Extended Highlights | 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix

This is Brazil and it's time for the next chapter of this relentless World Championship run. Welcome back to an iconic venue currently bathed in the rain. Alex Albon, he's withdrawn from the race. There is an empty slot on the grid. The moment for the green light on the gantry is now. The formation lap is underway and George Russell goes ahead of Lando Norris. Statement of intent. You're not strictly meant to do that. It begins. Lance Stroll finds himself off the road on the formation lap and he has got himself into difficulty at turn number four. Oh, rear locking almost immediately on the brakes. And he does make contact with the wall, damage to that front wing before the race even starts. Terrible luck for Lance Stroll. I think we're going to need an aborted start here because he's stuck in the gravel. And for the second year in a row, a car finds themselves out on the formation lap. We're down to 70 laps for the Grand Prix. The start is aborted. A second formation lap now in progress. Can I call a green to park to the wrong grid slot? Yeah, all sorts of procedures have been breached here, Max. You should not have started. Yeah, you have to wait for a green light. Lando Norris noted for a starting procedure infringement. This is, again, just more drama in a day, in a weekend, in a season. That didn't need any more to be an absolutely incredibly exciting weekend. One in the pit lane, two already out of the race. Let's try this again. The race to win in Interlagos begins in five lights time. The Sao Paulo Grand Prix is underway from the line. Good reaction time for George Russell. The lead for George Russell. The Mercedes man gets by. Esteban Ocon forces his way past the two V-Cubs, or at least he's trying to. Yuki Tsunoda hangs on to third position as Lewis Hamilton is all over the kerb. Here is Oscar Piastri toughing it out with Fernando Alonso. Alonso in the green, Aston Martin, and now you've got Piastri moving out of the wheel tracks. They're on the intermediate tyres. They're looking for a way by. This is the turn number four. This is a chance for Fernando Alonso. Wide moment now for Liam Lawson. Allows Alonso to keep the place on the way in. But Piastri kept it pinned on the way out. And he's able to go past the two-time world champion. George Russell is the race leader. Then it's Lando Norris. Yuki Tsunoda is in third. Esteban Ocon put pressure on but couldn't force his way by. Then it's Charles Leclerc up a place. Liam Lawson down a position. And Piastri got past Alonso. Now two former rivals Verstappen and Hamilton going at it as Verstappen's trying to claw back some positions there. That Liam Lawson move on Fernando Alonso. That's not going to be liked by the Spaniard. There might be more words exchanged between those two when this one's over. But now side-by-side. The Sauber on the Haas. Oli Bergmann trying to hold on that position. And round goes Checo. Sergio Perez spins around the red ball. Keeps the engine going. And he will rejoin if he can find a gear. And he does so. His teammate meanwhile up six places to 11th position. Norris again cannot convert into leading lap one of the contest from pole position. He's lost the place to George Russell. Good reaction time for the British driver. Norris still under investigation. And through the spray having a go at Lewis Hamilton. Fighting his way through and taking 10th place. The man on the charge. The championship leader on the attack. Max Verstappen up to P10. The confidence that Max Verstappen has in his red bull right now is phenomenal. That is the first time they've gone through turn one at speed with full fuel in the wet. And he was so confident on the brakes. Late on the inside. Bit of a lock-up now into turn four. Goes a little bit wide. Not wide enough to create an opportunity for Hamilton. But man, Verstappen in these conditions is just sublime. As is Hamilton behind him. This is a great start for the red bull driver. Similar launch times from the front row. But it just feels like a little more wheel spin out of the McLaren. A great second phase of acceleration there from Russell. Made it an easy run into turn one. And like Liam Lawson here. Trying to go around the outside. Realized it wasn't going to work. Backed out of it. Even though it cost him the position to the Ferrari. That was heads up driving. You don't want to get into contact early in the race. Especially with your teammate. He's on board with George Russell. You can see second