Lewis Hamilton knew the danger last weekend. If Max Verstappen won either of the last two races, his lead would grow to a point where Hamilton would need more help than all of the remaining wins this season to take his record-setting eighth championship in the season finale at Abu Dhabi. With the number in mind, he charged from tenth to the race win, bringing himself back into the clear title conversation in the season's final month and dramatically improving his opportunity to win a championship. While Max Verstappen could not match the feat from seventh on the grid today, his own recovery drive keeps him in a strong position heading into the final month of the season.
While Hamilton started on pole after a blistering lap in qualifying yesterday, Verstappen was demoted from second to seventh pre-race after being assessed a penalty for violating double-yellow flag rules during his own Q3 lap. Hamilton got away into the lead on the start, but Verstappen got up to fourth. A few laps later, he was past Pierre Gasly and into third. By lap 6, he was past Fernando Alonso and chasing down Hamilton from second.
The championship leader's momentum stalled there, ceding the race win to Lewis Hamilton over the next 50 laps, but his recovery drive decreased the pain of the Hamilton win significantly. The Mercedes driver could have taken the championship lead today, but instead he cuts it down to eight points, a number that could allow him to tie Verstappen for the lead with a win over Verstappen's runner-up finish at the new temporary circuit in Jeddah in two weeks.
It was a less fortunate day for Hamilton and Verstappen's teammates. Sergio Perez, who charged up the grid early after failing to make the final round of qualifying yesterday, had to settle for fourth after spending too much time and tire passing Esteban Ocon for the position before getting up to a shot at the podium. Valtteri Bottas was in position to take a podium, but he blew a tire mid-race and fell out of the points-scoring positions entirely. Their missteps opened the door for Fernando Alonso's Alpine, allowing the two-time world champion to score his first podium since 2014.
Lance Stroll, Carlos Sainz Jr., Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, and Sebastian Vettel completed the points-scoring positions after Norris suffered a late tire issue of his own. With both Ferraris again outscoring both McLarens with both of their cars, the Scuderia has begun to pull away from McLaren in the constructors standings.
Formula 1 has next weekend off before its two closing races, both of which are scheduled for early December. The first is at a new circuit, the fast temporary track in Jeddah designed in the vein of other temporary purpose-built tracks like Sochi, Montreal, and Melbourne. The track is coming together very late, so teams will go into the race weekend with a much more limited data set than most other weekends.
