Here's every unexpected circumstance from the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

It's ok, y'all, you can breathe now. I know you sure didn't have time to take a breath on Sunday, with two exhilarating (and anxiety-inducing) sessions occurring on the same day. In case you don't remember it all, I think it's fair to review every wonky occurrence from this Sunday's festivities.

#1: Inclement weather delays qualifying to Sunday morning.

To start, Sunday wasn't supposed to have two sessions in the first place. Following the morning's sprint race (which had its own strange circumstances with the virtual safety car timings), qualifying was initially delayed by 15 minutes several times before eventually being postponed to Sunday morning before the Grand Prix. This was just the sixth time this has happened in F1 history.

#2: Record for red flags in qualifying session tied. 

Despite the postponement of qualifying, the rain hadn't exactly disappeared when the cars hit the track for Q1 the next morning. With everyone pushing as hard as they could, the conditions were bound to cause some cars to find the wall, but I don't think anyone expected the sheer volume of crashes we saw. Five red flags were flown over the course of the three sessions, tying the record set at the 2022 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, with Franco Colapinto, Carlos Sainz, Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso, and Alex Albon all crashing out at some point.

#3: Unorthodox qualifying leads to a bizarre grid lineup.

Due to the high amount of red flags over the three qualifying sessions, several frontrunners were caught up and dropped prior to the final session. Lewis Hamilton went out in Q1 for the second time in three weekends, Carlos Sainz was eliminated in Q2 off the back of a race win, and both Red Bulls were also knocked out in the second session, with Verstappen's exit marking his first time not making Q3 in 2024 (this also meant that there are no longer any driver with a perfect Q3 record, with the last two standing being Verstappen and Oscar Piastri, who's run ended last weekend in Mexico City). The elimination of so many expected frontrunners coupled with the still unpredictable conditions opened the door for some backmarkers to sneak up the order, and they capitalized on the opportunity. While the front row of Lando Norris and George Russell wasn't completely out of the ordinary, Yuki Tsunoda's P3 and Liam Lawson's P5 marked the highest qualifying positions of their careers, while Esteban Ocon marked Alpine's highest start since Fernando Alonso's P2 in Canada 2022.

#4. Lance Stroll's formation lap issue leads to mass confusion at the start.

First, it's becoming increasingly clear that Lance Stroll does not desere a Formula One seat. He's gone from simply a poor driver to a bumbling buffoon that is making a mockery of the sport. The brake failure was a mechanical issue that he's not to blame for; driving head-on into the gravel trap and beaching his AMR24 was entirely user error. Unfortunately, this situation led to an aborted start, which entails another formation lap after the lights go green to reward the tyres before the actual race start. Evidently, Lando Norris missed the memo there, as he led the majority of the grid off on the second formation lap, while a few drivers (notably Esteban Ocon and Max Verstappen, who was vehemently protesting the breach of procedure over the radio) hesitated to leave the grid. Norris, George Russell, Yuki Tsunoda, and Liam Lawson were all fined for the breach.

#5: Nico Hulkenberg receives first black flag in 17 years.

Once we finally got racing, matters didn't exactly clear up quickly. A lack of traction due to water led to dozens of instances of drivers carrying wide or spinning off the track. Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Perez, Ollie Bearman, and Fernando Alonso all lost significant time due to mistakes, while the mistakes of Carlos Sainz and Franco Colapinto rendered them unable to continue. The final name to join that list is Nico Hulkenberg, who spun off the track on lap 30 and was beached on a small ridge off-track. Hulkenberg attempted to continue after marshals got him unstuck, but he was black-flagged and disqualified during the red-flag pause. This was the first black flag waved since the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix, which saw Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella and Ferrari's Felipe Massa both disqualified for exiting the pit lane while the red light was on.