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Max Verstappen all but wrapped up a fourth straight Formula 1 title with a drive from 17th to win a wet São Paulo Grand Prix.
Verstappen took the lead for good after a restart on lap 43 of the 69-lap race when he passed Esteban Ocon for the lead. Verstappen then pulled away from Ocon and the rest of the field as Lando Norris went off track in Turn 1 just before Verstappen took the lead and went on to win the race by just under 20 seconds.
The entirety of the race was run on a wet track as rain pelted the Interlagos circuit on and off throughout. Norris ended up finishing sixth after cutting Verstappen’s points lead to 44 points in Saturday’s sprint race.
Verstappen now provisionally leads Norris by 62 points with three Grand Prix races and one sprint race remaining. Given there are a maximum of 86 points available over the four events, it will be nearly impossible for Norris to win the title unless Verstappen inexplicably has trouble over the final three race weekends.
Norris’ deficit isn’t official, either. It could be larger. He and many other drivers began the race under investigation by race officials. We’ll get to that in a bit.
The race’s complexion changed immediately after a virtual safety car for Nico Hulkenberg’s stopped car on lap 28. Norris was trailing George Russell for the race lead when both drivers decided to pit for fresh intermediate tires as the virtual safety car ended.
That allowed Ocon, Verstappen and Pierre Gasly to pass them while they were in the pits. And just after the top two drivers pitted, the red flag was displayed for heavy rain.
In Formula 1, teams can change tires and make adjustments during the race stoppage. In essence, Verstappen and the two Alpine drivers got a free pit stop and restarted the race with fresh tires.
Verstappen was working his way through the field mightily before the red flag too. The race win might have been out of reach, but he was in 10th on lap 2 and had been picking off cars one by one in the top 10 before the VSC for Hulkenberg’s car. He qualified 12th earlier on Sunday because of a red flag in the second qualifying round and was forced to start five places lower because of a penalty for taking a new internal combustion engine.