Max Verstappen Sets The Fastest Lap | 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix | DHL

Max Verstappen won his third DHL Fastest Lap Award of 2024, on his way to victory in a weather-affected Sao Paulo Grand Prix. The rain came to Interlagos on Saturday afternoon, and didn't stop, meaning qualifying was delayed until Sunday morning. Even then, it was still wet, leading to five red flags, as many a driver found the barriers. Big names fell early, including Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, who, with an engine penalty factored in, would start the Grand Prix from P17. The rain continued on Sunday, but Max is a wizard in the wet. The defending champion made up six places on the first lap alone, and slowly picked off more drivers in the early stages. As in qualifying, there was much disruption to the race, with red flags and safety cars aplenty. During one VSC, the leaders Lando Norris and George Russell gave up track position to pit for fresh Inters. Only for a later red flag to gift others a free tyre change. Max consequently moved up to P2, and on the second of two rolling restarts, took the lead from Esteban Ocon, and never looked back, setting a number of fastest laps in the final tours, with his best coming on lap 67, purple all the way. Sector 1 was completed in 20.546 seconds, and the next in 42.236, with the final section dashed off in 17.690. He was round the final turns and over the line in 1 minute 20.472. So Max goes into joint second with Charles Leclerc on the 2024 DHL Fastest Lap Award leaderboard. Norris remains the outright leader.