Red Bull’s Max Verstappen started in the pole position and won the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix rather easily, however, behind Verstappen, chaos reigned as the race finished with Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly claiming second place and the current world champion, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton claiming the third and final podium position – for now, pending an investigation into a collision he had with Red Bull’s Alexander Albon.
Verstappen began in the pole position and easily held onto the first place position until Lap 22 when he made his first pit stop of the race and temporarily allowed Hamilton to pass. Verstappen eventually reclaimed the lead on Lap 26 and held that until Lap 45 when another round of pit stops shuffled the top drivers but Verstappen eventually emerged on top and in front of Hamilton again when Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate, Valtteri Bottas, dropped out of the race with an engine failure on Lap 52.
After the race re-start on Lap 59, Verstappen passed Hamilton but a mere seven laps later, a clash between the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc took both of them out of the race and seemingly cleared the way for Albon to claim a podium finish until Hamilton spun him out on the final lap – incurring an investigation that will be conducted at the end of the race festivities and is expected to demote Hamilton from his third place finish and possibly promote McLaren’s Carlos Sainz, Jr. into his first podium position.
With the victory, Verstappen all but secures a third place finish overall in the driver’s championship standings with only one race remaining in the 2019 F1 racing season.
2019 Brazilian Grand Prix Top 10
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull
2 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
4 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren
5 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo
6 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo
7 Daniel Ricciardo Renault
8 Lando Norris McLaren
9 Sergio Pérez Racing Point
10 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso