Zoom Zoom Brazil GP! Brazil fans turn out for Gabi, Sprint race sees its scariest crash of the season, and a repeat starting front row for two drivers. And T-Max almost does it again!

Welcome back, Zoomies! After a week off, we're here in Sao Paulo, Brazil for the 20th race on the circuit and with only four more to go, the race for the Driver's Championship is very tight, with Lando leading his Papaya teammate Oscar by one point, and Max just 30 points behind! It's the 52nd edition in South America's only Formula One circuit.

We have some paddock news! Over at Alpine Racing, Franco Colapinto has made it clear he wants to remain with the team, and Alpine rewarded him with a contract, while previous seat-holder Jack Doohan has put out the " I'm Available" sign to other teams!

The biggest off-track news though was that Ferrari's Charles LeClerc asked if you asked me to, would you marry me, and his long-time girlfriend Alexandra, also known as Leo's caretaker when daddy is out racing fast cars, said YES! Any bets if puppy Leo will be the ring-bearer at the wedding?

The happy family after the engagement announcement!

Onto racing stuff. As usual, your team/driver grid. Swap Lawson and Tsunoda, and well, you know Colapinto is in that seat Doohan had.

This weekends Driver's Choice is hometown boy and Sauber driver Gabriel Bortoleto, who will have a nation of over 100 Brazilians rooting for him! No pressure, rookie! :)

It's a Sprint Weekend, so only one 60 minute practice.

P1: Slightly overcast, in the 70's and a LOT of Gabi Bortoleto fans! this track is located between two lakes, and is almost like a bowl shape. Eight minutes in, Red Bull's Yuki Tsunoda's rear tyres lock up ans he spins off the track making circles in the sand before he gently crashes into the wall; he is okay, and is able to drive into the pit lane. with 25 minutes left, Yuki gets his car back on track. In the last minute, Ferrari's Sir Lewis Hamilton does a DOUBLE pirouette but is able to resume his lap. No further incidents, , oh, btw, Gabi thrills the Brazilian fans in coming in 5th in this practice! Onto Sprint Quali!

Gabi driving his first F1 race in his home country, Brazil!

Sprint race is 24 laps, top eight get points from 8 points to 1 point.

SQ1: 12 minutes. Windier and cooler at 66 degrees, mostly clear skies. Medium tyres on all teams. no incidents, so your bottom 5 for Sprint is: Franco-Alpine, Esteban Ocon-Haas, Carlos Sainz-Williams, Yuki-Red Bull, and Liam Lawson- Sugar Free RB.

SQ2: 10 minutes. Also Medium tyres for all drivers to start. No incidents so next bottom 5 are: Lewis-Ferrari, Alex Albon- Williams, Pierre Gasly- Alpine, Ollie Bearman- Haas, and Gabi- Sauber.

SQ3: 8 minutes. Mandatory Soft tyres for all teams. No incidents, so your pole position driver is Lando-McLaren, Kimi- Mercedes, Oscar-McLaren, George Russell- Mercedes, Fernando Alonso- Aston-Martin, Max Verstappen- Red Bull, Lance Stroll- Aston-Martin (!!!), Charles- Ferrari, Isack hadjar- Sugar-Free RB, and Nico Hulkenberg- Sauber. I have this gut feeling the Sprint race may be wild on Saturday!

I may have cursed poor Gabi this week! :(

Brazil Sprint Race: 24 laps. No mandatory pit stops. top 10 are using the Soft and Medium tyres. Rained overnight, but track is mostly dry with some damp spots. Humidity is high and breezy winds, temps in the high 60's. So LET'S GO, as the drivers head toward turn 1. Lando holds the lead over Kimi, while Max jumps up on spot ahead of Fernando. A brief side-by-side collision mid-field, as Ollie gets a love tap from Liam, causing Ollie to lose control of the car for a brief moment, but recovers.

Lap 6 sees CHAOS, as not one, not two, but THREE cars catch water on the track at Turn 6 (?), and spin off into the barrier! Oscar's car was first, hitting the barrier hard, Nico was second, and Franco was third, also hitting the barrier hard (groans from the Argentine fans in attendance). Nico was able to pull out and get back on the track to head to the Sauber garage, but a RED FLAG (which will mean a restart), as both Oscar and Franco's cars are done for the day (DNF), as is Franco; Sauber mechanics were able to fix Nico's car.

