Luke’s Weekend Take – Brazilian GP 2024

As we head into Saturday for the Sprint Race, we get news that Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll and Zhou Guanyu will be getting a pitlane start as they break Parc Ferme to get some setup changes. At the start we see all cars going for the medium tyres hoping they will make it to the end of the race. At lights out we see Piastri get a good start but Norris seem to have had a better start and we see Piastri immediately pull left to cover off Norris, behind them Verstappen seem to have had a better start than Leclerc and into Turn 1 they are side by side but Verstappen locks up his wheels and Leclerc gets back ahead by Turn 2.

Verstappen stayed close to Leclerc all the way round and keeps pressing him into the coming laps and on Lap 3 we see Max go for a move into Turn 1 but Leclerc defends well but this was far from over as Max goes for it again into Turn 4 but once again, Leclerc closes the door. While this is happening the McLarens ahead managed to break DRS from Leclerc and got slightly ahead, however on Lap 7 we see Leclerc back in DRS to Norris while Max is ramping up another charge but with the help of DRS, Leclerc was able to defend once more.

At McLaren we hear Norris from Lap 5 on the radio asking about the potential swap they spoke about in the briefing, so this helps him in the Championship battle with Max. The team acknowledges this and tell him they understand but to keep an eye on Leclerc behind for now and to keep doing what he is doing. On Lap 10 McLaren ask Piastri to make sure to give Norris DRS as he was being put under pressure from Leclerc.

Bit further back we see some action for the final positions of the points as we see Oliver Bearman go for a move into Turn 1 on Hulkenberg on Lap 9 and Bearman comes from a long way back and Hulkenberg was too kind and left him too much space. This however came back to bite him as Perez was right behind and By Turn 4, Perez was able to get past Hulkenberg as well. By Lap 11, we see Perez get past Bearman as well into Turn 4 and now he only had 1 more place to make to be back in the points but that place is against Lawson. He does go for a move on Lap 15 into Turn 1 but Perez locks up and Lawson gest back ahead in P8 but on Lap 20, Perez was able to finalize the move and make it into 8^th place as he goes in for a move into Turn 1 and Lawson thought about defending but then couldn’t as it would have been an illegal move.

Back at the front we see Verstappen very close again to Leclerc into Turn 4 as he is in DRS still to Leclerc and once more Leclerc manages to defend against the 3 time world champion. Max immediately comes on the radio saying that Charles is making too many mistakes, and his engineer tells him to pit his head down as now is the time. And Time it was as Lap 18, Max was able to get past Leclerc into Turn 1 and Leclerc gave his heart out in this battle for 18 laps, but Verstappen was just quicker in this occasion.

As soon as this happened, we hear McLaren let Piastri know on Lap 20 that they think Verstappen was quicker than Leclerc which might have meant that they might do the swap earlier as McLaren earlier in the race told Norris that they will keep it as is until the last lap. This decision was nearly taken out of their hands as on Lap 21 we see Nico Hulkenberg pull over to the side in Sector 1 and that section goes on double yellow flags. On Lap 22 McLaren do the switch so they avoid a Safety Car coming out and then they won’t be able to do the switch as the pair swap places into Turn 4, this however put Piastri under pressure from Verstappen as he was right there given that Piastri probably slowed down too much, and when they got to the last corner to go down the main straight the VSC does come out to his rescue to neutralize the race until the car of Hulkenberg is cleared and Piastri was able to survive Max.

Verstappen was on the radio straight away asking the team to keep an eye out on Piastri to ensure that he is not slowing down too much to create a gap ahead so that Verstappen still has a chance if the track goes green. The track goes green on the last lap at Turn 4 and Piastri was able to hold off Verstappen but that meant it was going to be a drag race to the finish line, we do see Verstappen get his front wheels next to Piastri’s rear wheels ahead of the restart and this was noted down by the stewards for a possible VSC infringement.

In the end we see Lando Norris take the chequered flag followed by Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, George Russell, Pierre Gasly and Sergio Perez form the Top 8. Piastri played the team game in the sprint to secure Norris and additional point at the end to continue closing down the gap to Verstappen as we get confirmation after the race that Verstappen does get a 5 second penalty and drops to P4 behind Leclerc and that is 3 points Norris closed down on Verstappen in the Sprint Race.

For qualifying it started pouring down on the Saturday and we immediately get news that the start will be delayed due to the weather and lightning. Every 15 minutes we kept getting news from the race director that we kept getting 15 minutes delays until in the end it was decided that qualifying will be postponed till Sunday Morning ahead of the race and the Race was also moved forward by an hour and a half.

