This was the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix
The F1 circus arrived at Sao Paulo with both championships already won with Lewis Hamilton clinching his sixth title at Austin and Mercedes at Mexico City.
FP1
Friday started very wet and at the start of the session, the risk of rain was 100%. As had happened at many races this year, Nicholas Latifi was in Robert Kubica's Williams seat for the practice.
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel was the first car on a very. very wet track, with teammate Leclerc a few seconds behind. Charles came in after his installation lap, Seb came into the pits but carried on, taking his time to practice a wet start. He did another lap and came in.
Next in line were both Alfa Romeo, with Raikkonen ahead of Giovinazzi. And as Vettel did, Kimi practiced a wet start.
10 minutes into the session, the rain stopped and the clouds started to break. The track remained very wet but many drivers came out for their respective installation laps, and the first timed lap, Carlos Sainz's 1:23.689.
Leclerc, Verstappen and Hamilton were the first to come out on intermediate tires (green), but only Leclerc did timed laps. And as the track started to dry, times also started to drop, with both Ferrari drivers on top at half session, with Leclerc having the fastest lap, a 1:17.285.
With just 30 minutes left in the session, Grosjean, Bottas, Perez, Stroll, Verstappen, Hamilton and Albon had not set a timed lap, and by the look of it, they weren't in any rush to do so. With 20 minutes left, DRS was enabled and times started to tumble. And with less than 7 minutes to go, slicks appeared! and the first yellow flag was shown when Max Verstappen went off track at turn two, and a few seconds after, we had the first red flag as Alex Albon hit the barriers with just two minutes left in the session. So, it was Albon's 1:16.142 the fastest of the practice, followed by Bottas and Vettel.
FP2
Practice 2 started with fair weather, it was dry, albeit very humid (77%) and less than 30% chance of rain. After just 5 minutes, half the drivers were on track setting timed laps with Valtteri Bottas early 1:10.812 being the fastest. But then, Robert Kubica had a big shunt at turn 3, destroying both front and rear left suspension of the Williams. It was the first red flag of the session and the second of the day.
It took less than five minutes for the marshals to recover the car and clean the grass, and practice was resumed, with Bottas and Verstappen coming out almost immediately, followed by everybody else.
After just 30 minutes, it started to rain, compromising long runs as it was supposed to be dry on Sunday, although it lasted just a short while.
With 20 minutes left in the session, Pierre Gasly's Toro Rosso started smoking a lot and he decided to stop on track, bringing out a VSC (Virtual Safety Car). Then with less than 6 minutes to go, Daniil Kvyat slipped into the barriers and the session was red flagged and was not restarted. So, it was Sebastian Vettel the fastest of the day with a 1:09.217, followed by Leclerc, Verstappen, Bottas, and Hamilton, the top five.
FP3
Final practice started dry and a bit warmer (19℃) than on Friday morning. First timed lap came from Robert Kubica, a 1:14.407, and continued very smoothly for most of the teams and drivers. With 20 minutes left in the session, both Ferraris came out, and did laps almost half a second faster than anyone else, 1:08.611 for Leclerc, with Vettel just 0.053 behind, and Verstappen 0.448 behind in third place. Then, the six times world champion, came out and did a 1:08.320, 0.291 faster than Leclerc. 7 minutes later, Verstappen showed what Red Bull and Honda could do, with a lap just 0.026 shy of Hamilton's.
At the end, it was Hamilton's time the fastest, closely followed by Verstappen, Leclerc, Vettel, Albon, and Bottas the top six.
QUALIFYING
70% humidity and 20℃ at the start of the penultimate qualifying session of 2019.
Q1
As with FP3, it was Robert Kubica the first to come out onto the track. At the end, it was Max Verstappen the fastest, followed by Leclerc and Albon. Out were Kvyat, Stroll, Russell, Kubica, and Carlos Sainz, who didn't set a timed lap.
Q2
Q2 started with both Mercedes coming out first, but everybody else came out a few seconds behind, enough to make up for some traffic on their flying laps. Track temperature dropped about 3℃ for the last couple of minutes and affected the last timed laps, so out were: Norris, Ricciardo, Giovinazzi, who spun at Vico di Pato on his flying lap, Hulkenberg, and Perez.
