Alonso shows his magic as the Verstappen train rolls on

Alonso shows his magic as the Verstappen train rolls on: Analysis of the Brazilian Grand Prix, brought to you by Bahrain International Circuit

If you only watch one piece of F1 content from the weekend’s race in Brazil, take a look at Fernando Alonso’s epic 16 lap battle with Perez for third place in the main race on Sunday. For context, he was coming into the race weekend having failed to finish the previous two races and had not been in the top five in a race since August. He is also 42 years old. Perez on the other hand, is driving the same car in which Verstappen has delivered a record breaking 17 victories this season – including this one. In reality, Alonso had no right to defend against Perez, who also had the help of DRS, but he did so for 14 laps. When Perez finally overtook him on the penultimate lap, most drivers would have just settled for fourth, but Alonso’s fighting spirit and raw talent shows no signs of waning. On the very last lap, in what looked like an all or nothing move, he took the place back and held on by the finest of margins at the chequered flag. The gap was so close at the line that you couldn’t tell who had crossed first with the naked eye. With Lance Stroll just behind in fifth, there is more room for optimism at Aston Martin and a sense that their upgrade programme is finally delivering. Who knows what could be possible next year, especially with Alonso’s talent and experience.

On the subject of upgrade programmes, McLaren’s progress continues and this weekend showed their position as the clear favourites behind Red Bull. Indeed, there were times over the weekend when their pace was well matched to Verstappen. Norris took pole in the spring qualifying and there were occasions in the main race when his times were well matched to the World Champion. He finished eight seconds behind Verstappen in the main race, for yet another second place on the podium. He was also the runner up in the sprint race, also won by Verstappen, in a relatively small gap of four seconds.

At the other end of the scale, it was another weekend to forget for Mercedes. Toto Wolf variously described the car as “miserable” and “inexcusable”, whilst Hamilton remained concerned over the car’s overall lack of consistency. Indeed, he noted that the performance of the car was more or less the same as the start of the season, despite numerous upgrade packages. Their pain will have been further compounded by the fact that this same race last year delivered a first and second for the Silver Arrows and so the downward progress since then will have felt that bit more dramatic.