#BrazilGP: @Max33Verstappen clinches #F1Sprint victory. #F1 #SaoPauloGP

Verstappen Brazil GP Sprint Victory – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen clinched the victory in the Brazil GP F1 Sprint race after overturning McLaren’s Lando Norris pole position into the opening corner.

 

 

When the 24-lap Brazil GP F1 Sprint began, polesitter Norris got a solid start as Verstappen had a slight better getaway and made a dive up the inside of the former and took the lead into turn one.

 

Meanwhile Mercedes’ George Russell got the jump up over Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Perez into third and later made the move stick on Norris into second at turn 11 allowing Verstappen to pull away.

 

The other Mercedes of Sir Lewis Hamilton also made his way past Perez into fourth by pulling off a brave move at turn four.

 

At the end of the opening tour, Verstappen lead by 0.6 seconds over Russell with Norris third, Hamilton fourth and Perez completing the top five.

 

On the third tour, DRS was now enabled, and Perez held the advantage over Hamilton. The Mexican had his rear wing open and gained on Hamilton and the Red Bull driver picked him off into Turn One. But Hamilton fought back with DRS the next time around, but the Briton doesn’t wait that long and had a look into Turn 4 and backed out whilst Leclerc fancied a sniff there and they were almost three abreast into the corner.

 

On the beginning of lap five, Verstappen held 1.370 lead over Norris who snatched second place back on Russell into turn one as Perez was fourth as Hamilton rounded out the top five.

 

On the sixth lap, second-placed Norris was trying to pull away from Russell out of DRS range, but doesn’t manage to, with the Mercedes slightly under four tenths whilst Hamilton dropped off the back of Perez too.

 

Lap eight in the fight for third saw Perez make short work of Russell using DRS into turn one, but the latter was sharp to pull off the trick into turn four around the outside to make the move stick.

 

Lap 10 saw Verstappen held a 1.812 second lead over Norris with Perez third after the Mexican once again got past Russell as Hamilton completed the top five.

 

A tour later, the battle for eighth intensified as AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo battled Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz for the final points place.

 

On lap 12, Ricciardo made the move on Sainz and dived on the inside of the Ferrari into turn one, and remained on the inside into turn two, but the latter came back at the Australian into turn four and the Ferrari driver got back past.

 

A lap later, Verstappen was told over the radio that Norris is pushing “extremely hard” as the gap was down to 1.3 seconds.

 

The 14^th lap saw Ricciardo get back in-front of Sainz into turn one in the fight for eighth, but once again the Spaniard got back ahead of the AT04.

 

With five laps remaining, Verstappen held a 2.5 second lead over Norris with Perez further back in third Russell fourth as Hamilton completed the top five.

 

On lap 21 in the fight for fifth, with DRS assistance, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc made his way around the outside of turn one past Hamilton, and at the exit of turn two Hamilton had a wobble mid-corner as he fell into the clutches of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda as he came onto the inside of the Mercedes as they approached turn four, but Hamilton managed to keep the Japanese driver at bay.

 

At the beginning of lap 22 however, with DRS assistance on the main-straight Tsunoda breezed his way past Hamilton before they reached the opening corner of the Senna S to move up into sixth place as further behind Ricciardo overtook fellow Australian Oscar Piastri to take ninth.

 

Verstappen crossed the line to claim the Brazil GP F1 Sprint victory by 4.287 seconds over Norris as Perez completed the podium a further 9.330 seconds behind his Red Bull team-mate.

 

Russell took fourth ahead of Leclerc who was fifth and Tsunoda who ended the Sprint in sixth.

 

The other Mercedes F1 W14 entry of Hamilton settled for seventh as Sainz wrapped up the final points place in eighth.

 

The two Australians followed as Ricciardo and Piastri rounded out the top ten runners.

 

Aston Martin pairing Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll finished the F1 Sprint in 11^th and 12^th places respectively as Alpine F1 duo Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon placed in 13^th and 14^th in the classification.

 

Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon came home 15^th and in-front of the medium-tyre-running Kevin Magnussen who ended the Sprint 16^th for Haas and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu who was 17^th.

 

The second Haas VF-23 entry of Nico Hulkenberg, also running the mediums, finished 18^th as Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and Williams Racing’s Logan Sargeant brought up the rear.

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2023 Brazil GP F1 Sprint – The Top Three

 

 

2023 Brazil GP F1 Sprint Winner – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing, Honda-RBPT, RB19, 8 Points:

“It was important to get ahead at the start. Then it was all about management, 24 laps on one tyre set is very long. We managed the race quite well out there today. Last year was very difficult for us around here, today was much better. I think we learned a lot and hopefully we can do something similar tomorrow.”

 

2^nd Place – Lando Norris, #4, McLaren Formula 1 Team, Mercedes, MCL60, 7 Points:

“I don’t know, I have to review it as my initial start was good – the second phase of the launch… things to improve for tomorrow. Caught sleeping a little bit with George [Russell] on Lap 1 but the pace was strong after, I just didn’t have enough to go after Max [Verstappen]. I’m not concerned, if anything encouraged with how good our pace is today.”

 

3^rd Place – Sergio Perez, #11, Oracle Red Bull Racing, Honda-RBPT, RB19, 6 Points:

“Not an easy one, I had a terrible start, lost a place to George [Russell] and another place to Lewis [Hamilton]. Then I was fighting, I had to use a lot my tyres and I paid the price at the end. Without the start we could have been a lot further up.”

 

Click here to see the full Formula 1 Rolex Grande Premio De Sao Paulo 2023 F1 Sprint Results Classification: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1224/brazil/sprint-results.html

 

Click here for the 2023 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings

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