Finally! Mercedes has won a race. Yes, this was a sprint event but George Russell was able to challenge and overtake the new world champion Max Verstappen to win the Sao Paulo Grand Prix sprint.
The Mercedes driver battled fiercely with the two-time champion – the pair dicing wheel-to-wheel for three laps before eventually the W13 driver seized first position and ran away to victory.
As Verstappen continuined to tumble before sustaining damage on his front wing, Lewis Hamilton completed a double Mercedes podium behind Carlos Sainz, while shock polesitter Kevin Magnnusen claimed eighth.
Verstappen and Nicholas Latifi were the only drivers to start on the medium tyres as everyone else favoured the quicker but less durable, red-walled soft compound.
With more grip from the off, Magnussen launched strongly to hold the lead into the downhill Turn 1 and pulled half a second on his front-row rival Verstappen, who had to heat his tyres.
With Russell’s rubber immediately up to temperature, he was able to stick the nose of his Mercedes alongside the Red Bull to challenge for second position before the RB18’s superior straight-line speed made itself known and he eked away from the W13.
The punch of the Honda engine then allowed Verstappen to tuck into the tow of Magnussen, with him eventually relegating the compliant Haas driver under braking into Turn 1.
Russell followed suit with DRS to pass around the outside of the Dane over the start line. Before long, Carlos Sainz lunged up the inside of Magnussen to knock him off the podium.
Verstappen looked strong as he pulled 1.1 seconds clear of the chasing Silver Arrow but Russell kept his quicker soft tyres alive to reel in the leader and gain DRS from lap 10.
With the overtaking aid again activated, he tried to pass around the outside into Turn 4 but Verstappen held his nerve under braking to sure up the position through the middle sector.
There was almost a carbon copy of that dice next time around on lap 14, with Verstappen then getting better drive off the exit to keep hold of the lead for another lap of Interlagos.
But then, on lap 15, Russell nailed his exit onto the back straight to gain the tow and DRS once more to pulled clear of Verstappen into the braking zone and definitively nick first.
The W13 then came on song in clear air, with Russell marching 1.6 seconds clear as Verstappen came under threat from Sainz, with the Ferrari driver robustly passing at the start of lap 19.
The British Grand Prix victor threw his F1-75 up the inside of Turn 1 with the pair bashing wheels and as Sainz came back across the racing line, he caught the front wing of the Red Bull.
That damaged endplate and a compromised line for Verstappen then meant, after running over debris, he was under threat from Hamilton. But the Dutch racer squeezed his bitter 2021 championship rival through Turn 6 to hold on to third position for the time being.
But as lap 18 came to a close, Hamilton gained DRS to sail past over the line and cement third before chasing after Sainz – now complaining that he was losing the soft tyres.
He managed to hold on by less than half a second from Hamilton, however, as Russell bagged the spoils nigh on four seconds clear to score Mercedes its first win of the year.
Verstappen continued to fourth but was 6s down on Hamilton, as Sergio Perez recovered from ninth to fifth ahead of Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris, while Magnussen’s anticipated fade ended with eighth position.
Sebastian Vettel bagged ninth after surviving a trip over the grass while attempting to pass his uber-defensive teammate Lance Stoll, and Pierre Galsy completed the top ten.
Stroll dropped to P17 with a 10-second penalty for his moves on Vettel – two places down on Fernando Alonso, who was forced to pit for a new front wing after colliding with fellow Alpine driver Esteban Ocon.
Ocon dropped to P18 ahead of only Latifi and Alex Albon, who retired on lap four.
So congratulations to George Russell in winning his first race for Mercedes. With Carlos Sainz’s grid penalty for changing a power unit, Lewis Hamilton will start alongside his teammate to form a Mercedes front row. It’s going to be fascinating if the W13 can take victory outright in the ‘real’ race at Interlagos.
Sao Paulo Grand Prix, sprint results:
1 George Russell Mercedes 30:11.307
2 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +3.995s
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +4.492s
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull +10.494s
5 Sergio Perez Red Bull +11.855s
6 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +13.133s
7 Lando Norris McLaren +25.624s
8 Kevin Magnussen Haas +28.768s
9 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin +30.218s
10 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +34.170s
11 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +39.395s
12 Mick Schumacher Haas +41.159s
13 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo +41.763s
14 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo +42.338s
15 Fernando Alonso Alpine +48.985s
16 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +50.306s
17 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +50.700s
18 Esteban Ocon Alpine +51.756s
19 Nicholas Latifi Williams +76.850s
20 Alex Albon Williams DNF
Sao Paulo Grand Prix sprint race review as reported by Formula1.com.
