Lewis Hamilton issued a three-word response to Max
Verstappen’s Brazilian Grand Prix drive as he congratulated the Red Bull driver
on his incredible victory.
11 races after his last victory in June’s Spanish Grand
Prix, Verstappen‘s
“simply lovely” catchphrase was heard over the radio again as the Red Bull
driver romped to the victory at the Interlagos circuit.
Max Verstappen raced from 17th to 1st in Brazil
And he did it in style.
A tough qualifying session in the rain on Sunday morning
ended for Verstappen in Q2 when he was caught out by the timing of a late red
flag. Lance Stroll crashed his Aston Martin at Turn 3 with Verstappen having to
slow for the double waved yellows, which left him down in 12th place.
With the red flag waved some 40 seconds later, the FIA
opted not to restart Q2 as there was only 1m37s left on the clock.
Adding to Verstappen’s misery, a five-place grid penalty
meant he lined up 17th on the grid while his title rival Lando Norris was on
pole position. But that didn’t stop Verstappen.
The Dutchman put in arguably one of the best wet-weather
drives ever as he raced his way through the field before, this time, the
fortunate timing of a red flag for Franco Colapinto’s crash secured his P2 in
the running order as he was handed a free pit stop.
He made short work of passing Esteban Ocon at the restart
before pulling away from the Alpine driver, taking the chequered flag 19.477s
ahead.
It was a drive applauded by his rivals on the grid.
“Amazing drive, congrats,” seven-time World Champion
Hamilton wrote in response to Verstappen’s Instagram post as he shrugged
off his
own disappointing P10.
The Dutchman replied: “Thank you man. Appreciate it.”
He wasn’t the only person in the paddock to applaud the Red
Bull driver as Fernando Alonso congratulated him on a “fantastic drive” while
Nico Hulkenberg posted goat emojis.
Meanwhile Damon Hill, one of Verstappen’s biggest critics
after his Mexican Grand Prix antics, also had something to say.
“Silenced a few critics today,” the 1996 World Champion
wrote on X.
The win was Verstappen’s first in 11 races and took him one
huge leap closer to the World title as he now leads Lando Norris by 62 points with
85 points still in play.
“Of course, that was important,” he said in the post-race FIA press conference. “I wanted to, of course, win a bit sooner.
.webp)
