SAO PAULO — As the champagne flowed through Red Bull’s post-race celebrations at Interlagos, Christian Horner’s phone rang. On the other end was Formula 1‘s former CEO Bernie Ecclestone with a message for Max Verstappen.
“He rang after the race and said, ‘I’ve seen all the greats win, but that’s one of the very best I’ve ever seen,’, Horner relayed. “Bernie’s a bit older than I am and has seen a bit more, so high credit from someone like him.”
Ecclestone, now 94 but still present at Sunday’s race, is one of the few people in a position to make such cross-generational comparisons. He’s been a part of F1 since the 1950s and ruled the sport during the careers of some of its greats, such as Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher. If he says Verstappen’s win from 17th on the grid in Brazil was one of the best of all time, there’s very few who can argue.
It’s also safe to say that it was a win worthy of a four-time world champion, which is fitting as that is exactly what Verstappen will become in Las Vegas if his points lead over Lando Norris, now at 62, remains at 60 or above after F1’s visit to Nevada. After more than four months without a grand prix win, and two weeks with a fair degree of criticism about the way he goes racing, above all, Verstappen’s win was a timely reminder of just how brilliant he is.
Verstappen shines as Norris struggles
Going into Sunday’s race, it seemed like the stage was set for Norris to cut into Verstappen’s title lead. After the McLaren driver’s victory in Saturday’s sprint race, the gap had closed to 44 points, with Norris carrying that momentum into Sunday morning’s qualifying session and securing pole position.
Verstappen had other ideas, though.
Seemingly fired up by criticism of his driving a week ago in Mexico and a red flag in qualifying that left him 12th fastest (before his five-place grid penalty dropped him to 17th on the grid), he channeled that aggression into the race and made up six positions on the opening lap.
“This morning I was very upset, and my emotions went from almost trying to destroy the garage to winning the race,” Verstappen said. “But I surprised myself today to win here, to be honest. We had a really good start, we stayed out of trouble, we made good overtakes and we were very fast.”
Continuing the theme of comparisons with the best drives of all time, Horner highlighted the similarity between Verstappen’s first lap at Interlagos and Senna’s legendary drive from fifth to first on the…
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