Red Bull: Verstappen's F1 Brazil GP podium charge "as sensational" as his 2024 victory

Max Verstappen’s remarkable Formula 1 victory in last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix was on the same level as his 2025 Interlagos drive, Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has claimed.

Verstappen’s last two races in Sao Paulo featured some of the most impressive recovery drives in recent history.

In the wet 2024 race where many drivers made mistakes, the Dutchman jumped from 15th to 11th on the opening lap and fought his way up to sixth until a well-timed red flag propelled him to second place behind Esteban Ocon. Verstappen dominated the remainder of the race, winning by 19.5 seconds from the Alpine driver.

This time around, the track was dry but Red Bull suffered an ignominious double Q1 exit in qualifying – a first since 2006. The team opted to breach parc ferme in order to tweak Verstappen’s suspension set-up and give him a brand-new power unit, paving the way for another recovery despite a pitlane start.

Verstappen completed nine overtakes on his way to third place, and arguably was the fastest driver in the race, with his quickest 10 laps averaging 1m12.971s; Oscar Piastri was second in 1m13.007s, Alex Albon third in 1m13.099s. One should note those three drivers stopped late in the race and therefore had fresher tyres on low fuel.

“Credit to Max for the sensational drive,” Mekies said. “He won last year here from P16 on the wet [P17 on the grid, but two drivers ahead did not start]. I think we would probably agree that it was as sensational as last year to bring it to P3 from the pitlane on a dry, relatively uneventful race.”

Laurent Mekies, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Hector Vivas / Getty Images

Verstappen achieved this performance despite a lap-seven pitstop for a puncture, which fortunately happened during a Virtual Safety Car intervention and allowed him to get rid of the unfancied hard rubber – but pushed him onto a three-stop strategy.

“In fairness, we were a little bit helped in our disadvantage by the VSC, so it has limited a little bit the loss, but we've lost something for sure,” Mekies acknowledged. “If you go a few laps longer in the whole sequence – hard, medium – then maybe at that stage you don't do that final stop.”

Verstappen’s drive also earned him plaudits from the competition, with the Red Bull driver nearly snatching second place away from Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

“Well, it's quite interesting, the big step they made today,” Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff commented. “Fresh engine obviously always helps, like we had with Lewis [Hamilton] back in the day.

“But you never discount Max, even if he starts from last. A few years ago it was a wet race, so you kind of get your head around it, but that was a dry race – that's the reason why he's a four-time world champion.”