Q3
All cars bar Magnussen's came out for their first shots at pole. Verstappen won that round with a 1:07.623, just 0.008 faster than Vettel. Thrilling second and final round saw Max Verstappen taking Pole Position at Interlagos with a blistering 1:07.508. Sebastian Vettel was second, 0.123 behind, and Lewis Hamilton third, 0.191 behind.
RACE
It was a beautiful day for Formula One racing, and what a thrilling and eventful race we had at Interlagos!
Verstappen had a great start, and so did Hamilton, overtaking Vettel around the outside of the Senna "S". A little further back, Leclerc, who had started 14th, begun passing cars and when he got behind Norris' McLaren, a magnificent battle unfolded, until Leclerc managed to pass him going up the hill. In the meantime, Ricciardo left his braking a little too late going into turn 4 and touched Magnussen's Haas, making him spin, and damaging the Renault's front wing. Both drivers carried on, but Ricciardo was handed a five-second time penalty from the stewards.
By lap 10, Leclerc passed Gasly for 6th, and continued his charge to catch Albon in 5th.
On lap 21, Hamilton pitted, followed by Verstappen a lap later. Both drivers put softs (reds), meaning they were going for the two-stop strategy. But as Verstappen was coming out of the pit lane, Williams released Kubica right into the Dutchman’s path, Verstappen swerved right to avoid hitting the FW42 and had to follow him onto the track, that was enough for Hamilton to take the lead. Kubica was handed a five-second time penalty for unsafe release.
A lap later, Verstappen passed Hamilton going into Turn 1, reclaiming the lead. At the moment the order was Verstappen, Hamilton, both on softs, Vettel on mediums (yellow), Bottas on hards (whites), Albon on mediums (yellows), and Leclerc on hards (whites) in sixth. Behind them, an impressive Gasly was ahead of the Alfa Romeo pair of Raikkonen and Giovinazzi in 8th and 9th respectively.
On lap 44, Hamilton pitted again for mediums (yellows), Verstappen did the same a lap later. On lap 50, Vettel pitted for softs (reds) and Verstappen took the lead yet again.
On lap 51, Bottas, who had been trying to pass Leclerc for several laps, his Mercedes started smoking, stopping a lap later and the safety car was deployed to recover the stranded W10. Taking advantage of the safety car, Verstappen pitted for fresh softs (reds) coming out in second, behind Hamilton, who oddly decided not to pit.
On the restart on lap 60, Verstappen passed Hamilton for the lead going into Turn 1, as a mighty Albon did the same just a few meters behind, passing Vettel for P3.
On lap 66, the unexpected happened. Leclerc passed Vettel for fourth a bit aggressively and when Vettel passed him again on the run down to Turn 4, his rear wheel barely touched Leclerc's front right, causing enough damage to take both cars out just a few meters ahead. The safety car came out yet again. Hamilton decided to change tires, coming out in fourth place.
At the restart, Verstappen was way ahead in the lead, but a charging Hamilton on fresh rubber passed Gasly for third and got behind Albon in second. Then going into Turn 10 Albon left the door open and Hamilton tried to overtake but ended up tagging the Red Bull in the rear, swinging him around and damaging the Mercedes' front wing endplate. Albon rejoined, albeit in 14th place. Hamilton lost the place to Gasly, now in second but could not catch him before the finish line.
At the end it was Verstappen winning the race with a very happy Pierre Gasly taking second and his first podium in Formula One. Hamilton crossed the finish line in third, but his incident with Albon was under investigation by the stewards. About an hour later, Hamilton was handed a five-second time penalty, dropping him to seventh, promoting Carlos Sainz to third place. This was the first podium for McLaren since Australia 2014!
Raikkonen took fourth and teammate Giovinazzi fifth. Daniel Ricciardo finished sixth in the Renault, Norris, was eighth, Perez ninth, and Kvyat in the other Toro Rosso was tenth.
And that was the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix.
