Max Verstappen snub leaves Martin Brundle baffled after Brazilian Grand Prix
Max Verstappen has been dealt a brutal snub at the Brazilian Grand Prix to leave former F1 racer Martin Brundle confused after the Red Bull star’s dominance reigned again in Sao Paulo. The Dutchman was indomitable form across the entire weekend, completing the hat-trick of a sprint win, pole position and a comprehensive race victory. But it still wasn’t enough to win over F1 fans clearly fed up with seeing the three-time champion at the top of the podium.
The Red Bull driver finished a massive 62 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton and even lapped 10th-place man Esteban Ocon during the 72-lap race on Sunday. The only driver fast enough to be on the same stretch of tarmac as the Dutchman was Lando Norris, who finished second at Interlagos and even came close to challenging for the lead one stage.
But Verstappen’s dominance appears to have turned off a large chunk of F1’s viewership, who were seemingly underwhelmed by his performance during the race. That was in spite of the fact he surpassed the legendary Alain Prost by clinching his 52nd career win, with Sebastian Vettel next in his sights on 53.
In voting for F1’s Driver of the Day award, which is dedicated by the public voting online, Verstappen was nowhere near being crowned for his achievement.
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Instead, McLaren star Lando Norris attracted over a quarter of the overall vote to take the prize, with Fernando Alonso just pipped to the prize with 24.7 per cent of the vote. And it left Brundle amazed by the final result as Verstappen was snubbed by a massive 94 per cent of voters, despite pulling off a supreme drive around the Interlagos circuit.
“Lando Norris would take a point for fastest lap and yet again the fans’ driver of the day with 26.7 per cent of the vote,” Brundle wrote in his Sky Sports F1 column.
“The driver [Verstappen] who dominated the weekend like he’s dominated the past two seasons, and who surpassed Alain Prost with 52 victories, was fourth most popular with just six per cent of the vote. I don’t know how many people actually vote but I find all that quite fascinating to say the least.”
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Norris taking the award won’t come as a surprise, as Norris has been the main contender in challenging Verstappen since McLaren brought a significant upgrade to their MCL60 car halfway through the season, securing seven podiums in his last 11 races.
It was Verstappen’s 17th win of the season from 20 races, a feat never matched by any other F1 driver in the history of the sport, as he stretched his championship advantage to 266 points over his team-mate Sergio Perez, who could only finish fourth after an epic battle with Fernando Alonso.
But even Verstappen’s team-mate Perez managed to attract a higher portion of support with 15.8 per cent after the Mexican fought hard against Alonso for the final spot on the podium only to miss out by a 0.053-second gap.
It is not likely to bother Verstappen, who says he is focused on winning the remaining two races of the season to cap an incredible season. But his lack of popularity with the fans points to why some are deciding to switch off after the sport’s rise due to the popularity of Drive to Survive.
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