Verstappen’s 2016 Interlagos recovery foreshadowed three later comebacks

At more than 300 km/h, Max Verstappen’s Red Bull went into a half-spin on Interlagos’s start-finish straight. He kept the car out of the barriers. Later in the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix, a failed tyre gamble left him P16 with 16 laps remaining. He fought back to the podium. Ten years on, that recovery looks like an early sign of three more at the same circuit.

Verstappen, then 19, had started fourth. Red Bull switched him to intermediates in a bid to jump Lewis Hamilton, but the rain kept falling and the gamble failed. The team brought him in again for extreme wets. On fresh tyres, he found grip beyond the usual racing line and passed rivals through the spray, setting the fastest lap on his way to third. Afterward, he said crossing the line “felt like a victory.”

The later recoveries came by different routes. In 2024, Verstappen won from P17 on the grid in wet conditions; in 2025, he came from the pit lane to third. At the 2026 São Paulo Grand Prix, he climbed from P21 to second behind Lando Norris.