Seven things we learned from the Brazilian Grand Prix

We were due a mad one, weren’t we? There’s usually at least one Formula 1 race per year which goes off-script, usually thanks to a few lashings of rain, and Brazil gave us this year’s instalment of a break with the usual competitive order.

Despite the trials and tribulations of qualifying – held on Sunday morning thanks to the Saturday downpour – Max Verstappen transcended the conditions to eclipse his own 2016 triumph at Interlagos with a drive that has given him the match point and the advantage in this year’s title fight.

The rain also gives the lesser lights a chance to shine, and the likes of Alpine and Yuki Tsunoda produced assured drives in Brazil – albeit with varying degrees of pay-off. Let’s delve into what we learned at this year’s Brazilian race.

1. Verstappen pulls out one of his – and F1’s – greatest drives to dispel recent furore

Simply lovely. Verstappen’s trademark (literally and figuratively) phrase perfectly encapsulated his Sunday afternoon endeavours in the rain, which concluded with a victory that enters the pantheon of great wet-weather drives.

There’s Ayrton Senna at Donington 1993, Damon Hill at Suzuka ’94, Michael Schumacher at Barcelona ’96, Lewis Hamilton at Silverstone 2008, Verstappen’s earlier Brazil entry in ’16 – now, Brazil 2024 must be included among them. Does it surpass them all? That’s up to you, dear reader – it’s entirely subjective.

Personal opinion, but the continued pre-weekend debate about Verstappen’s Mexico actions was getting tiring. He’d got his penalties and responded defiantly to the questioning on Thursday, but sometimes it’s better (albeit in a desperately cliched phrase) to ‘do the talking on-track’. That’s where a wet Brazil race washed away the sour taste of the previous weeks.

Verstappen was incensed by the situation he was placed in during qualifying. He’s right in that it took an exceedingly long time for race control to show the red flag after Lance Stroll’s Q2 shunt at Curva do Sol, although it was only to the detriment of a position or two; the five-place penalty for an engine change dangled precariously over the Dutchman’s head like the sword of Damocles. And, after the frustration of an aborted (not abandoned) start and the glacially slow formation laps, Verstappen was charged up and ready to pounce.

He reeled off the moves on the first lap,…