The 2019 Brazilian GP: Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz’s maiden podiums; a preview of Abu Dhabi 2021; Ferrari catastrophe and more
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Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz celebrating their respective podium finishes at the 2019 Brazilian GP
As the Brazilian GP weekend approaches, we have been looking back at many Grands Prix through the years. Today, as you may have guessed, is the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix, the last before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world. The now two-time, reigning world champion Max Verstappen had triumphed there, after having started in pole position. But it wasn’t that simple. We shall walk you through it.
Sebastian Vettel lined up alongside Max Verstappen on the grid, which would eventually turn out to be his final front-row start in Formula 1 (unless he does it again in Brazil, or in Abu Dhabi, this season). The newly-crowned six-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton, started third, whereas his teammate, Valtteri Bottas, started alongside him because of a 10-place grid penalty for Charles Leclerc (who had qualified P4).
Max Verstappen’s current and former teammates Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly locked out the third row, but their races would end in very different ways. Our other ‘protagonist’, Carlos Sainz, started dead last after having problems during Q1 which resulted in him not setting a time. But he would make up for that.
The 2019 Brazilian GP gave us a mini-preview of what was to come in 2021
At the start, Lewis Hamilton streamed past Sebastian Vettel, but he was unable to catch up to Max Verstappen, who was comfortable enough in P1. So, Mercedes went for the undercut and brought him in on lap 21. The pit stop was good enough, and he came out in sixth. Verstappen pit the next lap, as Red Bull thought that they had enough of a gap to come out in front of Hamilton.
The pit stop was perfect, sub 2 seconds – a 1.9 seconds stationary pit stop. It looked good for Verstappen that he would come out in front of Hamilton, but that did not come to be, as Williams, who were at the end of the pitlane, released Robert Kubica almost right into the path of Verstappen, and the two barely avoided contact. It’s possible that the Dutchman may have come out ahead if not for Kubica.
Instead, he came out behind Charles Leclerc (who was on a different strategy and had been making his way through the field) and Hamilton, who was battling with the Monegasque and promptly overtook him. Verstappen followed suit, moving past the Ferrari. Right at the start of lap 23, the Dutchman had amends for the delay by overtaking Hamilton when going into turn 1 (The Senna ‘S’).
Later on, Valtteri Bottas stopped in the grass after an oil pressure issue, which brought out the safety car on lap 54. The leader, Max Verstappen went into the pits, but Hamilton stayed out (like in Abu Dhabi 2021). The decision did not have much bearing, as Verstappen overtook him with a brilliant manoeuvre on the restart on lap 60, going down the outside of the Mercedes right through turns 1 and 2.
The Ferrari duo tripped over each other
While Sebastian Vettel started on the front row, his teammate, Charles Leclerc (who was third in the championship at that stage of the season) started P14, having taken a grid penalty. He made his way up through the field gradually, and at the time of the safety car restart, the two teammates were in P3 and P5. Alex Albon promptly overtook Vettel, which meant the two teammates jockeying for position.
But what happened next was…surely not expected, but completely self-inflicted. On lap 66, Leclerc overtook his senior teammate, and going into the Reta Oposta (straight between turns 3 and 4), he was ahead, but obviously, Vettel came back at him, pushing him to the outside. Perhaps Leclerc did not give Vettel enough space, but the German also swerved left, which the Monegasque was unable to avoid.
Leclerc’s right-front tyre immediately ‘disintegrated’ which took him out of the race, but Vettel’s left rear also soon blew up, which meant he was out as well. This was when the German exclaimed over the radio: “I [have] a puncture, what the hell is he doing? Sorry. Puncture.” and then he exploded in his native tongue: “Mein Gott muss das sein, so ein bockmist aber auch!” which roughly translates to: ‘My God! Is that really necessary? Such b**shit too!‘
While the two would have blamed each other in the moment, later, Leclerc admitted to some guilt in the incident, and it is commonly seen as a ‘racing incident’ nowadays.
Heartbreak for Alex Albon
Alex Albon was on course for his first podium in Formula 1. After the Ferraris took each other out, the safety car came out, and Lewis Hamilton pit for fresh softs, coming out behind Albon, and Pierre Gasly. While on the race restart on lap 70 he overtook the Frenchman, overtaking Albon was a little bit more complicated.
The Briton was chasing second place, and perhaps even a shot after Max Verstappen with his new tyres, so he dove down the inside of Albon on lap 70. It didn’t end well for either of them, as they made contact, with Albon spinning around, and then being demoted to the tail end of the grid. A race which seemed destined to end in glory unfortunately ended in tears.
Delight for Carlos Sainz
After having problems in Q1, Carlos Sainz had started dead last, but he did not let that get him down and went on a rampage. By lap 21 when Hamilton pitted, he was in P13. By the time of his pit stop, he was in P7 and came back out in P10. When the safety car came out on lap 54, McLaren chose not to call the Spaniard in. Then a few laps later, the Ferrari duo retired, promoting him to a P5.
This would already be a pretty solid result, but then he further benefitted from the incident between Lewis Hamilton and Alex Albon. While Albon was relegated to the back of the grid, Sainz propped up into P4, where he finished crucially under 5 seconds of Hamilton, who was then handed a 5-second time penalty for the collision with Albon.
So, with an amazing drive, and the gods’ favour, Sainz took his first podium. A pretty smooth operation from the man himself.
Redemption for Pierre Gasly
Pierre Gasly was handed quite a beating by Max Verstappen in their brief time as teammates. After his final race for Red Bull, which turned out to be the Hungarian Grand Prix (the 12th race of the season), he was demoted back to Toro Rosso, and Albon took his place at the main team. It seemed inevitable as at that stage of the season, Gasly had only scored 63 points, while his teammate Verstappen had scored 181.
The Frenchman started in P6, and he seemed to hover around that and P7 for most of the race, which shows that it was the maximum the car could possibly do. While even this result would have been impressive, what happened next was straight out of a movie script. On the restart, Gasly was where he started: P6.
Then the Ferraris took each other out of the race. On lap 70, when the race got going again, he was overtaken by Hamilton (who had pit for soft tyres) but then the Briton and Albon made contact, which meant that the door was wide open for Gasly to stream past them. However, Hamilton certainly made him work hard for it – and he only took 2nd place by about 0.062s.
Understandably, this was the best moment of his Formula 1 career to date, and as for the season, it was his best performance by quite a margin. It was his first-ever podium finish after all – his highest finish until the 2020 Italian Grand Prix, where he finally stood on the top step.
Conclusions
Lewis Hamilton’s penalty meant that for the first time in 25 years, there were two first-time podium sitters on the top 3 steps. The last time this had happened was at the 1994 German Grand Prix, where French drivers and Ligier teammates Olivier Panis and Éric Bernard finished second and third behind Gerhard Berger.
It was quite an impressive weekend for Verstappen on that occasion, and this time around, not only does he have a better package, he is likely in the best form of his life. People betting against him notching up another win at Interlagos would be rather hard to find. On the other hand, a podium for Carlos Sainz will put the wind in his sails again, after two consecutive retirements in Japan and US and a P5 in Mexico. A podium for Pierre Gasly is rather out of sight, but anything is possible in sport.
Also Read: The 2012 Brazilian GP: A season finale full of twists and turns
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Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)