phase. Just going to get that drive and going to get the lead. First place for the driver who won this Grand Prix back in 2022. That's how they made their way by. Absolutely phenomenal launch. Bit of a slow getaway for the Haas right in front of him. He's going by the Williams now as we get to this first brake zone. You're at the mercy of the cars in front of you. You're not sure what opportunities are going to open up. You just kind of have to play it by ear. See where the gap is. And then as Senna famously says, you got to go for it. And this is that outside move in three. He used a devastating effect back in 2016. Just hanging it out there. And there you go is that spin from Checo. Almost identical to the spin we saw out of Russell in qualifying. Same corner. First lap on intermediate tires. Heat not quite in him yet. A reminder. Lando Norris is still under investigation. But you've got to bear in mind. He was followed off the line by the entire field in the end. So an unprecedented situation for Race Control to wrap their head around. Again, another unprecedented situation in this most extraordinary of days. Lando Norris has the fastest lap of the race. Max Verstappen looking to make another move up against Pierre Gasly. And Verstappen comfortably takes ninth position. The rain continues to fall. It's not as heavy as we saw yesterday when things had to be postponed. But it is raining out there with all the cars on intermediate tires. Lando Norris has got the gap down to the lead to nine tenths of a second. Let's have a look at Oliver Behrmann. He got a penalty. 10-second time penalty for causing a collision. Oli, we have a 10-second penalty for the collision with Colopinto. Why? He didn't even lose any time. And that was a replay of Max Verstappen getting past Fernando Alonso. And remember, he's doing this without DRS. He's just driving around these cars right now. These changing conditions, being creative on how to find the grip, where to find the grip. The ride is really bad. Car bouncing so much. We've heard a lot of that from the Mercedes drivers this weekend. The repave not necessarily doing everything it normally does in terms of eliminating the bumps on a racetrack. And man, Max Verstappen just hounding Piastri. He is all over those apex curbs. I'm blown away at how much curb a lot of these drivers are able to take on the apex. Normally in wet conditions, the painted curbs are quite a bit more slippery. And you see they're giving a little bit of leeway. Oh, here we go with Max Verstappen. Wasn't even a contest in another league right now. The man showing us why he's a three-time world champion. Piastri would have offered a defensive he thought he could. But Verstappen roars by. He's going past all of them. The driver who started so far back on the grid now looking at the major points. He's up 10 places in the Grand Prix. This is extraordinary pace from Verstappen. This is the sort of drive that we talk about time and time again. But it's early stages. You've got to put all the stints together. The Red Bull is fighting. We haven't seen that. We saw a sprint victory for him in Austin. But in the Grand Prix format, the big prize, the 25 points for winning it. Max Verstappen hasn't won since the Spanish Grand Prix. And there won't be a contest there. That's the junior team not fighting the senior team. Another position gained. Yeah, right now we've got a yellow flag in the third sector of the racetrack. And Lewis Hamilton is off the road. When he has been driving a Mercedes this weekend, he has been having a torrid time. Franco Colopinto trying to take advantage. Currently hanging on to 12th position. Hamilton finding himself again struggling with the bouncing, with the ride. In between qualifying and the race, he was out in Senna's McLaren from 1990. And now the crowd are cheering for Colopinto because he's going to pinch his way by as he gets to Turn 3. And the Argentine supporters in the grandstand absolutely love it. He's up to P12 and he's never finished lower since he joined Formula 1. Just incredible stuff capitalizing on that mistake from Lewis Hamilton. I thought Lewis was maybe going to try to hang around the outside as we see some side-by-side action there. Bottas and Behrmann trying to sort it out. And the Haas gets ahead. So Bottas loses one position. Make that two because Sergio Perez, recovering from that spin earlier on, has climbed to 16th. This is a seven-time world champion continuing his difficult weekend. Yeah, it's been a struggle right from first practice. Let's