Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas will start from pole position at Sunday’s São Paulo Grand Prix in Brazil after wining the final F1 Sprint race of the season.
Valtteri jumped Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to take the lead and held on for the win while Max finished second and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz completed the podium. Lewis Hamilton finished in 10th after a DQ suffered for an errant rear wing during qualifying leaving him to start the sprint race in 20th. Lewis managed a terrific recovery drive to 5th place and will start in 10th on Sunday but that, in the hands of Lewis and with a new engine, is completely manageable.
The drama around Lewis’s rear wing on Friday and most of Saturday morning dominated the press and social media and for touching the Mercedes in Parc fermé after qualifying, Max Verstappen was given a 50,000 Euro penalty.
The ridiculous accusations that Max did something to Lewis’s rear wing by touching it was beyond logical. The commentary was also also fueled by the FIA saying they are going to crack down on this type of thing in Parc fermé. For decades drivers have looked, poked and prodded competitors cars and in my opinion, this has been completely blown out of proportion as some sort of contrition for penalizing Lewis.
Lewis’s rear wing issue wasn’t his fault so there’s no reason to blame him and he put in a terrific recovery drive on Saturday covering, as much as he could, for a team error. The team radioing him to be sure and not touch other cars in Parc fermé was a cheeky jab at Max but tedious nonetheless.
Sprint Race Results:
| Pos | Name | Car | Gap | Best Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1m12.3s | |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-Honda | +1.17s | 1m12.114s |
| 3 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | Ferrari | +18.723s | 1m13.167s |
| 4 | Sergio Pérez | Red Bull-Honda | +19.787s | 1m13.11s |
| 5 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | +20.872s | 1m12.357s |
| 6 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Mercedes | +22.558s | 1m12.994s |
| 7 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | +25.056s | 1m13.14s |
| 8 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri-Honda | +34.158s | 1m13.342s |
| 9 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine-Renault | +34.632s | 1m13.615s |
| 10 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin-Mercedes | +34.867s | 1m13.558s |
| 11 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren-Mercedes | +35.869s | 1m13.463s |
| 12 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine-Renault | +36.578s | 1m13.397s |
| 13 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | +41.88s | 1m13.627s |
| 14 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin-Mercedes | +44.037s | 1m13.666s |
| 15 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri-Honda | +46.15s | 1m13.747s |
| 16 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams-Mercedes | +46.76s | 1m13.934s |
| 17 | George Russell | Williams-Mercedes | +47.739s | 1m14.056s |
| 18 | Kimi Räikkönen | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | +50.014s | 1m13.9s |
| 19 | Mick Schumacher | Haas-Ferrari | +1m01.68s | 1m14.387s |
| 20 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas-Ferrari | +1m07.474s | 1m14.583s |
Either Bottas was especially easy with his tires or Max’s car wasn’t 100% Probably a combination of both.
May have been and my hunch is RBR aren’t as good on the softs or they wear more. Bottas also seemed to have managed them well, as you say.
Thank you for having a great perspective on this.
Thanks. I find the tedious manufactured drama marginalizing to F1 and Lewis’s achievements. On merit, he put in a fantastic drive to cover for a team error but penalizing Max as some sort of balanced approach is just uncalled for. Lewis is a big boy, he can take a penalty without having to find an offset penalty to lessen the blow on social media. Every time the media or F1 blows up an air mattress for Lewis to soften the situation, it actually reflects poorly on Lewis and just how terrific he is.
Good to have a little humour amongst all the high octane emotion. You missed Vettel’s comment. That was funnier.
I did read that this morning. That’s funny. I think it also speaks to the silliness of the entire thing.