George Russell battled his way to victory in the third and final F1 Sprint of the 2022 season in Brazil, ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton, ensuring that he will start the Sao Paulo Grand Prix from first place.
Friday’s rain-hit qualifying session set the grid for the Sprint, with Haas driver Kevin Magnussen claiming a shock pole position to start in P1 ahead of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, the Mercedes of Russell and McLaren man Lando Norris.
After the paddock had caught its breath from the drama, the main pre-Sprint question surrounded which tyre compounds drivers and teams would opt for across the 24 laps – or 100km – of racing. Who would go with the softest tyres, and who would play it safe on the mediums?
As the tyre blankets were removed on the grid amid bright and warm conditions, those questions were answered. Intriguingly, Verstappen was one of only two runners to opt for mediums, along with Williams driver Nicholas Latifi, with the rest going for the red-marked softs.
When the lights went out, Magnussen put his soft tyres to good use as he bolted off the line to defend his pole position advantage over Verstappen, who came under intense pressure from Russell through the opening sequence of corners, but just managed to hold on to P2.
Behind, Sainz came close to pulling a move on Norris, who was still feeling under the weather after his bout of suspected food poisoning, while Alpine pair Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso went wheel-to-wheel and made contact at Turn 4, before another close moment on the pit straight, which will be investigated by the stewards.
“I lost the front wing, thanks to our friend. He pushed me in Turn 4, and then on the straight,” said Alonso in a pair of frustrated radio messages, as he pitted for repairs. Speaking to Sky Sports F1 from the Alpine pit wall, team boss Otmar Szafnauer admitted Ocon “could have given him a bit more room”.
Having failed at the first attempt, Sainz cleared Norris into the Senna Esses at the start of Lap 2, with Verstappen again forced to carefully place his car to keep Russell – on the softer rubber – at bay as Magnussen logged the first lap Haas have ever led in F1.
Magnussen’s time at the front would be short-lived, however, as Verstappen built up some more temperature in his tyres to close in and breeze past along the main straight on Lap 3 – Russell and Sainz following suit one tour later.
Further back, Hamilton, Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc set about making up for their low-key qualifying results by picking off a host of rivals over the opening laps to run P4, P5 and P6 respectively, further demoting Magnussen.
After the scrap between the Alpine drivers, another battle of the team mates saw Lance Stroll pick up a 10-second penalty for an aggressive defensive move against Sebastian Vettel on the run between Turns 3 and 4, which forced the German to take to the grass.
Back up front, it was Russell’s turn to attempt a pass as he got within DRS range of Verstappen, who was struggling to make his medium tyres work, prompting several side-by-side moments between the pair as the Sprint reached half-distance.
After an initial try on Lap 12, and a slight delay to his attack when Alex Albon parked up his Williams, Russell eventually edged ahead of Verstappen on Lap 15, getting in the Red Bull’s slipstream out of the Senna Esses and expertly positioning his car around the outside of Turn 4.
From there, Verstappen dropped into the clutches of Sainz, who muscled his way past the Dutchman into Turn 1 on Lap 19, only for the rear of the Ferrari to clip Verstappen’s front wing mid-corner, inflicting damage that also opened the door for Hamilton to get ahead.
Russell kept his composure up front to bag the Sprint win, and P1 on the grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix, with Sainz managing late tyre degradation to beat Hamilton to P3 (albeit prior to his five-place engine grid penalty), with Red Bull pair Verstappen and Perez in fourth and fifth respectively.
Leclerc managed to make his way up to P6 after his qualifying struggles, with Norris also getting in front of Magnussen, who claimed the final point on offer under the revised Sprint scoring format for 2022.
Vettel was ninth after his run-in with Stroll, followed by the lead AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly, McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, the other Haas of Mick Schumacher and squabbling Alfa Romeo pair Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas.
Hamilton, Ricciardo and Zhou are all set to be investigated after the race, with potential start procedure breaches being flagged, meaning there could yet be a change to the points-scoring positions if the Mercedes driver is penalised.
Alonso took a lowly 15th after his incidents with Ocon and trip to the pit lane, as Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), Stroll, Ocon and Nicholas Latifi (Williams) completed the order – Albon being the sole retirement.
However, the stewards later ruled that Alonso had been at fault for the second incident with Ocon, handing him two penalty points and a five-second time penalty the dropped him to P18 on the grid for Sunday’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix – Tsunoda, Stroll and Ocon all moving up a place.
