How Verstappen went from the pit lane to the podium: Interactive data

Max Verstappen’s climb from a pit lane start to finish on the podium in dry conditions was arguably even more impressive than his win from 17th on the grid at the same track 12 months ago.

On both occasions Verstappen made some of his progress the old-fashioned way. But last year the timing of the Virtual Safety Car and red flags played in his favour.

That’s not to say there weren’t elements which worked to Verstappen’s benefit on Sunday. But fundamentally Red Bull gave him a fresh power unit and a more competitive car – aided perhaps by the slightly cooler conditions – and Verstappen wielded it to impressive effect.

What’s more, he completed his charge back to the rostrum despite an early pit stop due to a puncture. This erased the benefit of the early Safety Car period, though it did offer him the chance to discard the hard tyres early, and Red Bull were able to reduce the disadvantage by changing his tyres under a VSC. Even so, by lap eight he was last.

Verstappen’s exit from Q1 gave him the benefit of plenty of fresh rubber. This point in the race offers the best comparison between the Red Bull’s pace and that of race leader Norris. In the three-lap run to the 11th tour, Verstappen averaged well over half a second faster. Norris’s tyres were eight laps older, but most of that difference had been spent under Safety Car and VSC conditions.

By lap 11 Verstappen was on the tail of the midfield and now he made the Red Bull’s pace count, picking off stragglers including Lewis Hamilton’s wounded Ferrari with ease. As he started to get stuck into the faster end of the midfield, the drivers who started on soft tyres began to pit. Some of this was likely pre-emptive to avoid losing time being passed by the Red Bull.

Just 10 laps after joining the midfield train, Verstappen was in free air again. He gained on Norris much more slowly than before until the race leader picked up the pace in anticipation of his pit stop. Still, Verstappen lost so little time coming through the midfield that when Norris pitted he blended back onto the track behind him.

A couple of other cards fell Verstappen’s way. Charles Leclerc was taken out at the restart and Oscar Piastri was blamed for the collision. Piastri had to serve a 10-second time penalty which left him five seconds behind the Red Bull. He came out of the pits on used, albeit soft tyres, and made little impression on Verstappen, who had put on a second new set of mediums just four laps earlier.

Could Red Bull have run Verstappen to the end from there without a final pit stop? Norris rejoined from his final pit stop almost eight seconds behind the Red Bull and gained on him at around half a second per lap. Andrea Kimi Antonelli, over six and a half seconds further back, was making slightly quicker progress.

But with everyone else in the top six on used tyres, Red Bull opted to dip into their stack of unused rubber from qualifying again and put Verstappen on a set of softs. This was ‘win or bust’ stuff, and it nearly paid off. Verstappen went past Russell with little difficulty but his tyres were starting to fade by the time he had Antonelli in his sights.

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Both were pushing hard. Verstappen got slightly out of shape at the exit of Juncao as they began their final lap, which cost him vital ground to Antonelli through the DRS zones. But the Mercedes driver made a mistake in the middle of the lap and they crossed the line separated by just 0.362 seconds.

For the second race in a row, Verstappen could justifiably believe he was just one lap away from taking second place.

2025 Brazilian Grand Prix lap chart

The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

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2025 Brazilian Grand Prix race chart

The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

2025 Brazilian Grand Prix lap times

All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:

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2025 Brazilian Grand Prix fastest laps

Each driver’s fastest lap:

2025 Brazilian Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

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2025 Brazilian Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

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2025 Brazilian Grand Prix

• 2025 Brazilian Grand Prix weekend F1 driver ratings
• “These guys are a joke”: Hamilton’s response to penalty for hitting Colapinto
• “We’ll go aggressive”: Every radio message from Verstappen’s pit-to-podium masterclass
• Piastri defends move on Antonelli after penalty: “I was clearly alongside”
• Antonelli thought “I might be in trouble” when Verstappen caught him

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