Another win for Max Verstappen, McLaren giving surprising pace and incredible position battles throughout the entire grid - the São Paulo Grand Prix was an intense race of 71 laps around the Interlagos circuit.
The Grand Prix on Sunday had not yet even begun when the first driver was out. After losing his hydraulics in the formation lap, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc crashed into the barrier and was forced to retire with a "did not start".
The next retirements were not far off. Alex Albon and Kevin Magnussen had contact right at the start of the race, resulting in a safety car, then a red flag and a 30 minute wait before the race resumed. Both were forced to retire due to the damage done to their cars. Nico Hulkenberg, Daniel Ricciardo and Oscar Piastri were also affected by the crash, the latter two having to make repairs, meaning they were forced to restart from the pit lane.
At the same start Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris made up positions, with Norris securing p2 in the first corner and Hamilton gaining p3, followed closely by Fernando Alonso. Verstappen stayed in the lead.
After a good restart, Alonso overtook Hamilton right in turn four, securing a spot at the top. Verstappen and Norris, both restarting well, were very close in time and during lap 8 Norris finally made an attempt to overtake the Champion, but failing because of brilliant defending on Verstappens side.
The Red Bull driver secured a 3 second gap to Norris, while his Teammate Sergio Perez worked his way up to 4th, overtaking both Mercedes, Russell in lap 14 and Hamilton in lap 18.
Mercedes generally had a weekend to forget, having a hard time around 20 laps later with Carlos Sainz overtaking them too, Hamilton ending the race in 8th place and Russell being forced to retire his car, because of indications of unsafety in the data, during lap 59.
Beside of Russell, Leclerc, Magnussen and Albon, both Alfa Romeo drivers, Zhou and Bottas, retired over the course of the race, making the number of classified finishers only 14.
One lap before the end Perez overtook Alonso, who attempted several counter attacks immediately. In lap 71, the final lap, Alonso regained his position, but that was not the end, as Perez did not give up fighting and they went over the finish line with Alonso before Perez by merely 0.053 seconds, making it an incredibly exciting photo finish.
Together with Alonso in three, Norris in two and Verstappen in one, make up the three podium finishers of the São Paulo Grand Prix.
Perez did an incredible job, starting in 9th and finishing in 4th, gaining 5, almost 6, positions. Behind him is Stroll, finishing in 5, giving the Aston Martin team another reason to celebrate. Sainz secured 6th place, right before Gasly, who worked his way from 15th to 7th, and Hamilton in 8th. Tsunoda finished in 9th and Ocon in 10th, followed by Sargeant (11), Hulkenberg (12), Ricciardo (13) and Piastri (14).
Concluding this weekend with a trailer for Las Vegas, of course didn’t make us forget the insane race we got to witness but while we’re still celebrating the great results, we’re indeed also looking forward to seeing the glitz and glamor of Vegas in two weeks.
Picture credits:
F1 official Instagram
Lando Norris official Instagram
Sources:
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