After about 20 minutes of clearing cars and debris, we have a rolling start, so its a LETS GO-Part 2, and Lando is able to hold on to the lead, while Georgie makes a dive at his teammate Kimi, but Kimi holds on to 2nd; all this happening on Lap 9.

From Lap 20, onward, Kimi has been giving Lando a run for his money, coming within a half-second of overtaking Lando, who is barely hanging on with very worn down rear tyres, but on the last lap, Gabi has a major crash, as his car hit one side of the track HARD, then got bounced from that impact into the air (!!!) across the track, and hit the OTHER side of the barrier hard (he's okay! But Sauber mechanics are going to need to perform miracles to get that car ready for GP quali later today!), much to the disappointment of this Brazil home crowd. Gabi's crash brings out a double yellow, effectively ending the race, so your 2025 Brazil Sprint champion is Lando! Kimi and his teammate Georgie place 2nd and 3rd, Max in 4th, Charles in 5th, Fernando in 6th, Lewis in 7th, and for the last point, Pierre overtakes Lance for 8th. This is Lando's first Sprint Race win! Onto GP Qualifying!

Q1: 18 minutes. Sauber could not get Gabi's car fixed up after that nasty crash he had in the Sprint race, so did not even make it on track. No incidents, but a shocker for the bottom five, which was Ocon-Haas, Colapinto-Alpine, Tsunoda- Red Bull, and the shocker, Verstappen-Red Bull! First time in a while Max has failed to make it out of Q1, and start in the back of the grid!

Q2: 15 minutes. No incidents, so next bottom five were: Alonso-Aston-Martin, Albon-Williams, Hamilton-Ferrari, Stroll-Aston-Martin, and Sainz-Williams.

Q3: 12 minutes. No incidents, so our top ten on the grid has a repeat of hte front row from the Spring Race, Lando on pole, Kimi in 2nd, Charles in 3rd, Oscar in 4th, Isack in 5th, Georgie in 6th, Liam in 7th, Ollie in 8th, Pierre in 9th and Nico rounding out the top ten front of the grid!

Sao Paulo GP: 71 laps, 15 turns. Weather overcast and in the 70's, mild winds. Over 304,000 attended this weekend's races, one of the largest crowds on the circuit! Max will start 19th in the pit lane and on Hard tyres (durability), as do the Fernando and Lance for Aston-Martin, everyone else on a mix of softs and mediums. Esteban had a power unit change so he joins Max in the pit lane in 20th, which means Gabi starts 17th! Other than that, it's time for LIGHTS OUT, and Lando is able to jump out ahead of Kimi to take the lead on Turn 1! In the back of the field, there was some bumping that the stewards are taking a look at- I'll get to them a bit later, as to what happened next....

Because before we even finish Lap 1, we get a Yellow Flag, then Safety Car as hometown boy Gabi crashes his car crashes his Sauber car into the barriers (no where near as bad as what happened in the Sprint race!) after he gets squeezed by Lance, and just like that, his Brazil GP debut is over (DNF); I'm sure if Gabi could turn back time and have a redo of this weekend, he certainly would! Lewis meanwhile, his Ferrari car decided to play pinball, first bumping with Carlos Williams car, then a few turns later, gets pinched by Franco's Alpine car, leading to Lewis' front nose to break off and get stuck UNDER his Ferrari. He obviously pits to get that mess sorted out (and change tyres), question whether the floor of Lewis car is stable enough to finish this race. Debris from Gabi's car cleared and on the 6th lap, Safety Car peels off, Lando charges ahead and then, CHAOS, as Oscar, Kimi and Charles lined up behind Lando, Oscar has a lock-up, and comes in like a wrecking ball into Kimi's car, and Kimi's car in turn bumps Charles car off-track, into the open section, causing Charles front left wheel to peel off and roll away in search of the nearest Brazilian steakhouse! Yellow Flag as Charles suspension is shot, so a DNF for the newly engaged driver. Max pits due to a tyre puncture, and also not a fan of the Hard tyres, as he only loses 11 seconds under the Virtual Safety Car, but comes out last on Lap 9. Btw, Kimi and Oscar's cars are fine after that skirmish.

