George Russell and Lewis Hamilton had some serious pace on Saturday taking a win and third respectively for Mercedes AMG Petronas. Due to an engine-change penalty, Carlos Sainz will start his Ferrari further back leaving George and Lewis on the front row for Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix.
Red Bull split their strategy with Max Verstappen starting on Medium compound tires and Sergio Perez on Softs. Max couldn’t hold George or Carlos off even damaging his front wing when Sainz passed him into turn 1. This left him as fodder for Lewis Hamilton to take the pass and third place. Even tire-corrected, it didn’t look like the Red Bull had the pace to hold off the two Mercedes even if he was on Soft compounds and that bodes very well for the Mercedes duo on Sunday.
Brazil Sprint Results:
| Pos | Name | Car | Gap | Best Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1m14.233s | |
| 2 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | Ferrari | +3.995s | 1m14.522s |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | +4.492s | 1m14.317s |
| 4 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | +10.494s | 1m14.507s |
| 5 | Sergio Pérez | Red Bull | +11.855s | 1m14.699s |
| 6 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | +13.133s | 1m15.236s |
| 7 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Mercedes | +25.624s | 1m15.38s |
| 8 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | +28.768s | 1m15.11s |
| 9 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin-Mercedes | +30.218s | 1m15.451s |
| 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri-Red Bull | +34.17s | 1m15.29s |
| 11 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren-Mercedes | +39.395s | 1m15.385s |
| 12 | Mick Schumacher | Haas-Ferrari | +41.159s | 1m15.771s |
| 13 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | +41.763s | 1m15.765s |
| 14 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | +42.338s | 1m15.98s |
| 15 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine-Renault | +48.985s | 1m14.764s |
| 16 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri-Red Bull | +50.306s | 1m16.413s |
| 17 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin-Mercedes | +50.7s | 1m15.425s |
| 18 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine-Renault | +51.756s | 1m16.097s |
| 19 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams-Mercedes | +1m16.85s | 1m16.525s |
| Alex Albon | Williams-Mercedes | 1m15.998s |
Not wanting to deny Kevin and George their excitement and satisfaction at getting their first respective pole and race win – pure talent on display here… But as a 30 years + fan and follower of the sport, there’s something vaguely frustrating about seeing these young talents taking poles and wins that some how feel hollowed out within the the context of this current race weekend format – practice, qualifying, practice, qualifying, etc…
If I’m honest, my jury is still out on the Sprint race. I understand the point but not sure the format and program is fully baked.