Mark Hughes: Verstappen's pitlane charge exposed Norris' narrow escape in Brazil

Having qualified 0.9sec faster than Max Verstappen‘s 16th-fastest Red Bull, Lando Norris took up his pole position and sprinted into the lead as his rival was starting from the pitlane, one place from the back. Norris wouldn’t need to be worrying about Verstappen on this day, surely?

Except… Here was Verstappen leading the race as Norris exited from his second pitstop 8sec behind. McLaren wasn’t sure if Verstappen would be pitting again. He’d already done the compulsory two compounds by starting on the hards and switching to mediums (under a VSC) on lap 7 as he picked up a slow puncture. This offset his pitstop timings to the rest of the field and allowed him to do most of the race on what was by far the best tyre – the medium. He’d pitted to change to a second set of mediums on lap 34.

As Norris rejoined, there were 21 laps left and he faced the prospect of chasing Verstappen down and maybe having to attempt an overtake on him. Norris had led throughout, pulling out a comfortable gap on Kimi Antonelli‘s Mercedes, but that final stop had put him behind the Red Bull, such was the remarkable pace Verstappen had maintained as he scythed through the field, helped enormously by the enforced timing of the first stop and by being on mediums as Norris was obliged to do a 20-lap middle stint on the less effective soft.

Norris’ newly-fitted mediums were not even that much fresher than Verstappen’s 16-lap-old tyres as he rejoined. They’d already done nine laps earlier in the weekend. So the actual age difference was only seven laps. Norris began lapping around 0.5sec quicker than Verstappen. If – and it’s a significant if – he could have maintained that 0.5sec advantage, he would have been on Verstappen’s tail with three laps to go. And he’d likely have used up a lot of the tyres’ energy in getting there. Would he have had enough resource to overtake?

Except… Red Bull brought Verstappen in! They were convinced on the pitwall the tyres would have given out before the end, necessitating another stop. So they pitted for the brand new set of softs, which they’d retained through not progressing beyond Q1 of the qualifying knock-out the day before. On these, Verstappen rejoined, chased down and overtook George Russell‘s Mercedes and got himself onto the tail of Antonelli for the last couple of laps. Antonelli capped his great weekend by withstanding the Verstappen pressure perfectly and taking a great second place, having qualified in that position too.

Although Norris won by 10sec, he was adamant that had Verstappen been able to start anywhere near the front, they’d have had no answer to him, which was an extraordinary turnaround for a car which even the great Verstappen could not get out of Q1 the day before. Taking the car out of parc fermé and starting from the pitlane, Red Bull’s third attempt at a set-up plus a new power unit finally switched the car on, gave it the front end it had lacked in qualifying and another Interlagos Verstappen masterclass ensued. But we’ll never know if it could have been more.

Norris’ other championship rival, Oscar Piastri, went 24 points down after finishing fifth, his race ruined by a 10sec penalty for a collision with Antonelli upon the restart from a safety car.

Anticipating Norris’ restart better than Antonelli or Charles Leclerc ahead of him, he had the momentum on them as they raced up to the Senna Esses. Piastri dived for the inside, Antonelli squeezed him, Piastri locked up, they touched and Antonelli was sent into the side of Leclerc, ripping off the Ferrari‘s tyre and fatally damaging its suspension. It got Piastri ahead of Antonelli on the road, but he’d be taking a 10sec penalty at his pitstop, which put him behind both Mercedes and Verstappen. He was on the tail of Russell by the final lap in what was his third underwhelming weekend in succession.

Norris seems to be peaking at the perfect time.

Oliver Bearman rivalled Antonelli’s rookie performance with a beautiful drive to sixth in the Haas, a long way clear of the battling racing Bulls team-mates Liam Lawson (seventh on a one-stop) and Isack Hadjar (eighth on a two-stop and making contact with Lawson going into the last lap).