In a race riddled with DNFs, guess who came out on top? As usual, it was Max Verstappen. The three-time champion took his 17th win of the season at the 2023 Brazilian GP, setting and extending yet another record in 2023. He came home in front of McLaren’s Lando Norris and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.

The man who should’ve been his main competitor going into Turn 1 as the five lights went out—Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc—was out in the formation lap. Due to a hydraulic failure (which wasn’t really one, per Leclerc), he was out even before the race started.

When the race did start, Williams’ Alex Albon made contact with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen. While both of them were out on the spot, their collateral damage included Nico Hulkenberg, Daniel Ricciardo, and Oscar Piastri. They were the final finishers of the race. The middle part of the race settled a lot of the nerves caused due to the crashes at the start. However, it all came alive when the battle for the podium heated up in the closing stages.

Sergio Perez just lost out on the podium by 0.053s following a lap-long battle with Fernando Alonso. What felt like a great opportunity for the Mexican to get a podium just fizzled out due to the wily old Spaniard being very stubborn in defense!

On the other hand, after starting in P3, Lance Stroll drove a great race to finish in P5. With Alonso in P3, the Silverstone outfit is looking like it’s on the path to recovery. It is their first podium since the Dutch GP this year, finally bouncing back from their miserable drop-off in performance.

On the contrary, after a promising start, Lewis Hamilton could only manage a P8 finish—a disappointing result for the honorary Brazilian. His teammate George Russell joined the long list of retirees at the Brazilian GP. Overall, the Mercedes duo had a scrappy Brazilian GP race, ironic to how they finished one-two convincingly just 12 months ago!

While Daniel Ricciardo couldn’t emulate his Mexican GP performance, his teammate Yuki Tsunoda continued his good run of form, giving AlphaTauri yet another points finish.

Read More: “The Car Is So Bad”: Lewis Hamilton’s “Horrible” Prediction Comes True as Mercedes Fails to Deliver at Brazilian GP

Both Alpines finished in the points, while Williams’ Logan Sargeant finished just outside the points in P11.

2023 Brazilian GP results

1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
2. Lando Norris (McLaren)
3. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
4. Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
5. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
6. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
7. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
8. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
9. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
10. Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
11. Logan Sargeant (Williams)
12. Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)
13. Daniel Ricciardo (AlphaTauri)
14. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)

DNFs: George Russell (Mercedes), Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo), Kevin Magnussen (Haas), Alex Albon (Williams), Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)

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Interlagos has delivered a classic race again with so much action. While it had the predictable result of Verstappen being the winner, the overtaking & battle behind him were pretty iconic. How did you find the 2023 Brazilian GP?