How Red Bull forced Mercedes into clumsiness

Max Verstappen and Red Bull were the class of the field at Interlagos, assisted by a Honda engine package that thrives at altitude and a car that flew in the twisty middle sector.

Early on, he was on target to control the race from start to finish, but this was not a straightforward Brazilian Grand Prix. Instead, he had to make two passes for the lead and negotiate a couple of late-race safety cars to prevail.

On Friday, the talk was of the apparent return of Ferrari's straightline supremacy. But come qualifying Verstappen only gave away a tenth and a half to the red machines on the straights and seized pole by 0.123 seconds from Sebastian Vettel, aided by how well the car was working aerodynamically in the long middle sector.

With the Honda turbo characteristics effective in compensating for the 800 metres altitude and resulting reduction in air density, Mercedes losing a little on F1's rare visits to such heights and Ferrari fastest but not by a massive margin on the straights, everything came up Red Bull.

As team principal Christian Horner put it, this was redemption for what happened last year when Verstappen's collision with the lapped Esteban Ocon's Racing Point cost certain victory.

But Verstappen had to work for it, even though he comfortably took up the lead at the start while Lewis Hamilton worked his way around front-row starter Vettel in the first part of the Senna S.

"I apologise, but I couldn't do anything and was not aware he was coming" Robert Kubica

With track temperatures more than 20C higher than even the peak of the preceding two days the big question for the race was tyre life. The soft Pirellis that the majority of the field started on, including all the frontrunners save for medium-shod Charles Leclerc down in 14th on the grid thanks to a 10-place penalty, looked durable in the cooler temperatures and a one-stop was possible. But most expected a two-stopper.

Verstappen quickly established himself out of DRS range of Hamilton, with a lead of 1.342s at the end of the first lap growing to 2.057 by the end of lap three. The gap bounced around in the 2-2.5s range throughout the first stint but, with the midfield - led by Toro Rosso driver Pierre Gasly in seventh place once Leclerc had joined the back of 'Class A' - dropping back, the pitstop window soon opened.

Mercedes and Hamilton, who suggested earlier in the weekend they were open to taking an aggressive approach with both world championships secured, decided to take the undercut. It was worth a try, especially with Vettel unable to keep pace with the leaders and now five seconds behind.

Hamilton came in at the end of lap 20 of 71, having closed the gap to 1.8s on his in-lap. With fresh softs bolted on, he headed out for a maximum-attack out-lap.

The champion duly delivered a quick lap, but had some additional help from an unexpected source. Robert Kubica, running 19th just ahead of Williams team-mate George Russell, was released into Verstappen's path at the pit exit. Although he appeared to take an aggressive line to squeeze Verstappen, this was normal to open up the left-hander in the pit exit that followed. The result was Verstappen had to back out, with the anti-stall almost kicking in, and then follow the worst car in F1 through the long, and twisty, pit exit while Hamilton pulled away.

"When I heard [Verstappen was there], it was already too late," said Kubica. "It is a shame because I know what it means when you are righting at the front and this is not what should happen, especially when we are only fighting with ourselves.

"I apologise, but I couldn't do anything and was not aware he was coming."

Horner suggested the time lost to Kubica, which included a little at the end of the in-lap as well, likely cost track position despite a lightning-fast turnaround measured at 1.9s. The Williams pulled out of the way at the first opportunity, by which point Verstappen was 1.7s behind Hamilton.

But the Mercedes driver had closed up on Leclerc, running long on his starting mediums, and was seeking a way past. He managed that, brilliantly, by cutting inside the Ferrari at the slow Bico de Pato right-hander, then completing the move around the outside at the Mergulho left-hander.

Yet Verstappen was coming. He passed Leclerc into the Juncao left-hander then charged up to Hamilton on the long blast to Turn 1. Hamilton was powerless, literally as he had no battery charge left having spent it all on the out-lap and in passing Leclerc, and Verstappen cruised past into the lead with the assistance of the DRS.

Hamilton had a go at coming back at him into the Descida do Lago right-hander, but it was futile. Moments later, he informed the team that he wasn't happy at not being given information about his "frigging battery state".

"Although Lewis was able to stay with him and even close up a little bit towards the death of that [the first] stint, the pace with our car was not really there to be able to do the sort of domineering type of race attacks that we've been able to do sometimes this year," said Mercedes technical director James Allison. "So we pulled the trigger for an undercut, just theoretically within range.

"We got lucky with the release of the Williams into Max's path, and we're then in front and we're thinking at that point they probably haven't got the pace to actually breeze past us just as we didn't pass them.

"But we actually used most of our energy in the battery making the undercut work and by the time we went up the hill we're a sitting duck to Max, who's had good straightline speed all weekend. Take our battery away, and you saw what happened."

Mercedes could perhaps have dialled back a little once Verstappen had emerged behind to give Hamilton half a chance of defending, but the need to pass Leclerc complicated matters. Ultimately, though, Mercedes was trying to take and keep the lead with a car that was slightly slower so it was always a punt.

Amid growing wind, which made life difficult for everyone given its inconsistency, Hamilton struggled to pressure Verstappen during the stint that followed. Initially, the gap was similar to that of the first stint, but by the end of lap 35 it had grown to 3.4s. Hamilton then closed up a little through traffic, then lost ground again and was thoroughly fed up with his tyres when he pitted at the end of lap 43.

Predictably, Verstappen covered this move and emerged almost 1.5s clear. And so it might have remained to the finish, especially with no challenges from behind.

"You have to be confident of making the pass on track and we've done it once with Max before" Christian Horner

Vettel still had control of third place having stopped to take mediums at the end of lap 25, making a second stop on lap 49 to take softs.

