Max Verstappen took the Sao Paulo Grand Prix away from pole, dominating the race throughout. Verstappen fended off Lando Norris’s only overtaking attempt and remained undefeated from there, winning the race by a significant margin. On the cooldown lap, as the Dutchman made his way back into the pits, he sang along to a 1996 song that Christian Horner played on the radio.

Christian Horner put on ‘Green Green Grass Of Home’ by Tom Jones on the radio, so Verstappen could listen in. Horner was taken aback when the 3x World Champion started singing along to the 1996 Number 1 hit song.  The Red Bull boss said that Jos Verstappen played Tom Jones tracks to his son while he came back from karting races.

So I managed to put on the Tom Jones Green Green Grass Of Home on Radio Red Bull and he was singing along quite merrily. I've got no idea why a 26-year-old, why Green Green Grass Of Home. It was the most unlikely song.

Christian Horner said, as reported by racingnews365.com

Verstappen is also a fan of the Spice Girls, of whom Ginger Spice is married to Christian Horner. Horner jokingly said that he expected Max to be a fan of modern music artists, like Ed Sheeran, rather than a vintage singer like Tom Jones. Max Verstappen has quite a few songs of himself, too, the most notable being the iconic “Super Max” by the Pitstop Boys.

Max Verstappen nearly lost Sao Paulo GP because of Fernando Alonso-Sergio Perez battle

Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez had an extremely tight battle for 3rd in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Alonso held Perez back for most of the race, losing the place on the penultimate lap but taking it right back in the final round. The Mexican countered with DRS on the main straight to the chequered flag, missing out on the podium by just 0.053 seconds.

Max Verstappen said that in the last 10 laps of the Grand Prix, he glanced at the fight between Alonso and Perez on the trackside screens, as he had a sufficiently large margin to Lando Norris behind. However, the World Champion nearly sacrificed his race at Turn 4 as he had to stop himself from going off track due to the intense battle distracting him.

The last few laps I was watching – I almost drove off the track myself when I saw them fighting on the straight. At Turn 4 I almost drove straight off the track because I was watching the screens so much. It was very close together, but those last two laps they were also constantly changing. Very nice.

Verstappen said, as reported by planetf1.com

The loss wouldn’t have cost Verstappen anything, though, as the most successful Red Bull driver has already broken every record he can in the year, from Alberto Ascari’s season win percentage of 75% to Sebastian Vettel’s 10 wins in a row.

Discover more:

• Fernando Alonso highlights the importance of DRS with a Michael Schumacher example after a dramatic P3 fight with Sergio Perez at Sao Paulo
• Charles Leclerc explains the real reason for his Brazilian GP formation lap crash

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