The 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix (previously known as the Brazilian Grand Prix) has certainly been producing some firsts, starting with Kevin Magnussen giving the Haas F1 team its long awaited po9le position for the Sprint Qualifying Race. And then Mercedes-AMG’s George Russell getting his first ever pole position in the race, along with his team also getting its first pole position of the season.
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The 21st round of the 2022 Formula 1 World Championship continues in the western hemisphere 7,500 kms south of the last venue in Texas. It’s the Sao Paulo Grand Prix which many will know as the Brazilian Grand Prix. The change of name occurred last year (the 2020 F1 race was not run due to the pandemic) and was said to reflect the greater involvement of the city as well as to give it more prominence globally.
The circuit also has two names; officially, since 1985, it has been known as the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace, honouring a Brazilian F1 driver who had his only win there in 1975. However, racing fans have usually referred to it as Interlagos, the name being taken from the area that the track is in.
Whatever the name, it has been on the F1 calendar since Brazil’s first F1 race in 1973. While most of the rounds have been held at Interlagos, in 1978 and between 1981 and 1989, the Brazilian GP was held at the Jacarepagua circuit in Rio de Janeiro.
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With the engine change, Lewis Hamilton’s fifth place finish in the Sprint Race put him 10 places behind his team mate who was on pole position but that was at least better than the back of the grid that he had started from for the Sprint Race due to disqualification of his Qualifying times.
Valtteri Bottas was quicker off the start line and first into Turn 1 but by Turn 2, it was Max Verstappen who emerged in the lead. As Bottas had to run wide, an alert Sergio Perez immediately passed by to trail his team mate. Meanwhile, Lando Norris was struck with a puncture (after hitting Carlos Sainz’ Ferrari’s wing) and had to limp back to the pits.
Within the first 3 laps, Hamilton was up to 5th and had Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to pass before reaching Bottas. Two laps later, he appeared behind his team mate and got past easily and into third place, ready to go for the two Red Bulls.
Further back, Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda collided with Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin and with much damage to the front wing, the Safety Car had to come out to control the field while marshalls cleared the debris. It stayed out for 3 laps before racing was allowed to resume.
Just as the drivers were starting to pick up speed, Haas F1’s Mick Schumacher radioed that his wing was dragging under his car after contact with Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa. The Virtual Safety Car was activated as he crawled back to the pits. Only 13 laps had passed after about 20 minutes since the race had started.
When the Virtual Safety Car ended, Verstappen wasted no time in extending the gap and sped off to a 2-second lead from Hamilton, with his team mate Perez acting defence. Bottas meanwhile was doing the same thing behind his team mate but he wasn’t under pressure like Perez was.
On lap 18, Hamilton made it past Perez but the Mexican managed to regain his position, The next time round, the Mercedes driver tried again and this time, he kept his position was prepared to do battle with Verstappen. Perez now had to focus on Bottas right behind rather than chase Hamilton and was falling back.
On lap 25, Verstappen was still holding on to his lead with a gap of almost 4 seconds from Hamilton. But the Red Bull driver was also starting to feel his tyres going, and the question was whether to come in for a single stop and switch to hard tyres for the rest of the race.
The first of the frontrunners to come in for a tyre change was Hamilton on lap 27, and Verstappen came in on the next lap. Both cars switched to hard tyres. Perez was also brought in but the Mercedes-AMG team decided to leave Bottas running for a while more. So the Finn took over the lead from lap 29, as Verstappen raced towards him with Hamilton not too far behind.
Stroll’s car still had some loose bits that started to fall off on lap 31, activiting the Virtual Safety Car. Bottas was brought in for his tyre change but the VSC ended and when he rejoined, he just managed to get ahead of Perez. Verstappen meanwhile had taken over the lead.
At the halfway point in the race, many drivers were coming in. Pierre Gasly was trying hard to keep his 8th position as McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo kept snapping at him.
Hamilton took over the lead on lap 40 as Verstappen shot into the pits to make another tyre change. His return to the track was slowed down by Williams’ Nicholas Latifi who was just reaching the end of the pit lane. Bottas was brought in but when he rejoined, he was down in 5th, over 25 seconds from the front so there was not much he could do to help.