Mercedes driver George Russell admitted it was hard to judge risk/reward passing Max Verstappen in Brazil sprint. Motorsport.com has the news story.
George Russell found it “a little bit difficult” judging the risk and reward of passing Max Verstappen to win the Brazil Formula 1 sprint race before making the move stick.
Russell picked up eight points and P1 on the grid for Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix after charging from third place on the grid to win the final F1 sprint of the season, defeating Red Bull rival Verstappen in a wheel-to-wheel battle.
Russell was aided by starting on the soft tyre compared to Verstappen’s mediums, and was able to get within DRS range of the two-time world champion for the lead once both had picked off pole-sitter Kevin Magnussen.
But Russell’s first two attempts at passing Verstappen proved futile as the Dutchman defended into Turn 4, hugging the inside line to ensure he stayed ahead.
On lap 15, Russell tried a move at Turn 1 before lining up a move on the run to Turn 4 and using DRS to take the lead before they turned in to the corner.
Russell then pulled clear to win the sprint by 3.9 seconds from Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, meaning he will line up P1 on the grid at Interlagos tomorrow. Verstappen slipped back to fourth after picking up damage to his front wing.
Asked about his move on Verstappen, Russell explained that it was “a little bit difficult” due to the risk of falling to the rear of the field and any possible incident.
“Obviously, this is a sprint race, and you’ve got to manage that risk-reward,” Russell explained after the race.
“So even though I was dying to get that victory, I didn’t want to risk it too much and end up in with no points and starting at the back.
“But we made it stick, third time lucky.”
With Sainz dropping five places due to an engine change, Mercedes will lock out the front row of the grid on Sunday after Lewis Hamilton crossed the line third place in the 24-lap sprint.
It marked a big breakthrough for Mercedes in a season that has seen it struggle to match Red Bull and Ferrari for pace, failing to win a race all season.
“I wasn’t expecting to have that much pace, but I think it goes to show all the hard work everybody’s putting in and the progress we as a team have made,” said Russell.
“These last three races since Austin, the car has been feeling really great. Obviously difficult to know how Max would have got on had he been on the soft tyres. But nevertheless, standing here is a great feeling.”
Russell added that he thought Verstappen would be “flying tomorrow” from third place behind the two Mercedes cars and remain a threat.
“But we’re in a luxury position that we can maybe split the strategy and go for the win,” he added.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen commented that his car was “eating tyres alive” during Brazil Formula 1 sprint race. Motorsport.com has the full details.
Max Verstappen says he was “eating the tyres alive” as he fell from the lead to fourth in Formula 1’s Brazilian Grand Prix sprint, and worries that Red Bull won’t be able to match Mercedes in the grand prix.
Starting on the medium tyres, Verstappen soon passed shock polesitter Kevin Magnussen, as did the other frontrunners.
But as Saturday’s 24-lap sprint race unfolded Verstappen started struggling with tyre wear and saw Russell soon close the gap.
By virtue of Red Bull’s superior top speed, the two-time world champion managed to hang on until the halfway point, but on lap 15 Russell finally completed the pass for the lead into Turn 4.
As Sainz soon followed Russell through in Turn 1, the Spaniard made slight contact with Verstappen, damaging the Red Bull’s front wing.
That compounded the Dutchman’s problems as he slumped to fourth behind Lewis Hamilton, finishing 10 seconds in arrears from Russell, who took his first ever F1 sprint win.
Verstappen conceded Red Bull doesn’t have an explanation for the excessive tyre wear on what should have been a more durable compound than the softs his competitors were using.
“It was just degging, I had no grip from the tyres,” Verstappen said. “Somehow the mediums didn’t last at all, and we had no pace.
“I was just eating the tyres alive, so I don’t know why it was like that. Then of course with the contact my front wing was a bit damaged but even with a complete front wing I would have finished fourth.”
Russell, who will lead out Hamilton on an all-Mercedes front row on Sunday, expects Verstappen will be “flying past” in the actual grand prix.
However, Verstappen believes that even on the same tyre compound Mercedes would have been genuinely quicker in the sprint.
Starting third due to Sainz’ engine penalty, Verstappen thinks it will be not as straightforward to beat the Mercedes cars as his 2022 dominance suggests.
“Even on the soft I think we wouldn’t have had that pace that Mercedes had, so that’s a little bit worrying for tomorrow,” he admitted.
“We definitely will analyse everything but normally there’s not so much you can do to make it better.”
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon was unaware of second clash with Formula 1 teammate Fernando Alonso in Brazil sprint. Motorsport.com has the details.
