The three-time world champion was the class of the field, winning the race from P17 on the grid after overtaking six cars on the opening lap and staying out as the rain intensified on worn intermediates.
Verstappen told his engineer that he was willing to stay out if the rain was only heavy for five minutes, with his lap times tumbling down to 20 seconds slower than his fastest laps.
The gamble paid off when the red flag came out for Franco Colapinto crashing on the start/finish straight, enabling him to switch to a new set of intermediates without the pit stop time loss. After overtaking Esteban Ocon for the lead, Verstappen went on to set fastest laps in the final 10 laps of the race.
Karun Chandhok likened Verstappen’s drive to Ayrton Senna’s at Donington in 1993 in similar conditions, while David Coulthard has explained why it made him fall in love with F1 when speaking on the Formula for Success podcast.
There has been many drives throughout the history of F1 that have sealed titles and Verstappen’s is likely to go down in a similar manner, with the three-time world champion now extending his lead over Lando Norris by 62 points.
Coulthard has explained why he thinks it was one of the all-time great drives and showcased the excellence of Verstappen.
“Max, he said ‘what a roller coaster of emotions’. Frustrated and angry in the morning, and then just mighty in the afternoon. I think he had like 17 or 18 consecutive fastest laps,” said Coulthard.
“It’s the sort of stuff that when I was reflecting on it, it’s the reason why I think I fell in love with this sport. It was about wanting to see excellence, seeing people doing things that you go, ‘That’s unbelievable’ but it is a fact.
“It probably calmed a lot of the sort of growing sort of finger pointing and frustration or anger, whatever terminology you want to use, that was building towards Max, because he’s his own man, he speaks his mind, he’s not going to dance to anyone’s tune, and that is divisive.”
Verstappen outclassed drivers known for being exceptional wet weather performers, including Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.
The pair finished outside of the top 10 after struggling with their car balance for most of the race, with Hamilton complaining largely about the bumps around the Interlagos circuit.
Peter Windsor believes Verstappen had the car to be able to maximise his talent in the conditions, while Hamilton and Alonso were preoccupied by how disasterous their cars were in the race.
Eddie Jordan felt Verstappen’s drive showed why Lando Norris ‘hasn’t got’ what it takes to be a world champion, after the McLaren driver made a series of errors that ultimately ended up in him finishing P6.