see here, down in Turn 12. A little bit of a lock-up. You see that left front tyre just stop rotating through the grass. We think the tyre might become slicked immediate in maybe six or seven laps or so. We need to get to the rain and then make the right time when to stop. Oh, that's a chop from Lewis Hamilton trying to hang on to the position. Oliver Behrmann trying to take it away. And the battle of the two Brits that we didn't expect at the start of the weekend is resolved in favor of Oliver Behrmann. So Sainz has gone through past Hamilton as well. And we're going to see at that corner again, are we? Lewis Hamilton again with the lock-up. Say goodbye to Carlo Pinto. And it gave the opportunity to Carlos Sainz. And that is why Hamilton was trying to defend against the Haas, but Behrmann able to get through. The cars are driving a bit. They're rocking up, bouncing everywhere. Understood. A big chop there from Lewis, but Oliver committed on the brakes there. A little bit of correction going in, but gives him lots of racing room on the exit. He's absolutely got the bit between his teeth. Big wiggle now from Leclerc. Verstappen closing in. We've revised the length of the race. Remember, we had two formation laps. One intentional, one a bit rogue and under investigation. We go down to 69 laps. That's been revised because the cars can't refuel. But the cars can attack, especially when they're being driven by Max Verstappen, who is putting together a champion's drive. But this time he's on the outside, and Charles Leclerc will defend for all he's worth. Verstappen knows there's a long way to go in this race, even if you take a lap off the count. This is Carlos Sainz, who started from the pit lane, inspecting the runoff on the exit of Turn 4. And this was how Lewis Hamilton was able to get close. Let's see what it's like. He's able to squeeze by! That was tight. Reign is really hammering down. This now is where it gets tricky. Does Charles Leclerc come into the pits? Does he take on new tyres? He does. The Ferrari pits. He is no longer part of this battle. Up to fifth place goes Max Verstappen as the Reign gets heavier in the final corners of the racetrack. Good strategy from Ferrari. They had to get out of that terrain. They weren't making moves. If that Reign is starting to come in heavier now, put those fresh tyres on. Navigating wetter conditions on those worn intermediates, 25 hard laps already run on those, becomes very tricky. And now every team up and down pit lane will be keeping a very close eye on the kind of lap times Leclerc can start pumping out here. I think Fox, for what reason? Did I do as a box tyre and take too much traffic? No, it's just starting to rain a lot. If you don't want me to box, I'll stay out. We think this tyre is going to be okay for a bit. We prefer to stay out. Yeah, and this is exactly why you have to have that conversation between the driver and pit wall. Lando wants to box. It's starting to rain. The tyres are worn. What the team knows that Lando doesn't, is if he were to pit now, where he would come out on the racetrack would be in traffic. And that is just going to hinder your ability to try to pull the undercut on George Russell as we see a yellow flag in turn one. Is that Yuki? No, that's Liam Lawson. Liam Lawson off the road. And we are alerted to these things by the cheers from the grandstand because the crowd were remarking on the man who did so well in qualifying going deep into turn one. And that's cost him. The rain is hammering down now. Piastri, I believe, on Lawson. So yeah, this was the spin round for Liam Lawson from Oscar Piastri. Piastri just running out of patience to follow the New Zealander any longer. And he got a 10 second penalty for this. Lando Leclerc pitted for a new tyre. He went into traffic and cannot clear it. Yeah, he cannot clear it. And as a result, his lap times are just exactly what the group in front of him is doing. And that's about the same pace as what the leaders as we see a yellow flag now in sector one. Nico Hulkenberg. It's got to be Hulkenberg. He is static on our driver tracker. Hulkenberg a spun. I can see it out of the commentary box window. There he is as the rain hammers down. Hulkenberg. He's up on the old banking of the old circuit. And Hulkenberg usually so reliable when the rain has gone off. Can the leaders make it through? It's getting right on the limit of what is raceable here. The talent of these great drivers on full display. Hulkenberg can't move the car. The yellow flag is waving because