Rain has already shaken up qualifying for this weekend's F1 São Paulo Grand Prix, and Interlagos has a history of wet races. Two years ago Max Verstappen started 17th in a downpour there and won by almost 20 seconds.
It was one of the great wet-weather drives, and it came when his title lead was under pressure from Lando Norris.
Qualifying on race morning
Heavy rain on Saturday 2 November 2024 pushed qualifying back to 7:30am on Sunday, the first time in more than five years that F1 had qualified on race day.
The session had five red flags, equalling the record. Norris took pole for McLaren with 1m23.405s, ahead of George Russell and Yuki Tsunoda.
Verstappen qualified 12th. A five-place penalty for his sixth internal combustion engine of the year dropped him to 17th.
Through the field in the spray
The race start was brought forward to 12:30pm because of the forecast, and even then it began late. Lance Stroll spun into the gravel on the formation lap, the start was aborted and the race was cut from 71 laps to 69.
Verstappen climbed from 17th to sixth in the first 12 laps.
The red flag that decided it
On lap 28 a virtual safety car came out, and Russell and Norris pitted. That moved Alpine's Esteban Ocon, Verstappen and Pierre Gasly ahead.
Four laps later Franco Colapinto crashed heavily, and the race was red flagged. Ocon, Verstappen and Gasly fitted fresh full wet tyres during the stoppage without losing their places.
When racing resumed after a later safety car, Verstappen passed Ocon for the lead and pulled away, setting the fastest lap of the race on lap 67.
He won by 19.477 seconds from Ocon, with Gasly third for an Alpine double podium. Norris locked up at a restart and finished sixth.
The title all but settled
It was Verstappen's first win since the Spanish Grand Prix, and the first win from 17th or lower since Kimi Räikkönen's victory at the 2005 Japanese Grand Prix.
He left Brazil 62 points clear of Norris with three races to go. He clinched his fourth consecutive title in Las Vegas on 23 November, finishing fifth.
Race it on Late Brake
Interlagos is one of the six real circuits in Late Brake, the free browser game. Start at the back against the AI rivals and see how many places you can make up, using the braking boards to pick your moments into turn 1.
Sources: Wikipedia: 2024 São Paulo Grand Prix, Wikipedia: 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix