A race to remember for Max Verstappen in Brazil — starting from the pit lane and finishing third. And just ten seconds behind the winner…
A World Championship dream still alive. It looked like we were already at the end credits (with certain “verdicts” already declared after Saturday qualifying), but Max Verstappen is still there, clinging on desperately to the hope of a fifth world title.
The 49-point gap from championship leader Lando Norris certainly raises questions, with the margin at the top growing after the São Paulo weekend. Still, considering the depths Red Bull found itself in on Saturday afternoon, yesterday’s podium can only be seen as a victory.
A mind-blowing comeback: the precedents
From the pit lane to the podium, finishing just half a second behind his “buddy” Kimi Antonelli in second place. Verstappen’s charge through the Interlagos field was nothing short of breathtaking — helped in part by an “unintentional” puncture that gave him a free pit stop under Virtual Safety Car.
Whenever you see Max Verstappen starting at the back — or close to it — never rule him out. The Dutchman partially repeated his achievement from last year, again at Interlagos, where he won after starting seventeenth.
Another historic benchmark came at Spa in 2022: starting fourteenth and going on to win, taking the lead already by mid-race.
Looking back through Formula 1 history, Verstappen’s feat is not entirely new: the all-time record remains John Watson’s victory from twenty-second in the USA in 1983. In the modern era, other major comebacks include Rubens Barrichello (from eighteenth to first, German GP 2000) and Fernando Alonso, who won in Singapore in 2008 after starting fifteenth.
Photo: Oracle Red Bull Racing
