Valtteri Bottas won the Sprint Race at Interlagos and sealed pole position for the 2021 Sao Paulo Grand Prix on Sunday. Max Verstappen second but extends his championship lead to 21 points.
Lewis Hamilton was excluded from the results of Friday’s qualifying session in Sao Paulo following Mercedes’ breach of the technical regulations over a DRS issue, which meant that Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc gained a position on the starting grid for today’s Sprint Race at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace.
Interesting difference in strategies at the front – Max Verstappen, like most drivers, is on the medium tyres. Valtteri Bottas starting behind him decided to use the quicker, but less durable, softs. Splitting the stratgy was also the idea of Ferrari, with Carlos Sainz on the soft tyre and Charles Leclerc on the mediums.
It was a great start for Carlos Sainz, who was up to third in the Ferrari after the first corner and then passed Max Verstappen to go second behind Bottas. However, the Spanish driver was able to defend his place for only three laps, before the much faster Red Bull car of Verstappen got past the SF21 of Carlos.
Charles also overtook Pierre Gasly at the start and closely followed by Lando Norris in sixth. Unfortunately, the Monegasque driver was not able to show a great race pace on the medium tyres and was overtaken by Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton, who gained 14 positions in 21 laps. Still, Charles will start the Brazilian Grand Prix from P6, as the Mercedes driver has a five-place grid penalty.
On a more positive note, it was a great performance from Carlos Sainz, who was able to manage his soft tyres while at the same time successfully defending against a much faster car, the Red Bull of Sergio Perez, to take third place and one point in the standings.
Sao Paulo Grand Prix – Here are the complete results from today’s Sprint Qualifying ahead of tomorrow’s 2021 F1 World Championship race at Interlagos.
Results (Classification):
Valtteri Bottas Mercedes – 24 laps
Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +1.170
Carlos Sainz Scuderia Ferrari +18.723
Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing +19.787
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +20.872
Lando Norris McLaren +22.558
Charles Leclerc Scuderia Ferrari +25.056
Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +34.158
Esteban Ocon Alpine +34.632
Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin +34.867
Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +35.869
Fernando Alonso Alpine +36.578
Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo +41.880
Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +44.037
Lance Stroll Aston Martin +46.150
Nicholas Latifi Williams Racing +46.760
George Russell Williams Racing +47.739
Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo +50.014
Mick Schumacher Haas +61.680
Nikita Mazepin Haas +67.474
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