In his wake, Valtteri Bottas had struck out for a one-stopper by taking the hard compound Pirellis when he made his first stop at the end of lap 26 but found the rubber slower and no more durable than the mediums. That led to him becoming the first frontrunner to make a second stop on lap 41. Behind him in fifth was Alex Albon in the Red Bull, who had gone to mediums at his first stop on lap 24, then took softs on lap 50.

But it was on lap 52 that the race changed. At the end of the previous lap, Bottas's engine - which had been consuming oil at a high rate - began to smoke. He made it as far as the back straight before the failure came and he slowed to retire from the race having already banked what would stand as a pointless fastest lap.

Responsibly, Bottas parked his car close to a gap in the barriers and, after a struggle to get the steering wheel back on both by driver and a marshal, the Mercedes was set to be rolled out of the way without interrupting the race. But it wouldn't move because the floor of the car was beached on uneven ground so a tractor was required to drag it back a few metres.

As a result, the safety car was deployed when the leaders were on the 54th lap. It also created a strategic flashpoint. Hamilton was given the instruction to do the opposite of Verstappen, who was called in to take on a set of softs.

"It's a game of chess as the leader," said Horner. "The following car will only do the opposite, so to give away track position is quite a brave thing to do.

"You have to be confident of making the pass on track and we've done it once with Max before. We felt that with that tyre advantage, he had only conceded one position, he could do it again."

Leclerc, in sixth place, opted to do the same, so when the race got back underway at the end of lap 59, Hamilton led from Verstappen, with Vettel, Albon and Leclerc from third through to fifth.

Hamilton tried to delay the restart as long as possible to prevent Verstappen from getting a run on him. But it was to no avail and Verstappen drew alongside him and got ahead into the Senna S to retake the lead for the second and final time despite Hamilton having a forlorn go at getting back past at the Descida do Lago.

Behind, Albon tried a similar move on Vettel. It wasn't as clear-cut but, despite being put on the artificial grass out of Turn 1, he hung on to move up to third place. Behind, Leclerc then had a go at passing team-mate Vettel, who held onto fourth place. But Leclerc was determined to make the most of his tyre advantage and mugged Vettel with an inspired late-braking move into the Senna S that appeared to take his team-mate by surprise.

Vettel attempted to come back, using the DRS on the back straight to pull alongside Leclerc on the right side of the track. He had the momentum to get ahead and likely complete the move around the outside into Turn 4, but needlessly drifted to his left. The resulting contact gave him a left-rear puncture and both Ferraris were out as a result of Vettel's disastrous error of judgement. The result was another safety car on lap 66.

Surprisingly, Hamilton then pitted to take on fresh softs for what was going to be a very short run to the end of the 71st lap and the chequered flag. Having been told over the radio that he would lose one place and to offer his opinion, Hamilton justifiably felt the ball was in his court given the pitwall didn't give him an instruction, so uncertainly he pitted. In fact, he dropped to fourth place behind both Albon and Gasly's Toro Rosso.

"We just did something plain dumb," admitted Allison. "We thought we were exchanging a place for fresh rubber with enough laps left to get that place back properly and then have a go for the lead.

"That was just factually incorrect because we were exchanging two places. We hadn't factored Gasly in.

"Secondly, with the amount of debris on the track, there were a lot more laps taken up by the safety car than we'd anticipated.

"That was your rookie error of a not-quite-quick-enough car on the day and trying to stretch too far for victory. It wasn't on, we just made a mistake."

So where had Gasly come from? He'd started sixth having set the seventh-fastest time in qualifying to lead the midfield. Inevitably, Leclerc soon passed him but he'd commanded the midfield brilliantly. There was no hope of a podium before Bottas triggered the safety car, as at that point he was over 1m11s off the lead. But as a lapped car, he was waved back round. The demise of the Ferraris, plus Hamilton's erroneous stop, promoted him to third place.

The debris was cleared, but Gasly had no hope of holding on ahead of Hamilton even with two laps to go. The Mercedes duly blasted past around the outside into the Senna S at the restart and set about Albon. The Red Bull driver looked a sitting duck, but didn't help his cause by taking the orthodox wide approach to the tight Bico de Pato right-hander on the infield.

This created an inviting opening for Hamilton, with the contact inevitable as Albon turned into the apex. The Mercedes driver tried to back out of it, briefly locking up, but as the Red Bull spun he continued - later to be hit with a five-second penalty for causing the collision.

"It's the first time I've come together with someone for a long, long time but I saw a door open and I went for it," said Hamilton. "It closed very, very quickly. I went straight to him after the race to apologise."

Albon admitted he did not see Hamilton attacking when he turned in, with the spin relegating him to 14th in the final results. While Albon was the big loser from this, the delighted Gasly went from fourth to second as a result.

But he still had Hamilton, the left side of the front wing of his Mercedes battle-scared, to contend with. On the last lap, he had to defend into Juncao, giving Hamilton a run up the hill to the finish line. But Gasly held firm and, in the final few hundred metres, the Honda power allowed him to edge back ahead. Second was his, by just 0.062s! His reaction over the radio said it all, even though he'd have had the position whether or not he'd have held Hamilton off.

Hamilton's penalty also promoted Carlos Sainz Jr to third place despite his McLaren having started from the back of the grid. On a one-stop strategy, he'd somehow managed to hold off the Alfa Romeos in the closing stages, even through the slow final restart that demanded sudden acceleration, to take his first podium finish in F1 with what he rated as his best race drive. Hamilton, meanwhile, was classified seventh, having also dropped behind Kimi Raikkonen, Antonio Giovinazzi and Renault's Daniel Ricciardo.

But while this was a rare bad day for Hamilton in another year of supremacy, what happened up front was Verstappen reminding everyone why he is the heir apparent with his pair of passes for the lead. F1 needs more face-offs between these two.