of that Haas that is beached on the old banking at the moment. And it looks like his race is going no further. This is all about keeping the car pointing in the right direction. The virtual safety car is out to neutralize the race. And that was the spin for Hulkenberg in the first turn. And now he's found some drive. So control, alt, delete. And we go again. All right. The virtual safety car is ending and George Russell cannot cope with the car on the circuit any longer. He comes into the pits. They take on the new tires. I think they'll have to. Does anyone just take the risk of this being cleared? Try and survive and maybe race control. Throw a red flag to interrupt that. And they've given up track position. The top two felt the need to come into the pits and take on new tires. And Russell gets out ahead. Esteban Ocon rolls the dice. He's hoping now for a full stoppage with these conditions. Russell and Norris didn't feel they could take this car any further on the tires that they had. And now Ocon and Verstappen are desperate for a safety car or a red flag. You see that weather alert predicting lighter rain in three minutes. Can you hold on to your car in these conditions for three more minutes until it starts? Look at the water on the racetrack. They have absolutely got to be contemplating calling this one, which would be devastating for Russell and Norris. And look at the plumes of spray. Look at Lando Norris going through. It's barely raceable out there. But the British driver gets past these countrymen. That is a crucial move to move up to fourth position. But they've given track position to Pierre Gasly, to Max Verstappen, and to Esteban Ocon. And they are cheering once again out of the grandstands because the car control is too much. And the safety car is finally deployed to neutralize the race. Big crash into the wall for Franco Colopinto. Colopinto finds the barriers. It is a red flag. The race is interrupted with Esteban Ocon the leader. But that is how easy it is. And look at the damage it did. Confirmation that Hulkenberg received outside assistance, which is why he was shown the black flag. That flag is to disqualify a driver from the race. You can change tires in pit lane at no penalty. So for the cars that didn't pit, your top three, Ocon, Verstappen, and Gasly, it is a free pit stop. They can put on whatever tires they want. It's still very wet out there. But the green flag flies at Sao Paulo once again. Esteban Ocon takes us back to racing conditions. And there's a good opportunity further back in the pack for a pass. Side by side moves further back. But the top five are in the same order. Charles Leclerc got up to P6. So Sunoda drops down to 7th. Then Piastri trying to power through as well. So the only change in the order was Charles Leclerc managing to get through. Yuki Sunoda down to 7th. Then it's Piastri in 8th. Alonso in 9th. Lawson completing the point scorers at the moment. And off the road goes Lando Norris. Lando Norris, can he stay ahead of George Russell? They go into turn number 5. A moment of massive consequence. And who's going to get the inside line into the high-speed corner? Norris has to back out of it. Round the outside to take the place goes George Russell. Down to 5th goes Lando Norris. Up to 4th goes Russell. This is further back. Very close between Alonso and Hamilton in the battle for 9th position. I promise you, through the spray, they are there. Here's Hamilton. And Hamilton's going to get that move done. Finally some good news for the seven-time world champion. He's finally going on the attack and up to 9th place. Oliver Behrmann, who's been in that car occupied by Carlos Sainz earlier in the year when he substituted for the Spaniard. He's chasing him for 13th position at the moment. There's different risk levels being taken. And there's the evidence off the road into the tarmac runoff for Oliver Behrmann, who nudges the barriers. Can he escape from there to keep his race going? But you could see some drivers were cautious. Some were attacking. And for Behrmann, that's the result. Let's take another look back. Just gets that one initial snap. Doesn't correct it all the way. Kind of carries that drift for a while. And eventually the rear just giving up all the way around. He hit fairly square though. The tires on Lando Norris had six. Everybody had six. They all changed during that red flag. Oh, and we see the Ferrari going around. Into the wall! Carlos Sainz can't keep it on the road. And he spins into the barrier to bring out the safety