On Sunday the rain was falling already as well but it wasn’t that heavy and qualifying should go ahead. And just before the lights went green, we hear a radio message to Pierra Gasly saying that there will be an increase of rain in 15 minutes. Oliver Bearman is to once again continue replacing Kevin Magnussen as Magnussen was still not feeling the best. Liam Lawson on his outlap locked up a bit in Sector 2 and gone off track and managed to get back on track and Zhou Guanyu does something very similar a bit later. Lance Stroll also had a few moments off track couple times as well. We see a Red Flag come out with 9 minutes left as Franco Colapinto loses his Williams out of Turn 3 as he goes on the wet part of the track and loses the rear and spun into the barriers. Colapinto is ok but Williams will have to work very hard to get the car ready for the race given that it is today as well. This Red Flag could also hamper some drivers to get in into Q2 as the weather should be getting worse as well.

Q1 restarts and all drivers are back out on the full wets still as the rain got a bit heavier and we hear Norri’s engineer telling him this will last for 2 more minutes, and the rain should ease off again. George Russell goes off wide in Turn 1 and comes back on track and cuts straight to the racing line and cuts off Alex Albon. At the end we end up losing Lewis Hamilton, Oliver Bearman, Franco Colapinto, Nico Hulkenberg and Zhou Guanyu. Hamilton was really not happy with his car as he came on the radio after his push lap complaining about the car. Lando Norris just squeezes through to Q2 as he was 15^th.

For Q2 the weather is easing off and the times should be getting quicker, and we see some intermediate tyres coming out now as Piastri was the first and only one, but after a couple laps the times starting going his way and this is when everyone starting coming in for the intermediate tyre as well. Russell on inters has a bit of a spin and manages to get back going. Sainz also goes off at Turn 2 and crashes out into the barriers as we get our second Red Flag. He seems to lose the rear out of Turn 1 as the rear snapped, the crash seemed to be slow, but damage seems quite big on the rear of the car. Session restarts with 5 minutes left in Q2 and Norris need to get a move on as he is in the bottom 5 and Leclerc is in 9^th, so he also needs to get a good time in. Red Flag again as Lance Stroll goes off in Turn 3 as he loses the rear and goes straight into the barriers. There is no time to restart as there is not enough time and we lose Valtteri Bottas, Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly. Red Bull tripped up as they left it too late as he was 2 cars behind Stroll and couldn’t improve on his time. Due to his penalty he will be starting in 17^th in the race. Perez was super unhappy with his exit as he had warned the team that they should have waited in the garage with the tyres in the blankets.

Q3 delayed a bit until barriers are repaired to get it ready for the last session of the qualifying. McLaren tell both drivers that the first 5 minutes should be the counting runs as there is more rain coming their way. Provisional pole kept switching lap after lap as everyone keeps improving but we are interrupted once more as we see Alonso in the barriers as well and Red Flag once more. On the replay we see Alonso lose the car at Turn 11 as the car snaps and he spins into the barriers. The session restarts and the teams have 7 minutes left on the clock and cars are out for hopefully the last time out in Q3 to go for Pole Position. Track is very tricky still as Russell goes off wide a bit at Turn 4 which is keeping everyone on their toes in Q3. Another Red Flag as we see Alex Albon off the track at Turn 1 and it was a big crash as he has big damage, as we cut to the replay we see him locking into the braking zone of Turn 1 and it could be as he went a bit off line onto the paint and he spins into the barriers.

Ahead of the restart we hear McLaren warn Piastri saying there will be Class 1 rain till the end of the session and to Norris they were giving him a difficult session, saying that if the conditions are worse to be sensible as the race is in a few hours. 3 minutes to go in Q3 and the last remaining 7 are out to get the last lap in for the fight for pole. Norris improves his time and Piastri locks up into Turn 1 as he goes for his push lap and he won’t be able to go for a push lap now. Norris takes pole position followed by George Russell, Yuki Tsunoda, Esteban Ocon, Liam Lawson, Charles Leclerc, Alex Albon, Oscar Piastri, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll will form the Top 10 later in the race.

Who do you think will come out on top in the race? Will Max be able to do some damage limitation from P17 or will Norris be able to get some decent points ahead of Verstappen and keep making that Championship battle spicier. I think we are in for an interesting race later. Tune in later to find out.