Red Bull’s Max Verstappen pulled off a fine drive to finish on the podium from a pit-lane start at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
After a difficult Saturday where he could only qualify 16th, Red Bull opted to pull Verstappen’s car from the grid and start in the pit-lane with set-up changes and a new power unit.
The reigning world champion duly flew up the order, flying from starting in pits in a net 19th place start to finishing third, narrowly behind Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes in second.
Verstappen’s teammate Yuki Tsunoda had a more difficult afternoon, meanwhile, as he finished 17th after picking up a penalty and then another penalty for not serving the first penalty correctly.
Although the race saw Verstappen pull off an acclaimed drive, at a track where he famously won from 17th in 2024, victory for Lando Norris means that Verstappen still faces a big task to win his fifth consecutive F1 world championship title. The Dutchman sits 3rd, 49 points behind the McLaren driver with 83 to play for in the final 3 races and single sprint. He is 25 behind second place Oscar Piastri.
Tsunoda sits 17th in the championship on 28 points, with the Japanese driver sat between the French duo of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly.
In the Constructor’s Championship, a weekend that saw Verstappen score 20 points in race and sprint combined helped Red Bull climb to third in the Constructor’s Championship. The Milton Keynes-based Red Bull team have 366 points, with the team 32 behind second place Mercedes and 4 clear of 4th placed Ferrari, who scored no points in the main grand prix in Brazil.
After a troubled qualifying, Red Bull opted to keep Tsunoda on his set-up but withdraw Verstappen and start him from the pits.
Verstappen had been able to close back up through a first lap safety car, which was thrown after a crash for Gabriel Bortoleto’s Sauber. But on the restart, Verstappen ran over debris and suffered a slow puncture, necessitating an earlier than intended pit-stop for the Red Bull driver.
After racing restarted, Verstappen duly began to use his new tyres to good effect, making multiple overtakes of midfield cars to rise into the top 10. He would also be further promoted as some drivers made early pit-stops, putting him back into the top 5 by lap 21.
The pace showed by the Red Bull of Verstappen was able to keep him as a competitive factor with the McLaren and Mercedes cars who were running in the top 4, with Verstappen also able to clear Piastri after the Australian was handed a 10 second time penalty for causing a collision on the restart after the first safety car that took out Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
At one point, after making two stops with other drivers also pitting, Verstappen had been able to take the lead of the race, to the surprise of many onlookers. But Red Bull opted to be conservative, deciding that the tyres weren’t going to last to the end of the race and pitting Verstappen for a third time onto new softs with 17 laps to go.
The Dutchman returned to the track in fourth place, and would make a move on lap 63 to get ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes. But the best of the tyres would be gone by the time he reached the other Mercedes of Antonelli, and although he was able to get within DRS range, it wasn’t enough to overtake the Italian as Verstappen took third at the checkered flag.
It was still nonetheless a flying drive by the Dutchman, who was the first driver to take a podium from starting in the pit-lane since Lewis Hamilton did so at the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Tsunoda meanwhile had a very difficult afternoon. After making up some places on the initial start, the Japanese driver drove into the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll on the restart after the safety car, with the Canadian’s car spun around. He would earn a 10 second time penalty for this, and he would then also get another time penalty after the stewards ruled the first penalty had not been served correctly. His race wouldn’t recover and he was the last driver to finish.
F1 now has a 2 week break before the final 3 races of the season, which all occur on back-to-back weekends. The first of this triple header takes place in Las Vegas, which will hold a race on November 22nd.