Russell wins F1 battle with Verstappen to take 2022 Brazilian GP sprint race
F1
Mercedes looking strong, as George Russell wins the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix sprint race, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton set to start alongside him in Sunday's GP
Russell wears the Brazilian sprint race winners' medal, finishing ahead of Sainz and Hamilton
George Russell showed that Mercedes really is back in the F1 fight as he won the Brazilian Grand Prix sprint race by passing Max Verstappen.
After a resurgence in the thin air of Mexico at the last race, the Silver Arrows once more showed their steel, climbing through the field to finish first and third in the 24-lap race at Interlagos.
It means that both Russell and Lewis Hamilton will start on the front row for the Brazilian Grand Prix, thanks to a grid penalty for second-place finisher Carlos Sainz, due to taking new engine components.
“We should be able to work as a team and hold off the guys behind,” said Hamilton, as he eyed a first grand prix win of 2022 for Mercedes.
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However, the positions are currently provisional with a number of stewards’ investigations ongoing in relation to cars’ positioning on the grid.
Polesitter Kevin Magnussen managed to hold on to the lead at the start, and was still heading the field on lap two, but he soon fell victim to Max Verstappen, one of only two drivers to start on the medium tyre, which wasn’t highly rated by other teams.
Russell soon followed him through and immediately put the pressure on the Red Bull, following within a second.
The Mercedes clearly had the pace: challenging the 2022 champion for several laps before powering past and pulling out a gap.
Surprise polesitter Magnussen led from the start
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Verstappen’s chances of coming back were extinguished when Sainz also passed the Red Bull and caught his front wing, causing the Dutchman’s front wing endplate to disintegrate. “It was on the limit for sure,” admitted Sainz.
It made it much easier for Hamilton to follow him through, having fought his way up the field after starting eighth.
There was action aplenty front the start, as Russell immediately attacked Verstappen behind Magnussen and Fernando Alonso came into contact with Alpien team-mate Esteban Ocon.
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After running off track while trying to pass Ocon into Turn 4, Alonso then clipped his front wing on his team-mate’s rear wheel on the start/finish straight, forcing him to pit and drop to the back of the pack.
Magnussen survived in the lead for two laps until Verstappen moved into the lead into Turn 1. Russell followed him at the end of the same lap, and quickly closed onto his rear wing.
Sainz also overhauled the Haas on lap four, pushing Magnussen down to fourth. By lap six, Hamilton was past too, as he recovered from a relatively lowly starting place.
Sergio Perez, ninth on the grid, was also making his way towards the front, going past Lando Norris on lap eight and then Magnussen a lap later to take fifth.
There was another team-mate clash on lap 9 as Lance Stroll nudged Sebastian Vettel off track in a shower of mud and sparks as they tussled for eleventh place.
The move would cost Stroll a ten second penalty and Vettel was past on the next lap anyway, before quickly moving past Ocon for tenth.
The lead battle then flared into life, as Russell darted to the inside then outside of Verstappen at the start of lap 12 — the soft-tyred Mercedes appearing quicker than the Red Bull on medium tyres.
Red Bull had thought that using a harder compound would give Verstappen the advantage in the second part of the race, but actually found that its degradation was worse.
Verstappen suggested that the car was the problem and that the Red Bull would have suffered greater wear than its rivals on the soft tyre too.
The battle continued for several laps, Verstappen keeping Russell on the outside in the s-bends at the start of each lap, which stymied the Mercedes’ pace.
But it was all over by lap 15: a good run out of Turn 3 gave Russell the momentum to come alongside Verstappen on the following straight, pass, and then claim the apex of Turn 4.
The battle for the lead was over: Russell already 1.5sec ahead by the next lap.
Hamilton passes Verstappen for third
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The contact with Sainz on lap 19 put Verstappen into more difficulty and he then fell behind Hamilton, with Perez chasing.
“Am I going to have his position? I need the points” radioed Perez, looking for an easy route to fourth past Verstappen, but the the Mexican remained behind his team-mate.
After starting first, Magnussen rolled past the chequered flag in eighth, securing one point for Haas and another strong start position for the Grand Prix
Towards the back will be both Alpine drivers whose relationship appears to be well and truly over. Fernando Alonso listed the other occasions where he had come close to colliding with Ocon before saying: “It’s one more race and then it’s over finally.”
