That became 11th when he passed the Williams of Valtteri Bottas, while team-mate Daniel Ricciardo had no answer either as the teenager moved back into the points. The midfield runners were swiftly dispatched and, within a couple of laps, Verstappen was up to 12th place. What followed was hugely impressive, to say the least. Verstappen said he could and dived in for fresh boots. "Can you make your way through the field on full wets?" came the question from the pit wall. But Red Bull knew what their man was capable of, and so did he. Verstappen looked completely out of the picture when he pitted under the safety car for extreme wet tyres late on. We had to abort that and fit a new set of extreme and then it was over to Max." How did Verstappen's late charge play out? Verstappen gets rude with Vettel - again - as he passes the German driver for fifth place late on "We could see others starting to go quicker and we took the gamble and then the rain just intensified slightly, particularly around Turn 12. Horner said: "His move earlier in the race on Rosberg was brave, skilful and totally courageous and later in the race the inter tyre looked like the tyre to be on. He said it was "50-50" between skill and luck. He also rescued a huge spin on the pit straight, preventing the car from hitting the wall and managing to hold on to second. The decision turned out to be an error and Verstappen had to pit again for extreme wet tyres, prompting his climb back. He would have finished there, behind winner Lewis Hamilton, had Red Bull not put him on intermediate tyres at a crucial point. He also overtook Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen early on and produced a superb pass on Mercedes' Nico Rosberg to take second place midway through the race. Yet his drive was about more than this late climb through the field.
Verstappen dropped to 16th after a pit stop with 16 laps to go but fought back to finish on the podium in treacherous wet conditions. "Heartbeat went a bit higher there," came the cool reply
What was so great about this drive? "Well held, Max," came the message from Red Bull after his stunning save at 190mph on the start-finish straight. High praise indeed for a man occupying the third step of a podium. It stands out to me like Ayrton Senna in Monaco and other great drives in history." "We witnessed something very special," Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said of his driver. In the case of Brazil 2016, we may well have another entry to that list - and the man responsible was a 19-year-old named Max Verstappen. Mention these grands prix to F1 devotees and they will nod approvingly, because these were occasions when a driver delivered something remarkable that marked him out as a cut above his peers.
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