An incident between Verstappen and Hamilton on lap 49 attracted the attention of the Stewards. He had challenged Verstappen for the lead going into a turn but was unable to get past and forced to go wide. However, no irregularity was found and the Race Director told the teams that no action was going to be taken. The Mercedes-AMG team didn’t like that as they believe the Red Bull driver had forced Hamilton to run wide.
In spite of the various collisions, no one retired until lap 50 when Stroll’s car – which had earlier come in contact with Tsunoda’s – had to pull out, making him the first driver to end his race early. Around the same time, Ricciardo also pitted and never came out again, becoming the second retiree of the day with a Power Unit problem.
10 laps later, on lap 59, Hamilton finally moved into the lead at Turn 4. Verstappen had to work very hard to prevent his rival from collecting those 25 points, which would make it trickier for his championship chances. The Dutchman had also to watch out for Bottas who was running third by then.
With 3 laps remaining, Hamilton could still keep the lead and maintain a gap of about 7 seconds from Verstappen. Bottas has fallen back a bit but would be ready to take over if anything happened to the two duelling drivers ahead.
On the remaining lap, Perez was quickly brought into the pits and fitted with soft tyres to try to get at least one more point for fastest lap. Verstappen wasn’t going to get by Hamilton who would be first to cross the line after 71 laps.
It was another Sprint Race win for Valtteri Bottas again in the Sao Paolo Grand Prix as he got off to a good start ahead of Max Verstappen who had moved into pole position after Lewis Hamilton’s qualifying times were disqualified. The Mercedes-AMG driver’s car was found to have a technical infringement in the rear wing and without a qualifying time, he was placed at the back of the grid.
Nevertheless, Hamilton worked hard for the short 24-lap race around the old-school Interlagos circuit to finish fifth. While the starting order for the main race is determined by the finishing order of the Sprint Race, Hamilton already knew he would have to add 5 grid positions – the penalty for changing an engine – to whatever position he finished in, so he had to work hard for the highest position.
The decision to take the 5-grid penalty was made with the hope that, for the main race, Hamilton will stand a stronger chance (or not having engine failures) of winning with a new engine. However, starting from 10th place for the race today means he will have to contend with traffic in the early stages before he can challenge his Red Bull rival.
The top three finishers of the Sprint Race were awarded extra points with 3 going to Bottas, 2 to Verstappen and 1 for Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz who finished third. The 2 points for Verstappen move him slightly further to a 21-point lead over Hamilton in the Drivers Championship. While the 3 points that Bottas collected could be added to the Mercedes-AMG team’s lead in the Constructors Championship, the gap is only 2 points.
While the technical infringement on Hamilton’s car lost him his qualifying time, Verstappen’s case of having broken the rules of the Sporting Code by inspecting and even touching his own car and that of Hamilton’s right after the qualifying session resulted in a 50,000 euro (about RM238,000) fine imposed by the Stewards.
The action was not deliberate, as Red Bull’s Christian Horner argued, and it is likely that Verstappen did it without realising the actions broke rules. It’s like if there was a rule that forbade drivers from coming into physical contact (as in hugging) after a race and they still do it because they forgot the rule at the moment of jubilation. But rules are rules and a penalty has to be imposed to remind everyone that they cannot break rules and get away with it.
Incidentally, the Mercedes-AMG team won’t be making an appeal regarding the action taken for the technical infringement which had been brought about after Red Bull had made a complaint with the FIA about the rear wing on the car. After inspection, there was evidence that the gap for the wing was greater than the maximum permissible even though the design met the regulations. The team suggested to the Stewards that there might have been some fault and while they accepted this point, they still felt that a penalty was necessary and that was to just disqualify the pole-capturing time that Hamilton achieved in Qualifying.
