Brazil finally returned to our calendars this year and it was a race well worth waiting for!
After a penalty in 2019 which dropped him off the podium, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton dominated the entire weekend and took an amazing race win on Sunday. I think we can all agree that this was one of Lewis’ top races of all time. It’s times like this we remember that we really are witnessing history!
Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas finished in third place after starting on pole position – still an excellent result for the Finnish driver and another podium for the team he’ll soon be departing from.
Championship rival and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen came home in second place after a solid race from the Dutchman – with one little tussle with Hamilton in the closing stages of the race where both drivers ran wide. Verstappen still leads the drivers’ championship for the time being, and with three races remaining the battle is really heating up!
Sergio Perez came home in fourth place for Red Bull and ran away with the point for fastest lap – this is especially important now, at a time when every single point means something to the top two teams.
Italy’s Scuderia Ferrari had an excellent race this weekend, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz coming home in 5th and 6th respectively. The two drivers were the only ones apart from the top four who were not lapped, showing that the Ferrari engine really is becoming a force to be reckoned with. They maintain third place in the Constructor’s championship after a strong race result.
Unfortunately it was another poor weekend for British team McLaren. Daniel Ricciardo failed to finish the race, retiring his MCL35M due to a power unit issue. Lando Norris finished in tenth place and took home a single point for the team, after first-lap contact resulted in the British driver tumbling to the back of the grid.
It was a good weekend for French team Alpine, with Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso finishing in 8th and 9th place. Once again, the two teammates showed excellent skill and teamwork, being able to bring home some extremely valuable points to help them in their fight against Alpha Tauri for 5th in the Constructor’s championship.
Race week review
São Paulo was a spectacular weekend of racing but before lights out there was drama, and lots of it. Due to bad weather following the Mexico GP, many teams suffered delays in setting up in Brazil because freights were unable to arrive on time. This included different parts of the car like the engine, and many important structural bases used in the garages by the teams. Certain drivers and team principles arrived just in time for press conferences on Thursday. The curfew the FIA imposes on teams to finish work on the cars was lifted because of the delays but this meant that the hardworking guys and girls worked all night to makes sure everything was ready for Friday.
The argument of whether a sprint race is a good idea still remains, but it definitely brought some spice to the weekend as more drama enfolded. Friday saw teams take part in qualifying for Saturday’s sprint race, where Lewis Hamilton, was to serve a 5 place grid penalty for an engine change qualified 1st and his championship rival Max Verstappen was 2nd.
After the session the FIA announced that Hamilton’s car was under investigation because it failed maximum rear wing elements measurements when using DRS. Along with this, a video of Verstappen came into question when he was filmed touching Hamilton’s car under parc fermé conditions. The results of the investigation came the next day before the sprint race where it was confirmed that Max Verstappen received a €50,000 fine for touching Lewis Hamilton’s car under parc fermé conditions and Lewis Hamilton was disqualified from Friday’s qualifying session, meaning he had a tough mountain to climb starting from last on the grid. In between all of this, in FP2 Fernando Alonso took first place, an impressive feat of the former champion but this result was overshadowed by the investigations of the FIA.
Valtteri Bottas used his brilliant start to get past his Red Bull rival Max Verstappen at the start of the sprint race, which he would go on to win. Bottas has an impressive stat with the sprint races this year (two wins and one 3rd place) which he accumulated 7 points. In just 24 laps Lewis Hamilton produced an incredible drive which saw him go from 20th to 5th on the grid. Some stunning overtakes were seen during the sprint race, notably from Lando Norris over Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton over Lando Norris.
The battle for 3rd in the constructors’ championship still looked to be in Ferrari’s favour as both car qualified higher than their McLaren rivals on Friday and Carlos Sainz would remain ahead of Lando Norris for the race on Sunday while Daniel Ricciardo would start 11th.
The race was entertaining from start to finish, Formula 1 witnessing arguably one of Lewis Hamilton’s best drives in Formula 1, starting from 10th and winning the race ahead of Max Verstappen. The gap in the championship was closed down to 14 points while the difference in the constructors’ championship increased to 10 points in Mercedes favour with Bottas stealing the final podium position.
At the end of the celebrations, Lewis Hamilton was fined €25,000 for removing his seatbelt on the cool down lap. Also, during the weekend, Mercedes and Red Bull continued to battle it out as Red Bull spoke about an investigation into the flexing of Mercedes rear wing- an incident Red Bull had to make changes on their design earlier in the season. Toto Wolff was not happy that Red Bull had “changed” part of their rear wing without punishment but Christian Horner later claimed that it was a “repair”.
After all of that drama we now head to Qatar for the first time in a Formula 1 season. With what seems to be an interesting and exciting track, it could be anyone’s game and with everything still to play for, a lot is on the line. Who will be the winner of the inaugural Qatar Grand Prix?
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