There was never any question about the winner of today's Sao Paulo Grand Prix as Max Verstappen held the lead following two standing starts and then steadily pulled away from Lando Norris to win the race by over eight seconds.
Much more thrilling was the pitched battle between Verstappen's Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez and Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso over the final podium position, with Perez not benefitting from a front row start like Verstappen.
"The starts were very important today, both of them were very good," Verstappen told the media in parc ferme after the chequered flag. "After that, the whole race was about the management of the tyres.
"It all looked quite good but with the high deg around here, you are constantly correcting the car so the focus always needed to be there.
"We were good on any tyre, especially that middle stint. We could create a bit of a gap, we were strong there," he added. "Fortunately it worked out well today."
Verstappen had already won the Sprint race the previous day. Although he missed out on the bonus point for fastest lap to Norris he still picked up an impressive tally of 33 points this weekend to extend his lead in the standings.
Verstappen also extended his own record of most wins in a single season to 17. Whatever happens in the final two races he’ll have a minimum win percentage of just over 77 per cent - breaking Alberto Ascari's 1952 record of 75 per cent.
Meanwhile Perez, who had a troubled time with a DNF in his home race last week, succeeded in bouncing back to fourth in Sao Paulo giving a big boost to his hopes of holding on to the runners-up spot in the 2023 championship.
Perez missed out due to yellow and red flags in qualifying and started from P9 meaning he had more work to do than Verstappen to bring himself back into contention. He spent much of the second half of the race battling with Alonso for third place and a spot on the podium.
“It was really tight from beginning to the end. It was super-enjoyable, to be honest. I did have a lot of fun," he said in the paddock afterward."It took me a while to get through the Mercedes and basically that damaged my race."
Perez then spent lap after lap in the second half of the race challenging Alonso, but not managing to get past. "We were always a bit on the back foot with Fernando," he said.
Perez finally made a pass stick at the start of the penultimate lap, but a small mistake at the start of the final lap gave Alonso the chance to snatch it back and then out-drag Perez to the finish line by 0.053s.
“It was a great fight with Fernando," he said “I don’t think with a lot of drivers you could do these types of manoeuvres. In the end, he ended up getting the podium, but it’s how the sport is.
"I have to say well done to Fernando," he said. "And that's really good, because how hard we race each other with always a lot of room, there's very few drivers you can do this [with] on the grid.
"You know that Fernando will always try to play any game, but he will always be fair. It was great racing. I think whoever got the podium was well-deserved, and he got it.
"I don't think I could have done anything differently, Perez insisted."I would have liked to be on the podium, it hurts losing, but I'm happy for Fernando because he did a good race."
Red Bull motorsports consultant Dr Helmet Marko played down any criticism of Perez. "The mistake was that Checo didn't get out of turn 3 properly and later made a little move on the straight on the way to turn 1," he told Sky Sports Germany. "But anyway, unbelievable."
Today's result means that Perez has extended his championship lead over Lewis Hamilton in their fight for the runners-up spot to 32 points with just two races remaining. It almost certainly means Red Bull will sweep the top two spots in the drivers championship in addition to the constructors crown.
"Since Mexico, Checo's pace has been right, both in qualifying and in the race," said Marko. "He now has a solid 30-point [sic] lead over Lewis, so now we can assume second place."
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