Max Verstappen leads Brazilian Grand Prix: F1 – live

Lap 56/71 Perez is 0.575s behind Alonso now, and surely will overtake at some point between now and the chequered flag. Alonso, though, will do everything possible and then some to hang on.

Lap 55/71 Ocon sets a fastest lap; he’s 14th but won’t, I don’t think be able to make up the 13.761s separating him from Russell.

Lap 54/71 Norris has had a beautifully quiet race, overtaking Hamilton at the second start and chilling in second ever since. He comes in and emerges in the same position, his lead over Alonso 7.760s.

Lap 53/71 Now Stroll comes in and emerges ahead of Sainz but the gap between them. 6.494s, is much less than it was before both pitted.

Lap 52/71 Sainz, fourth, pits and comes out seventh; the right rear tyre doesn’t quite grip the tool, so it takes longer that it ought tohave done.

Lap 51/71 Gasly, eighth, is now in front of Hamilton and increasing the gap; it’s now up to 1.372s.

Lap 50/71 Quietly, Verstappen emphasises his superiority, his lead now 7.221s. Norris, second, leads Stroll by 27.543s, with Sainz then Alonso making up the first five.

Lap 49/71 Hamilton is 13.856s behind Tsunoda, who’ll pit again, but does his car have the pace to close the gap and overtake?

Lap 48/71 Hamilton changes to softs and quickly nails Ocon, moving from eighth to ninth.

Lap 47/71 “Regarding the World Championship,” returns Anne Williams, “I didn’t hear nearly as many complaints when Hamilton was seven times world champion, everyone was hailing him as a genius.”

In the intro, I said Verstappen and Red Bull were geniuses?

Lap 46/71 Russell changes onto softs and emerges from the pits in 11th having been ninth; Machine Gun Kelly has left. What a lad, but.

Lap 45/71 Verstappen’s lead is now up to 6.298s and he’s stretching away. This is every bit the walkover we knew it’d be.

Lap 44/71 Let’s have some standings:

1. Verstappen

2. Norris

3. Alonso

4. Perez

5. Stroll

6. Sainz

7. Hamilton

8. Gasly

9. Russell

10. Tsunoda

11. Sargeant

12. Ocon

13. Hulkenberg

14. Ricciardo

15. Piastri

Lap 43/71 Verstappen is pretty much absent from this race. Or at least, he’s driving one against history, and everyone else is racing against each other.

Lap 42/71 Sainz, sixth, now leads Hamilton by 3.189s while, behind him, Gasly attacks Russell armed with DRS. The Mercs are in a dreadful state aren’t they?

Lap 41/71 A dreadful weekend for Alfa Romeo is cemented when Bottas joins Zhou in retiring. Verstappen leads by 5.375s.

Lap 40/71 Perez, in fourth, is losing speed a little – he’s now 1.928s behind Alonso, who trails Norris by 13.173s.

Lap 39/71 “Driving the outstanding car in Formula One is comparable to taking performance enhancing drugs for an athlete. The drivers championship has long been a joke, it should be abolished. To be meaningful, as Jackie Stewart said many years ago, every driver should be in identical cars.”

I know what you mean, but the teams are part of the game and don’t the best cars go to the best drivers? The problem we have currently is that Red Bull are so far ahead – perhaps further ahead than anyone’s ever been.

Lap 38/71 Verstappen now leads by 5.212s and these races are just no kind of event for him. It’s not just the wins but the nature of them.

Lap 37/71 Hamilton is really struggling with his tyres and Sainz bobs behind him, ducking outside to complete an overtake that looks disquietingly easy.

Lap 36/71 Hamilton would’ve wanted Russell to protect him from Sainz but the pace differential was just too much. Meantime, Perez tries to get to within a second of Alonso so that he can use DRS … but not quite. It’s coming, though.

Lap 35/71 Mercedes are proper struggling here, Sainz blazing by Russell and now in Hamilton in his sights, just 1.105s ahead. Surely they’ll pit again and try softs, because the medius are going backwards.

Lap 34/71 Perez is 1.274 behind Alonso, in third, It’ll take all the veteran’s wiles to hang onto his podium.

Lap 33/71 Hamilton, sixth, has Russell roughly a second behind, with Sainz just under a second further back; this is getting lively.

Lap 32/71 Yup, Perez is now with 1.574s of Alonso, while Veratappen leads Norris by 5.298s at the front.

Lap 31/71 Perez is closing on Alonso now, driving as quickly as Verstappen. Alonso is in trouble, I’d say.

Lap 30/71 Let’s have some standings:

1. Verstappen

2. Norris

3. Alonso

4. Perez

5. Sroll

6. Hamilton

7. Russell

8. Sainz

9. Ocon

10. Bottas

11. Gasly

12. Sargeant

13. Tsunoda

14. Hulkenberg

15. Ricciardo

16. Piastri

Lap 29/71 Verstappen’s lead is nearly 5s now and Perez is gaining on Alonso, the gap now 2.434s.

Lap 28/71 Verstappen and Norris both pit, the gap between them 3;427s. But it’s growing…

Lap 27/71 Perez is now 4.154s in front of Hamilton and closing on Alonso, out of the pits and back in third. At the front Verstappen leads Norris by 3.503s.

Lap 26/71 The leading six – Verstappen, Norris, Alonso, now in the pit, Sainz, Gasly and Tsunoda are all on mediums. Whether the teams stop twice or thrice remains to be seen.

Lap 25/71 Verstappen pushes it; he’ll want enough of a lead to pit ahead of Norris and Alonso and emerge still in front.