Race starts at 2:00 pm in Brazil/1:00 am in Malaysia (Monday)
F1/Round 19: Preview & Provisional Sprint Race Starting Grid For 2021 Sao Paolo Grand Prix
Sprint Race starts at 4:30 pm in Brazil/3:30 am in Malaysia (Sunday) GP race starts 2:00 pm in Brazil/1:00 am in Malaysia (Monday)
After last weekend in Mexico City, the F1 teams continued 7,500 kms south to Brazil for Round 19 of the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship. This will be the last of the three rounds in the western hemisphere which started in Texas on October 25. This round is known as the Sao Paulo Grand Prix and is held at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace, usually referred to as Interlagos.
There was no race held last year due to the pandemic, so the teams have not been at the track for longer than usual. But they are familiar with it as it has been hosting F1 rounds since 1972. The events used to be called the Brazilian Grand Prix but for some reason, the organizers and FIA now use city names instead.
The short 4.309-km circuit (almost same as the circuit in Mexico City) has a tight layout which the drivers will go around for 71 laps. Its undulating sequence of mostly medium and low-speed corners have always presented tough technical challenges. It is also one of the relatively few circuits run anti-clockwise on the calendar. The short lap (around 1 minute 10 seconds) means that traffic can be an issue and there’s also a high safety car probability, so any race strategy needs to bear that in mind.
In 2019, when the last GP was held, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won with a 3-stop strategy, following 2 Safety Car appearances at the end of the race. There were 3 different strategies in the top 4, with McLaren’s Carlos Sainz (fourth at the flag) stopping just once from last on the grid. Without the Safety Cars, a 2-stop strategy would have been the favoured tactic.
“Interlagos is an old-school track that keeps drivers and tyres busy and often produces some dramatic races, as we saw last time,” said Pirelli’s Mario Isola, adding that the weather is another variable factor and it can be very hot or very wet. “As a result, this year’s more versatile tyre selection should be able to cope with all the wide-ranging demands of the race and provide some different strategies.”
For this round, as in the British GP in July and the Italian GP in September, there is also a sprint race to offer additional excitement for spectators and also a different challenge for the teams. The Sprint Qualifying Race, which was well received by the drivers, is 100 kms long. Being run over a shorter distance, drivers will be flat out from start to finish, with no pit stops needed. The best effort will be necessary as the finishing order will determine the starting positions for the main race, so there is a chance to improve on the position gained in Qualifying. There are also points for the top 3 finishers of the race.
In Qualifying, Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the Sprint Race to be held on Saturday afternoon in Brazil. But because of an engine change, he will get a 5-place grid penalty for the main race on Sunday. Verstappen, who was 4/10ths of a second slower will start in second, with Valtteri Bottas in third and Serio Perez in fourth on the grid.
However, there is more tension at this time at Interlagos as both Hamilton and Verstappen have been referred to the Race Stewards for different matters. In Hamilton’s case, there is an alleged technical infringement regarding the rear wing on his car.
Verstappen could be in trouble relating to the FIA’s International Sporting Code concerning rules on working on the cars after Qualifying. Video footage shows him getting out of his car and walking to check on his own rear wing and then walking over to Hamilton’s car and also examining it and seemingly touching it. Article 2.5.1 of the Sporting Code states that ‘no operation, checking, tuning or repair is allowed’ but what sort of penalty the Red Bull driver will get remains uncertain.
At the time of writing, the rest of the world still doesn’t know the outcome but starting from the front row has proven historically important. Out of the 20 races run since 2000, 16 of them have been won by the driver who started from the front row. For Hamilton, already resigned to starting 5 places back even if he wins the Sprint Race, worse could come if the issue of the wing leads to another penalty.
As things stand after Mexico, Verstappen’s win moved him to a 19-point lead over Hamilton in the Drivers Championship. After finishing third, the other Red Bull driver, Sergio Perez, has moved closer to third-positioned Valtteri Bottas.
The double podium in Mexico for Red Bull also saw the gap narrowing to just one point in the Constructors Championship between leaders Mercedes-AMG and Red Bull Racing. The battle for third is also close after Ferrari collected a total of 18 points which moved the team ahead of McLaren with a 13.5-point advantage.
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