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Brazilian F1 Grand Prix: All the terrifying crashes, spins and saves

These are the scariest moments from rain-soaked penultimate round of the Formula One season at Sau Paulo, Brazil.

Formula One cars in Brazil Grand Prix
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These are the scariest moments from rain-soaked penultimate round of the Formula One season at Sau Paulo, Brazil.

Rain. It is motorsport's great equaliser.

Or, in the case of Formula One, the harbinger of chaos and carnage – which, let’s be honest, is a nice change from the regular snooze fest of modern F1 (can we pass each other on track, and not in the pits, cool).

This was exemplified once again with the Brazilian Grand Prix, which ran under torrential conditions, forcing three different starts under safety car after it was red flagged twice.

There were spins, saves and carnage aplenty. To save you the trouble of finding all the footage, we have gathered it all here in one convenient chunk.

First, there was Sebastian Vettel’s code brown moment, spinning off track, sliding across the sodden grass, and coming to a halt facing the wrong way on track in the middle of a blind crest. Throw in the fact driver visibility is at an all-time low.

The save and drive of the race has to go to Max Verstappen, for his incredible passing manoeuvres late in the race (moving from 16th to third), and this seat of your pants save.

Running second, while battling with championship protagonist Nico Rosberg, Verstappen begins aquaplaning through the long final curve of the Sau Paulo track.

But in one of the greatest saves of the year, the 19-year-old Dutchman simultaneously stops his car from slamming the armco barrier and shattering into a thousand carbon fibre pieces, and doesn’t lose his position to Rosberg.

Listen to the reaction from the commentators in this video and you get a sense of the awesome he just achieved.

To demonstrate just how horrible the conditions were, watch as Haas F1 driver Romain Grosjeon snap two wheels off his car…on the formation lap!

While making his way around the track to line up on the grid, the Frenchman lost control and slammed into the barriers, suffering heavy damage to his Hass Formula One car. The cringe inducing moment left Grosjean walking away from his mangled car with nothing else to do but hang his head in his hands.

The spray during the race was so bad that TV crews didn’t even see this incident between Jolyon Palmer and Daniil Kvyat, with the Renault driver slamming into the Toro Rosso with barely any warning.

Just for fun, enjoy this video of Verstappen rounding up Rosberg in spectacular fashion during some of the worst conditions of the race.

Cameron Kirby
Contributor

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