Lewis Hamilton issued a three-word response to Max Verstappen’s Brazilian Grand Prix drive as he congratulated the Red Bull driver on his incredible victory.
11 races after his last victory in June’s Spanish Grand Prix, Verstappen‘s “simply lovely” catchphrase was heard over the radio again as the Red Bull driver romped to the victory at the Interlagos circuit.
A tough qualifying session in the rain on Sunday morning ended for Verstappen in Q2 when he was caught out by the timing of a late red flag. Lance Stroll crashed his Aston Martin at Turn 3 with Verstappen having to slow for the double waved yellows, which left him down in 12th place.
With the red flag waved some 40 seconds later, the FIA opted not to restart Q2 as there was only 1m37s left on the clock.
Adding to Verstappen’s misery, a five-place grid penalty meant he lined up 17th on the grid while his title rival Lando Norris was on pole position. But that didn’t stop Verstappen.
The Dutchman put in arguably one of the best wet-weather drives ever as he raced his way through the field before, this time, the fortunate timing of a red flag for Franco Colapinto’s crash secured his P2 in the running order as he was handed a free pit stop.
He made short work of passing Esteban Ocon at the restart before pulling away from the Alpine driver, taking the chequered flag 19.477s ahead.
It was a drive applauded by his rivals on the grid.
“Amazing drive, congrats,” seven-time World Champion Hamilton wrote in response to Verstappen’s Instagram post as he shrugged off his own disappointing P10.
The Dutchman replied: “Thank you man. Appreciate it.”
He wasn’t the only person in the paddock to applaud the Red Bull driver as Fernando Alonso congratulated him on a “fantastic drive” while Nico Hulkenberg posted goat emojis.
Meanwhile Damon Hill, one of Verstappen’s biggest critics after his Mexican Grand Prix antics, also had something to say.
“Silenced a few critics today,” the 1996 World Champion wrote on X.
The win was Verstappen’s first in 11 races and took him one huge leap closer to the World title as he now leads Lando Norris by 62 points with 85 points still in play.
“Of course, that was important,” he said in the post-race FIA press conference. “I wanted to, of course, win a bit sooner.
“But yeah, it’s been tough for us. We always kept pushing. We didn’t really understand why the others were so fast in the race, especially. Yeah, I’ve been trying a lot of things to improve the car.
“And starting P17 this morning, didn’t look like we were going to win the race again. So yeah, it’s an incredible result for us. A massive boost for the team, because honestly, it’s been tough. But it is also a big strength of the team to stay calm and just try to work on performance and try to improve our situation.
“And I’m confident. I’m confident for the last three races that we can fight again, and especially in the race that we will be more competitive.”
