Hammer time in Sao Paolo, as Hamilton makes up 25 places to win in Brazil
Formula One’s return to Brazil not only saw the final sprint race of the season but the Sao Paolo track was also witness to the intense and ongoing battle between Mercedes and Red Bull, with Hamilton eager to close the gap to Verstappen in the Driver’s Championship.
Mercedes kicked off the weekend by announcing that Hamilton would be taking a five-place grid penalty, in Sunday’s race, for a new Internal Combustion Unit (ICE). With just one practice session before Qualifying, time on the track was key with Hamilton topping the timing sheets with Verstappen 0.367s behind in P2. Qualifying for Saturday’s Sprint was quickly underway with Lewis looking unstoppable as along with a new ICE, the long straights played to Mercedes strengths. Red Bull seemingly had no answer with Hamilton qualifying fastest with an impressive 1:07.934 time, Verstappen was behind in P2, with Bottas and Perez in P3 and P4 respectively.
However, Hamilton was later placed under investigation for a DRS infringement as an 85mm ball was able to fit through his rear wing when DRS was open when tested after qualifying. This was followed by Max being summoned to the stewards for a parc ferme infringement after seemingly touching his and Lewis’ car’s rear wings after qualifying. While it was speculated that perhaps Verstappen touching the wing caused it to fail its test, this was later found to be incorrect as it would’ve required equipment like screwdrivers to alter the DRS height.
Max was eventually given a €50,000 fine even though previous ‘inspectors’ like Vettel haven’t faced any punishments. Given the severity of a DRS infringement, Hamilton was disqualified from qualifying, meaning he had to start from the back of the grid for the Sprint. Subsequently, Verstappen was promoted to P1 and was joined by Valterri on the front row. Max had a poor getaway at the start due to gear shift issues, with Bottas taking the lead into turn one. Verstappen, on the medium tyres, began chasing Bottas down as many teams thought the soft tyres would quickly drop off. Nevertheless, Valterri proved they were the tyre to be on, especially as the temperature was slightly cooler. Meanwhile, Hamilton was flying by the slower cars on the grid, making up a staggering 15 places in 24 laps to take p5 – meaning with his ICE penalty he would start the race in just P10.
Sunday’s race saw the Mercedes of Bottas on Pole followed by Verstappen, Sainz and Perez. Despite another poor start, Verstappen was alongside Bottas into turn one and quickly took the lead. Sainz and Norris made contact at the start with the McLaren driver suffering from a rear puncture. Bottas appeared to be struggling running wide multiple times and allowing Perez to take P2. Hamilton was already up to P3 on lap 5 after being waved past his teammate. Lap 6 saw the return of the safety car with Stroll and Tsunoda coming together – something which the latter received a 10 second penalty for. Lap 14 then saw Kimi and Mick Schumacher bring out the virtual safety car with a Haas front wing on track. Red Bull managed to survive the initial restart, but Hamilton was just 0.6s behind Perez on lap 17. After a short battle, Hamilton secured P2 on just lap 19 with Verstappen firmly in his sights. Lap 27 saw Hamilton pit for the hard tyre with Max pitting just one lap later for the same – however, Verstappen now only had a 1.5s lead over his rival. Perez pitted on lap 29 but just after, debris from Stroll saw a return of the virtual safety car with Bottas taking a cheap pit stop and coming out ahead of Sergio. On lap 41 Red Bull tried to attempt an undercut, boxing Max for hard tyres, followed three laps later by Hamilton who also swapped to hards and came out just 2.7s behind Verstappen. Initially, Lewis protested that he wanted mediums but was told the degradation was too high. Chasing Max down, Hamilton set two fastest laps with the two championship contenders nearly coming together as both ran wide. This was noted but the stewards decided no investigation was necessary (footage of Verstappen’s wheel at the time has now become available with Mercedes now requesting a right of review). Lewis eventually proved too fast for Max and claimed victory in Sao Paolo. Red Bull managed to scrape back a point by pitting Perez for the soft tyres, to take the fastest lap point away from Lewis and Mercedes.
The Drivers’ Championship now has Max leading Hamilton by 14 points with only three races left, it’s all still to play for. After receiving a 25-place grid penalty and still managing to finish 1st, do Red Bull have any answer to Hamilton’s and Mercedes pace on track as attention now turns to the next race this weekend in Qatar?