Hamilton had a fantastic start from P10 on the grid and was clearly on the charge with Bottas who had lost the lead to Verstappen at the start.
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Lewis Hamilton won the Sao Paulo Grand Prix after a thrilling battle with rival Max Verstappen in F1’s triumphant return to Brazil. Verstappen finished second, one place ahead of polesitter Valtteri Bottas. Hamilton had a fantastic start from P10 on the grid and was clearly on the charge, with teammate Bottas – who had lost the lead to Verstappen at the start – passing him for P5 on Lap 5. Hamilton then took P2 from Perez in a battle that started on Lap 17 and ended with a Lap 19 pass at Turn 4. The first pit stops occurred around Lap 25, but the action reached a fever pitch after Verstappen pitted on Lap 41 and Hamilton on Lap 44.
The Mercedes driver pressed Verstappen, and despite being shoved wide at Turn 4 on Lap 48 – which the stewards noted but did not investigate – Hamilton didn’t give up, trying again on Lap 58 only to meet a tenacious defence. A lap later, Verstappen was forced to concede after making the winning pass with DRS on the run up to Turn 4. Hamilton finished 10.4 seconds ahead of Verstappen at the finish line, reducing Verstappen’s championship lead from 21 to 14 points.
Bottas finished third, ahead of Sergio Perez, who started fourth and advanced to second before losing positions to the two Mercedes. On the final tour, however, the Mexican took the fastest lap at the expense of Hamilton, having pitted for softs on Lap 70.
The Ferraris used a two-stop strategy, with Charles Leclerc finishing fifth and Carlos Sainz finishing sixth, despite losing three positions due to contact with Lando Norris (P10) at the start. Pierre Gasly won the Alpines after pitting twice, with his Lap 50 switch to hard tyres allowing him to pass Esteban Ocon (P9) and Fernando Alonso (P10) (P8).
Norris suffered a puncture on Lap 1 after Sainz nicked his rear-left tyre, but recovered to take the final point, his pitstop during a Lap 7 VSC forcing him to race on hard compounds until the end. Sebastian Vettel finished 11th after starting P9, a second behind Norris, with his Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll eventually retiring, as did McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo.
But it was Hamilton who stole the show in Brazil, recovering from his disqualification in qualifying on Friday and clawing his way back up to fifth place from dead last in Saturday’s Sprint before incurring another grid penalty for an engine change on race day. He put in the drive of his life from P10 – and pulled off an impressive move on title rival Verstappen to seal the victory in front of an ecstatic crowd at Interlagos.
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