Verstappen, aware of his rival’s lack of grip, decided to attack rather than sit there and wait for the rain to subside. Raikkonen completed the top three, with Max chasing the former Ferrari driver a little over two seconds further back. Melting the Iceman, Lap Sevenīy lap seven, with the race already under the control of the safety car, Hamilton led from Rosberg. It did seem that Interlagos had been, quite frankly, washed away. Rain flooded a closely fought race between the two Mercedes drivers in the 71-lap contest. While the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix was correctly predicted to end in triumph for Mercedes, it was Max’s incredible podium finish that made headlines – garnering more attention than Hamilton’s win or Rosberg’s second. Having become the youngest race-winner that year when he emerged on top in Spain, the Max Verstappen juggernaut continued and reach its crescendo at Interlagos, the penultimate race of the season.īut implicit in Verstappen’s 2016 Interlagos drive, a race-win regarded as the greatest of his relatively young career so far, was the presence of rain. Hamilton contest divided opinion (and resulted in Rosberg being crowned World Champion) it was this sterling drive by Max Verstappen that stunned Formula 1 and united his critics and fans in appreciation. To understand just why the Dutchman is called ‘Mad Max’, we just need to pay an ode to his classic 2016 drive at Interlagos, the home of the Brazilian Grand Prix. The Briton’s dominance on the track has seen him dubbed ‘Hammer-time,’ perhaps a warning to the others that ‘their time is up.’īut in Max Verstappen, we seem to be having a different creature, away from the wizardry of Schumacher and the records of Lewis. Lewis Hamilton is leaving no stone unturned and no challenge unaccepted in his bid to raise the Formula 1 bar in this hybrid-era age.

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