Rain Man- Brazilian Grand Prix
Full Race Highlights
This year, Formula 1 became a sad shadow of itself. The Mexican Grand Prix was the perfect illustration to sum up a year of yawn inducing races. Most of the races were decided within a few laps leaving no drama for the end. The rules were arbitrarily enforced and often unclear. Race after race the takeaway was that the off track drama was more exciting than the actual racing.
Fast forward to the penultimate race of the season and the potential to crown a champion. Brazil, always the wildcard of a long season, and often the location that determines the champion. The race itself would start under the safety car, one of five safety car periods in the race, and go through two red flag periods.
Lewis Hamilton would drive a clean race and would take his first ever win in Brazil to reduce Rosberg’s advantage heading into the final race in Abu Dhabi to just 12 points. Hamilton's performance, while great, was not the highlight. Hamilton drove a near perfect race in spite of the conditions yet he didn’t pull off the drive of the race. That was left to Max Verstappen that drove the cleanest race of his season in the worst conditions of the seasons. There are moments in F1 where greatness emerges, where the next generation of champions show their skills. This was Verstappen’s coming out. Everyone knows he is fast but his skill in the race was phenomenal. While we are no ready to put him on the pedestal quite yet, Verstappen did drive one of the best races of the last decade.
It was not simply his ability to push so hard in the rain, but the fact that he used parts of the track to make passes that were not possible for other drivers. In the rain, on a drenched track, he made multiple passes around the outside of other drivers on parts of the track with standing water. Due to strategy, he was at one point in 17th position and had to fight back to claim third place. Throughout F1 history, the great ones have had those single races where fans, writers and other drivers take notice. Where whispers grow to a murmur, then to a chorus of cheers as legends reveal themselves.
All other teams should worry for next year as Verstappen only gets better with every race, and Red Bull might be back to their previous glory.