McLaren's surprisingly strong Brazil pace results in Norris's first fastest lap of 2023

Lando Norris may not have been quick enough to keep up with Max Verstappen, but his McLaren remains the most competitive threat which has emerged to Red Bull since the season began.

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Verstappen was eight seconds to the good at the end of the Brazilian Grand Prix but wasn’t able to pull away from the McLaren as easily as he has left other rivals behind in previous races. Most strikingly, Norris was able to claim the fastest lap – his first of the season – after extending his penultimate stint to make it longer than Verstappen’s.

The McLaren seemed to have a slight performance edge on the Red Bull when their tyres were at their freshest. The team used this advantage to its maximum at the restart, after Norris had unexpectedly risen from sixth to second at the original start.

Norris went back to the grid with a fresh set of soft tyres on his McLaren in the hope of claiming revenge for Verstappen beating him away from the line at the start of the sprint race when their positions were reversed almost 24 hours later.

He didn’t manage it, but on lap seven he did something few other drivers have made Verstappen do this year: Defend his position. All this at a track which just a few weeks ago Norris claimed would expose McLaren’s weaknesses.

As Norris noted after the race, Red Bull’s superior performance towards the end of a stint remains one of their strongest suits. It was this which allowed Sergio Perez to close in on Fernando Alonso with four laps to go in their fight for the final podium position. Only Alonso’s famed tenacity allowed him to exploit the extremely powerful DRS zones at Interlagos to reclaim the position as the final lap began, and hold it to the flag as Perez moved to repass him.

Drivers were unanimous in rejecting the hard tyre, which offered poor grip, during the race, and stuck to the soft tyre as far as possible. No one did more than a single stint on the mediums. Two drivers – Logan Sargeant and Nico Hulkenberg – used the early race interruption to get their medium stint out of the way and ran an ‘all-soft’ strategy from there on.

Sargeant’s hopes of adding a second point to the one he scored at home two weeks ago (which may be jeopardised by Haas’ bid for a review) suffered a blow when his lap times dropped off at the end of the race. This may have been linked to the pain he reported in his left arm after taking the chequered flag. The team confirmed he did not require medical attention afterwards.

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2023 Brazilian Grand Prix lap chart

The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

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2023 Brazilian Grand Prix race chart

The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

2023 Brazilian Grand Prix lap times

All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:

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2023 Brazilian Grand Prix fastest laps

Each driver’s fastest lap:

Rank	#	Driver	Car	Lap time	Gap	Avg. speed (kph)	Lap no.
1	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	1’12.486		214.01	61
2	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	1’13.422	0.936	211.28	68
3	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	1’13.866	1.380	210.01	68
4	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1’14.007	1.521	209.61	67
5	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	1’14.124	1.638	209.28	55
6	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	1’14.206	1.720	209.05	53
7	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	1’14.231	1.745	208.97	64
8	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	1’14.310	1.824	208.75	66
9	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	1’14.406	1.920	208.48	59
10	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1’14.442	1.956	208.38	54
11	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	1’14.521	2.035	208.16	48
12	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1’14.739	2.253	207.55	59
13	63	George Russell	Mercedes	1’14.934	2.448	207.01	55
14	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	1’15.036	2.550	206.73	66
15	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1’15.731	3.245	204.84	20
16	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams-Mercedes	1’15.738	3.252	204.82	51
17	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1’16.232	3.746	203.49	17

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2023 Brazilian Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

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2023 Brazilian Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

Rank	#	Driver	Team	Complete stop time (s)	Gap to best (s)	Stop no.	Lap no.
1	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	22.994		2	27
2	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	23.164	0.17	2	20
3	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	23.338	0.344	3	52
4	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	23.397	0.403	3	56
5	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	23.453	0.459	3	55
6	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AlphaTauri	23.508	0.514	3	55
7	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	23.522	0.528	3	46
8	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	23.536	0.542	2	24
9	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	23.557	0.563	1	26
10	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	23.558	0.564	2	22
11	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	23.571	0.577	2	18
12	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	23.583	0.589	3	46
13	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	23.599	0.605	4	51
14	4	Lando Norris	McLaren	23.664	0.67	3	59
15	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	23.704	0.71	2	51
16	63	George Russell	Mercedes	23.73	0.736	2	19
17	4	Lando Norris	McLaren	23.806	0.812	2	27
18	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	23.83	0.836	3	47
19	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	23.841	0.847	4	46
20	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	23.953	0.959	2	15
21	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AlphaTauri	23.955	0.961	2	26
22	63	George Russell	Mercedes	23.962	0.968	3	45
23	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	24.037	1.043	2	14
24	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	24.074	1.08	3	46
25	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	24.077	1.083	2	18
26	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams	24.137	1.143	3	44
27	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	24.204	1.21	2	25
28	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams	24.367	1.373	2	17
29	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	24.401	1.407	3	21
30	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	24.406	1.412	3	31
31	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	25.294	2.3	3	52
32	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	25.295	2.301	2	26
33	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	27.114	4.12	2	26
34	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	34.261	11.267	1	1

2023 Brazilian Grand Prix

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5 comments on “McLaren’s surprisingly strong Brazil pace results in Norris’s first fastest lap of 2023”

Postreader
7th November 2023, 1:14

Wonder what happened to Norris in laps 8-10. No ERS, tyre temps? I thought Verstappen had picked up some extra pace but it was the McLaren that was slow.
1. MacLeod (@macleod)
  7th November 2023, 8:21
  
  Probaly both but if you look at both times only i wonder if Lando could win by not pitting. Now we don’t know how much Max was coaching but Max was saying he had to push a lot more then normal.
  1. MichaelV12 (@michaelv12)
    7th November 2023, 9:38
    
    I was wondering that too. Would the mediums have lasted the race…?
    Maybe not. But we will never know.
    
    What we DO know is this: by pitting with 12 laps to go, losing 1st place was guaranteed.
    1. Matej Pavlič
      7th November 2023, 15:52
      
      I was watching the times and the gap was dropping fast enough that Ver would catch him a couple of laps before the end. I think they knew that so went for the fastest lap instead with new softs.
  2. George.be
    7th November 2023, 17:29
    
    Max was about 1.5 s a lap faster after his stop, so Lando would’ve been a sitting duck from lap 64 on, or sooner if Lando lost extra time on totally worn tires.
    Once Lando stopped, Max swapped from full attack to saving the tires and the car. The third sector in lap 60, once he was informed of Lando’s stop was suddenly a lot slower, and lap 61 was a cool down lap. Then RB saw that the McLaren was going a lot faster (than they expected), so they adjusted to the new “safe level”.