Lap 14 has some nice overtakes by Max and Ollie, and a 10 second PENALTY has been slapped onto Yuki for causing a collision with Lance Stroll earlier in Lap 1. Oscar has been slapped with a 10 second PENALTY for that collision with Kimi that forced Charles out fo the race! Pundits are debating this penalty, as Oscar had no space to go, so is it a crime to try to stay on track? No big news to report, other than Kimi is the last one to pit to switch from Soft to Medium tyres, Aston-Martin still running Hards on Lap 23. Yuki pits on Lap 26 to serve is 10 second penalty, a 13.3 total pit stop. And a couple of laps later, the stewards slap Yuki with another 10 second PENALTY for failing to serve the time penalty correctly! Apparently some Red Bull pit crew did not stand back and broke the 'no touchie" rule! OUCH! Stewards slap a FIVE second PENALTY on Lewis, for that collision with Franco back in Lap 1. Lando pits on Lap 31and comes out on Softs behind T-Max. Halfway thru the race, with all the overtakes, DNF's and pit stops, your top ten are: Oscar (with that 10 second penalty) Georgie, T-Max, Lando, Kimi, Alex, Nico, Ollie, Isack and Pierre.

Lando hunts down and overtakes T-Max to get back in 3rd. T-Max pits for a new set of Mediums, comes out in 12th. Alex pits for Soft tyres. Oscar is the last driver to pit, serves the penalty, and switches to Soft tyres, comes out in 8th. Lap 38, Ferrari tells Lewis to retire the car, his first DNF at this track in his career...I feel for you, Lewis! Ironic this happened to Lewis at this track, as he was awarded Brazilian citizenship by the government a few years ago. The Mercedes drivers pit, and choose Soft tyres and are still in the top six after 50 laps.

Lando pits to switch to a set of used Mediums, now in 3rd, with T-Max and Georgie 1st and 2nd. Oscar pits for Mediums, and comes out in 7th on Lap 53. T-Max pits again, this time for a fresh set of Soft Tyres, so he will be FLYING for the last 14 laps of this race, as he comes out in 4th, with Oscar behind him, Lando (leading by 5 seconds), and Kimi and Georgie in front of him!

Lap 63, T-Max overtakes Georgie, and now he is hunting down Kimi for 2nd, while Oscar his hunting down Georgie for 4th! These last laps have a great racing scrum as it's Kimi vs Max and Georgie vs Oscar! Kimi playing hard defense, daring Max to catch him, Kimi be like, you ant a piece of me? You gotta get past me!

And Lando wins the Brazil GP by 10 seconds! Kimi, the rookie and just turned 19 years old, was able to hold on to 2nd just ahead of T-Max! Georgie holds off Oscar for 4th, Oscar, 5th, Ollie 6th, Liam, 7th, Isack 8th, Nico, 9th, and Pierre round s out the points in 10th!

Notes: This old school track really delivered a banger of a race! 71 laps is a lot, but with all the overtaking that goes on, I'm a bit head over heels in love with it!

T-Max got the vote for Driver of the day, (I would've picked Kimi)) as he started from the pit lane, and finished on the podium- hence the T-Rex nickname! NEVER count him out!

Like Lando, Kimi had an outstanding weekend for his forst ever 2nd place finish! I think he will sleep with that trophy this racing night! Kimi and his Mercedes team were crying tears of joy, as they were so emotional over the young man's performance!

This is Lando's 7th win of the season, and increased his 1st place point total quite nicely with three races and one Sprint to go!

Poor Gabi. :( :( Ferrari had an absolutely horrid day- back to the shop to figure out a LOT of things before the next race.

We have a week off before the next race, which is Vegas! Different schedule too, as Practices will be on Thursday, Qualifying on Friday and the Vegas GP on Saturday! I have one driver left who i haven't profiled....wonder who that could be, and how many pix I will use? <grin>