Max Verstappen won the Sprint race of the São Paulo Grand Prix of Formula 1 on Saturday. It was early on that the world champion took the lead and never let go until the end in a dominant display.
Race summary
Verstappen (Red Bull) had the best start to overtake Lando Norris (McLaren) in the first corner, while further back Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) got ahead of Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) in fourth. Still in the first lap, George Russell (Mercedes) moved up to second, swapping positions with Norris.
After the losses in the opening lap, Pérez only managed to react on the fourth lap, overtaking Hamilton. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) attacked #44 right after, but without success. One lap later, Russell couldn’t hold off Norris, who returned to second place. At that point, Verstappen was already leading by more than a second.
With Verstappen and Norris settling in the top two positions, the race then livened up with the battle for third place between Russell and Pérez. #63 eventually yielded to the Mexican on the eighth lap, after putting up a strong resistance.
Midway through the race, an interesting fight for eighth place (the last points-paying position) between Carlos Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo (AlphaTauri) unfolded. The Ferrari driver seemed to struggle with tire difficulties. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) later joined this battle, and Pierre Gasly (Alpine) was also not far behind. In an Australian duel, Piastri overtook Ricciardo on lap 14 to move up to ninth. Sainz managed to gain some margin afterwards.
In the final phase of the race, Norris definitively lost contact with Verstappen, but also maintained a considerable gap ahead of Pérez. Verstappen didn’t let the victory slip away, finishing ahead of Norris by xxx. Pérez comfortably secured third place. Russell finished fourth ahead of Charles Leclerc (Ferrari).
Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) overtook Hamilton near the end to finish sixth, while Sainz resisted a final attack from Ricciardo – who overtook Piastri again – to secure the eighth-place point. Further down, the best Aston Martin driver was Fernando Alonso in 11th, while Gasly led the Alpines in 13th.
Results:
