Round 19, the second GP weekend of the triple-header, was hosted by Sao Paulo, Brazil. The third and last Sprint of the season took place in the South American venue. Coming to the GP weekend, Hamilton was announced to face a 5-place grid penalty in the race for an engine change.
Due to the Sprint qualifying took place on Friday already. Five sets of soft Pirellis were available for all drivers, so this time the tyre choice played no role in the qualifying. Hamilton showed top form right from the beginning. Although the Briton's first fastest lap was deleted in Q2 because of track limit infringement, the reigning world champion went fastest at the end of the session. Bottas was at the very tail of his teammate, with Verstappen third and Ferrari's Leclerc fourth.
Dominant Hamilton took the upper hand on his championship rival in the final segment as well. Hamilton took provisional P1, leaving Verstappen 0.265s off the pace. Bottas, who had difficulties to match his teammate's pace especially in the first sector, was third and Perez in the sister Red Bull was fourth. Verstappen faced an overheating issue with his front tyres on his last attempt, failing to improve. Hamilton, on the other hand, managed to cut 0.17s off his benchmark, which meant a sweeping P1 for him for the Sprint. Verstappen was second, four tenths shy of the Briton, with Bottas third and Perez fourth. AlphaTauri's Gasly was once again strong fifth, with Ferrari's Sainz alongside him in P6. Leclerc in the sister Ferrari qualified 7th, with McLaren teammates Norris 8th, Ricciardo 9th and Alpine's Alonso rounding out the top ten. Throughout the qualifying the weather stayed dry, although rain had been predicted.
After the second free practice session there was breaking news. Hamilton had been disqualified from the qualifying due to a DRS infringement. The DRS is allowed to open as much as 85 mm, but Hamilton's DRS exceeded this limit. Disqualification meant, that Hamilton had to start to the Sprint from the very last grid slot! Verstappen was given a fine of 50 000 euros for touching the rear wing of Hamilton's Mercedes in parc ferme after the qualifying.
The tyre strategy for the Sprint was interesting. The Red Bull duo of Verstappen and Perez and Ferrari's Leclerc were to start to the Sprint on the medium Pirellis, whilst Bottas in P2 and Ferrari's Sainz in P5 opted for the soft compound. As the lights went out, Bottas took a dream start and accelerated into the lead. Sainz was brilliant at the start as well. The Spanish Ferrari ace managed to overtake both Red Bulls, jumping to second. In the heat of the battle at the second straight Verstappen even ended up wide in the battle with Carlos. Hamilton, who had started to the Sprint on the medium compound, had made it P14 in just two laps.
Nevertheless, Verstappen didn't settle for P2. The aggressive Dutchman attacked Carlos at the finish straight on lap 3, making his way past the Spaniard. Bottas controlled the race in the lead. Sainz, on the other hand, was a second per lap slower than the top two. Having passed McLaren's Ricciardo Hamilton was soon right at the tail of Leclerc on lap 20. Hamilton was storming through the pack like tornado, and Charles couldn't prevent the Briton from taking P6.
On the closing laps Verstappen had made it within DRS distance from the Finn, but there never was a chance for an overtaking move. Mercedes' risky tactics of opting to the soft compound paid out, and Valtteri made superb job with tyre management. On the very final lap Hamilton passed McLaren's Norris, claiming P5. Hamilton had gained 15 positions in just 24 laps, which was a highly impressive result.
Bottas was the winner of the Sprint, deserving pole for the Sunday's race and getting three points. Verstappen in P2 got two points and Sainz in P3 got one point. Perez was to start to the race from P4. Hamilton finished fifth, but due to the grid penalty he was to start from P10. All in all it was a very eventful and action-packed Sprint!
At the race start Verstappen did, what Bottas had done at the Sprint start. Verstappen flew to the lead, with teammate Perez also taking an upper hand on pole-setter Bottas. Hamilton took a dream start from P10 as well, gaining three positions right away. His pace was purely unbelievable, making it past Ferrari's Leclerc and teammate Bottas on lap 5. Now the Briton was third already.
On lap 7 safety car was deployed, as AlphaTauri's Tsunoda had lost his front wing, which had dropped down in Turn 1. Tsunoda was the only driver, who had started to the race on the soft compound, whilst everyone else had opted for the medium Pirellis. Safety car came in three laps later, and the restart saw the pecking order staying the same, although Charles was about to challenge Bottas for the third place. The race was on only for a lap. Kimi made an overtaking move on Haas' Schumacher, which led into contact between the two. The German's front wing got major damage, and debris was once again all over the driving line. Virtual safety car was deployed.
Hamilton's pace was absolutely outstanding. He had chased down Perez and attacked the Mexican on lap 18. With the help of DRS Hamilton made a successful overtaking move going into Turn 1, but Perez attacked back, showing he wasn't willing to surrender easily. But Hamilton was driving like a tornado and Perez proved unable to prevent the reigning world champion from overtaking him on the following lap. Hamilton's gap to race leader Verstappen was 4 seconds. The chase was definitely on!
Mercedes relied on undercut and called Hamilton in on lap 27. The Briton rejoined the track on a fresh set of hard Pirellis, which was well expected. Red Bull reacted right away and called Verstappen in on the sequential lap. The Dutchman rejoined the track ahead of Hamilton, but the gap between the two championship contenders was two seconds only. Hamilton didn't hesitate to begin his passion-driven chase.
Bottas had a perfect chance to pit on lap 30, as virtual safety car was out for a moment. It couldn't have had better timing, as Bottas managed to overtake Perez and take P3. Soon the top two -Verstappen and Hamilton- were separated by just 1.2 seconds.
Surprisingly Verstappen came in for the second time as early as on lap 41. Bottas, Perez and Hamilton all pitted a lap after each other. Verstappen was still leading the race by 2.5 seconds. On lap 47 the hunting Briton was right at the tail of the championship leader. It became an intense and fierce fight. Hamilton attacked and made his move, but Verstappen pushed Hamilton wide, with himself going wide as well, but the order remained unchanged. The stewards saw this as a racing incident and no penalties were given.
No matter how hard Verstappen fought, in the end he proved unarmed in the battle against Hamilton, whose pace was legendary. On lap 59 Hamilton forced his way past the Dutchman on the second DRS zone, going into Turn 4. Lewis was determined more than ever to win the race. Verstappen was given a black and white flag for weaving at the straight.
After the overtaking manoeuvre there was no stopping Hamilton, who also had the fastest lap time under his name. However, Perez pitted on the second last lap, switching to the softs. At least the Mexican managed to snatch one point away from Hamilton, as he went fastest on the very final lap. Hamilton took a truly sensational win, with Verstappen second and Bottas third. Perez had to settle for P4, with the Scuderia drivers Charles 5th and Carlos 6th. The Red Team made a great job in their battle against McLaren, as Norris managed to claim one point only for the orange team. Verstappen's lead now decreased into 14 points. Mercedes, on the other hand, have an 11-point lead to Red Bull in the constructors' standings, with just three more races to go.
Nail-biting drama continues in the inaugural Qatar GP this week already! Ensure you have your popcorn ready!
With passion for racing red,
Iina Huhmarniemi
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