car once again. And just immediately rear lock up into eight. That was a big hit. The cars just don't slow down in these conditions. The tracks, what you see breaking on the white line, the curbs, the paint, whether it's on the line or the curbs themselves, can be so, so slippery in these conditions. Formula One has been visiting this place since 1973 in the World Championship. And this is a race to remember. Ocon leaving it late. But Ocon leaving the field behind. They're very tightly bunched up in the background. There's a big opportunity for Charles Leclerc. There's a big opportunity for George Russell. But a better one for Max Verstappen, who finds himself taking the lead as Lando Norris has gone off the road. The championship pendulum swings in one corner. Piastri gets past Norris, who drops down to seventh position, as Verstappen goes from 17th on the grid to the lead in Brazil. From bad to worse for Lando Norris. Not only does Verstappen take the lead, he falls back as now the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso trying to hang on on the outside, flirting with that white line that we just saw take out Carlos Sainz. But an incredible move from Max. We talked about it. That aggression was there. He went for it as Hamilton defending now against Liam Lawson at the top part of the racetrack. And now Lawson coming back on the inside into Turn 8. Can he find his way past Hamilton? Hamilton's deep. Hamilton's nearly off. Alonso is off as well and gaining another place as they are swapping the order. Far more aggressive on this second restart than before. And now it's Piastri in 6th, Norris in 7th, Tsunoda is in 8th. Lawson got past the pair and Alonso is the last of the point scorers at the moment as Behrmann, who was scrambling all over the road, is trying to overtake Lewis Hamilton. These two going wheel-to-wheel once again. This time off the road is Fernando Alonso once more. This is an inexplicable Grand Prix as Alonso tumbles out of 10th place and Perez takes the position. Let's take another look at this move again. He wasn't even sizing him up on the entry. His braking point was just so much later, so much less pressure, able to just get the move done. You see a little squiggle there from the Ferrari. Norris coming back on track just behind his teammate. Do you see the command now from McLaren to swap positions? That was expected. They didn't wait too long, which is the right thing to do now. Lando's got to be head down attacking Russell. And that's Russell up to 4th and Russell is able to get past Charles Leclerc. Don't expect that to be an issue. Russell didn't have to lift, didn't have to go off track to avoid the Ferrari, so no harm, no foul there. Perez racing with intent right now. He wants to get past Lawson. We've seen how strong he can be on the brakes into Turn 1. Maybe an opportunity here. Lawson defending to the inside. Cecco goes to the outside, then ducks back in. The switchback move. The place gained. The apex first. Lawson doesn't want to give it up. It's not that wide a racetrack. And there's the example. Wheelbanging on the way through. Perez's momentum has been checked and Hamilton is desperately trying to fight back through. These two coming to blows again. A lot more respect there, a lot more racing room, but God, it was close there. Hamilton had to back out of it in Turn 3, lost that momentum, didn't have an opportunity to get on Cecco, but now he does. And Hamilton finds a way by. Sergio Perez showing that if you deviate from the racing line at certain corners, there's so much water. If you even go a wheel's width wide and Hamilton didn't need a second invitation, he is up to 10th position. In the Brazilian rain, the Dutchman has delivered a defining drive. He climbs the hill back to Grand Prix victory. Max Verstappen wins. The Sao Paulo Grand Prix in 2024. 17th on the grid to the win. And punching the air with delight is Esteban Ocon, who takes his fourth career podium and he will be joined by his teammate for his fifth career podium. And for the first time in 11 years, Team Enstone have both cars on the podium. It's been a long time coming, mate, but boy, was that worth the wait. You are the man. Oh, yes! What an unbelievable race, guys. You know what that is? Simply lovely. I tell you that. Well done, mate. Zario 10. And P2. Oh, what a race, guys. A defining win for the World Championship that leaves him with a 62-point lead. His first Grand Prix victory since back in June. And it was worth the wait. Roaring through the field in some style.