Autobayng News Team
While Lando Norris took a step closer to winning the world championship with his Brazilian Grand Prix victory, another driver on the podium claimed a rare achievement.
It’s been more than a decade since a driver last arrived on the podium after starting in the pit lane, but Max Verstappen pulled it off on Sunday.
The Red Bull driver became the eighth person in Formula 1 history to achieve the feat. It was last done at the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2014 by Lewis Hamilton, the only current driver besides Verstappen to have raced from the pit lane to the podium.
The first two drivers to pull off this feat did so by making late switches to their spare cars, back when the rules allowed it. Alain Prost caused consternation at the end of the formation lap before the 1984 South African Grand Prix by heading into the pit lane. The start was delayed for several minutes while he hopped into the other McLaren MP4/2, then raced it to second place behind team mate Niki Lauda.
Five years later at the French Grand Prix, Nigel Mansell jumped into his spare Ferrari after the original was damaged in a huge aerial crash for Maurizio Gugelmin which stopped the race. Mansell, who originally qualified third, started from the pits and raced back to second.
Kimi Raikkonen was next to perform the feat after pitting at the end of the formation lap in Melbourne to switch from intermediate tyres to slicks as the damp track dried out. He came in third. Rubens Barrichello also took third in Canada two years later, having started from the pit lane due to a technical fault in qualifying.
Jarno Trulli stood on the podium after the 2009 Australian Grand Prix following an excellent recovery drive from the pits, both Toyota drivers having been disqualified after qualifying when their rear wings failed legality checks. He was later given a 25-second time penalty for overtaking under the Safety Car, which was subsequently overturned.
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The only other driver to go from the pits to the podium in a Red Bull was Sebastian Vettel at the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It proved a vital result as he finished one place behind Fernando Alonso, the driver he beat to the championship by three points that year.
Verstappen’s recovery drive was made possible by his first Q1 elimination for four years. It was only the seventh time in his career he’s dropped out in Q1 and the first time for reasons other than a technical fault or a crash.
With Yuki Tsunoda also making a more routine exit in the first round of qualifying, this was Red Bull’s first double Q1 exit since the 2006 Japanese Grand Prix, when David Coulthard and Robert Doornbos were pipped to the last place in Q2 by Christijan Albers’ Midland. That was the season the current qualifying format was introduced.
Norris equalled the victory tallies of two Brazilian drivers by winning at Interlagos. His 11th win gives him as many as Felipe Massa and Barrichello, as well as 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve. He remains yet to win more than one grand prix at the same track. He made amends for failing to convert pole position into victory last year and delivered McLaren’s first win at Interlagos since Jenson Button’s triumph in 2012.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli delivered a stand-out weekend with his best grid position and grand prix finish to date. He’s out-scored the former occupant of his Mercedes seat, Hamilton, by 33 points to six over the last two rounds and the pair are now separated by just 26. It’s a far cry from the situation half-a-dozen races ago when Williams driver Alexander Albon drew level with Antonelli in the points table.
Albon failed to score last weekend but did claim the fastest lap for the first time in his career. It was Williams’s 134th fastest lap, but their first in over a decade. Valtteri Bottas took their most recent fastest lap at Sochi in 2014, which was also his first. Williams’ last five fastest laps were set by five different drivers: Nico Rosberg (Melbourne 2009), Bruno Senna (Spa 2012), Felipe Massa (Montreal 2014), Bottas and Albon.
Ferrari also scored no points in a grand prix for the third time this year (though they did score in the sprint race, as they also did at Shanghai). As a result they dropped two places to fourth place in the constructors’ championship. Alpine, meanwhile, scored their first points since the Belgian Grand Prix, but gained no ground on Sauber ahead of them.
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2025 Brazilian Grand Prix
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- Verstappen’s latest setback makes this season look even more like a 2007 repeat
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