Esteban Ocon claims he had no idea during Formula 1’s Brazilian Grand Prix sprint race that he and teammate Fernando Alonso had clashed for a second time on the straight.
The Alpine pair brushed with each other early on the opening lap on the exit of Turn 4, but the more serious incident came just before they crossed the start/finish line as Alonso damaged his front wing on his team-mate’s car.
Alonso was forced to come into the pits for a new front wing, and criticised his teammate over the radio. The Spaniard eventually finished 15th, passing Ocon who fell to 18th with damage to his sidepod after their opening lap brush.
However, Ocon said he had been unaware of the pit straight incident.
“I had no idea this happened,” Ocon told media straight after the race. “I got told now. Yeah, I don’t know how that’s possible.”
Ocon has been summoned by the race stewards at Interlagos for a potential breach of the rules over what happened.
While Alonso was unhappy about both opening lap moments, Ocon did not share the view that he had done anything wrong.
“That’s his opinion, my opinion is different,” he said. “I was in the front, so the one fighting is not me really. I was trying to attack the McLaren into [Turn] 4.
“I guess it’s a race and we are trying to get the most out of everything, but today has been costly.”
While Alonso was outspoken about Ocon on the team radio during the sprint race, he had calmed down after the event.
Reflecting on the incident, the Spaniard said the most annoying thing about it was that it cost him the opportunity to score some decent points.
“Far from ideal when, on a sprint race, you touch on the first lap, because the race is too short to really overcome the deficit of the pitstop,” he said.
“Even though the car was great today, the pace, it was too short the race to recover.
“Just thinking of the positives, we’re starting P15 tomorrow, we have a good chance to score big points because the car was surprisingly fast today.”
Asked by Motorsport.com if the Ocon clash was similar circumstances to his accident with Lance Stroll in Austin, Alonso replied: “I don’t know. I didn’t see the TV properly so I don’t know how it went.
“But I was sad that we didn’t score points today, because at least my car was very fast.
“On his side it was a little bit slower all weekend. But on my side we lost an opportunity. But not everything is lost, because tomorrow with a long race hopefully we can recover.”
The sidepod damage that Ocon picked up in the Turn 4 incident may have contributed to his car catching fire in parc ferme after the race.
“The sidepod is completely open,” admitted Ocon. “I don’t know how it didn’t fly [off].
“The car was on fire as well, so I hope at the end there was no more damage.”
Fernando Alonso has received a five-second time penalty for the Interlagos clash with Alpine Formula 1 teammate Esteban Ocon as both faced criticism from team boss Otmar Szafnauer.
Alonso and Ocon appeared to make contact twice on the opening lap of Saturday’s 24-lap sprint race in Brazil, the first moment coming at Turn 4 when they went side-by-side into the corner.
Alonso was forced wide at the exit of the corner, but the more dramatic incident came as they completed the lap when they made contact going across the start/finish line.
The front wing of Alonso’s car was damaged when it made contact with Ocon’s right-rear wheel. It forced Alonso to pit for repairs and prompted an angry response from the Spaniard, who said on the radio: “I lost the front wing thanks to our friend.”
The stewards confirmed after the sprint race they would be investigating the main straight incident, and deemed after hearing from both drivers that it was Alonso who was to blame, resulting in a five-second time penalty.
This was because Alonso was “significantly faster” thanks to the tow and some aerodynamic damage that Ocon picked up at Turn 4. The stewards said that Alonso admitted in the hearing that he “slightly misjudged the time to pull out and struck Ocon from behind, his front wing striking Ocon’s rear tyre”.
The FIA bulletin added: “The Stewards found that Alonso was wholly at fault for the collision, which at those speeds and at that location on the track was dangerous.”
The penalty drops Alonso back to 18th on the grid for Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix, while he also collects two penalty points on his FIA superlicence, taking him to six for the last 12 months.
Team principal Szafnauer did not speak publicly about the incident after the sprint race, but slammed both Alpine drivers in the team’s press release issued on Saturday evening, having thrown away high starting positions amid the close battle for P4 in the standings with McLaren.
“Frankly, both Esteban and Fernando must do a better job to compliment the fantastic efforts of everyone in the team by avoiding on-track incidents and compromising the entire team’s performance,” said Szafnauer.
“Today, both drivers have let the team down. I expect more from them tomorrow where we must do everything we can to recover some points from the weekend for the championship.
“We aim to ensure we go to Abu Dhabi next weekend in a position where we can reach our season goals. Tomorrow is a new day.”
Source: Motorsport.com