circumstances.

While being in Q3 he was able to perform the fastest lap on slicks. Shortly after George Russel crashed his Mercedes which caused a Red Flag and therefore a stop. In the mean time the weather changed and everybody changed to intermedium tires. As we all know, the pace there is not as high and therefore Magnussen was able to keep his pole position. Nevertheless, both Mercedes drivers were looking very sharp in these qualifying laps and it would not surprise me if they finally will take their first win in Brazil!

Going towards the sprint, the only driver who chose the medium tires was Max Verstappen, this almost cost him his second place in the opening lap of the sprint. He was able to keep it while Magnussen pulled away in his Haas on soft tires. Well, as nice as it sounds, he had to pay tribute to his low performing car. Lap after lap he was overtaken by the “big” cars such as Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. In the end he managed to secure himself P8. What looks surprising but was definitely in the making: Mercedes was able to take P1 and P3 and underlined their upcoming momentum. The real question would be: Will they be able to make this advantage last on Sunday?

The Race: Mercedes Final Resurrection & Verstappen’s Real Self

Let’s jump straight into this interesting race. Straight from the beginning George Russel was able to pull away in his Mercedes. The Silver arrows took P1 & P2 very quickly and were pulling away comfortably followed by both Red Bulls. Unfortunately, the first lap was immediately interrupted by a crash between Magnussen and Ricciardo. This was very disappointing for the Haas driver as this destroyed his chances to get good points for his team once again.

What’s more exciting was the restart in lap 7. While George was able to pull away once again, Hamilton and Verstappen were fighting for their lives! While Hamilton was clearly ahead, Verstappen decided to drive very recklessly and it resulted in a collision. Fortunately for both drivers, they were able to carry on, but both drivers suffered major disadvantages position wise. For this Max had to serve a 5 seconds penalty which can be debatable to be honest but was probably the right decision.

In the meantime, Leclerc and Norris touched as well but both drivers were able to continue here as well. During the course of the race all the “big” cars were able to pull back their normal positions. The field was very close and a lot of strategic moves happened. To be honest a very boring race until lap 45 once again. In this lap Hamilton was able to take P2 from Perez which just showed how much Mercedes improved during the season and that they are looking sharp for next season. On the other hand, Verstappen was at P10 at this point.

In lap 52, there was another Safety Car Period! Lando Norris had to retire his card which took around 10 laps to get out of the way. This leads us to the restart in lap 61 with 10 laps to go! The order was: Russel, Hamilton, Perez and both Ferraris. Unfortunately for Perez he was not able to defend very well on old medium tires against the cars behind him on softs. He dropped down fairly quickly to P6 and has been overtaken by both Ferraris and Alonso which leads us to the most controversial moments in this race!

Perez had now his teammate, Max, behind him. He was told to let him trough as so many times in this season and he was following instructions. Max had the better pace and was on the hunt for Alonso. So far so good. The problem now was what happened in the last lap. Usually, the driver who got passed trough is switching positions back if he was not able to make any progress. Well, in this case, Max did not do that! In my opinion very selfish as he definitely does not need the points and his teammate is still fighting for the second place in the driver’s championship. On the other side he would have overtaken Perez anyways if they would not have been in the same team. While this might cause some team internal problems at Red Bull, I think this was the only fair way out of a neutral perspective.

Conclusion

The race ended with a Mercedes One-Two and George Russel showed finally his class and got his first Race win. It was long overdue and shows his potential in a great car. Furthermore, it looks like Mercedes has finally resurrected themselves into a team that can fight for championships again. It certainly took them almost a whole season but with the looks to the next season we can expect a lot of drama and a lot of close races with Red Bull once again

I think that if Ferrari gets his things sorted out it could even be a nice close three way battle between the three teams! I am just a little concerned that Max Verstappen will destroy all of this. Just this race showed again how much of a reckless driver he is. Yes, he definitely can race fair but I feel like he is still not mature enough to understand when he should pick a fight. Today’s race was the perfect example where he should not have done that.

Last but not least, the fight for second place is still on going. Going into the last race we have Charles and Perez with 290 points each. I think that Perez is the favorite here but it will all come down to the daily form once again. In P4 and P5 we have Russell with 265 points and Hamilton with 240 points. All in all a very solid season for Mercedes which they can still close off on the second place! It will be an exciting last race in Abu Dhabi!

Published by ga38jem on
Sports Talk Social
On 13th November 2022