One of the big focuses this weekend has been some of the strategic errors made at the Ferrari garage, Charles Leclerc visibly angry with his team during the session, due to a gamble made by the Maranello team to send him out in intermediate tyres despite a dry track. This meant that the Monegasque driver had to start the Brazil Sprint race from tenth place, while his Maranello teammate Carlos Sainz started from P5.
Practice Two saw all of the teams testing out which tyre would work best for this Sprint and, according to Pirelli, the soft tyre looked to be the way to go.
Max Verstappen and Nicholas Latifi were the only drivers not to start the Sprint on soft tyres, as the Red Bull and Williams drivers went with mediums, making it interesting to see how that one played out.
The formation lap was therefore under way and what a moment this must have been for Kevin Magnussen leading the field round the Interlagos track. The Danish driver then got away brilliantly to hold the lead into the first corner! Max Verstappen came under pressure from George Russell behind him, but the world champion held off the Mercedes to stay second, while Scuderia Ferrari drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc kept their P5 and P10. The Spanish driver then gained an early place, passing Lando Norris for fourth, as George Russell continued to apply pressure to Max Verstappen but the Red Bull driver was hanging on.
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Verstappen went from defence to attack to take lead on the next lap: the Dutchman had George Russell in his mirrors, but that didn’t stop him from taking the lead. The world champion had too much pace for Kevin Magnussen on the home straight, and was on course for his third Sprint win of the season. Kevin Magnussen’s fairy-tale was unravelling pretty swiftly, with George Russell and Carlos Sainz also easing past him. Russell was staying with Max Verstappen, just 0.7s behind the leader.
Lewis Hamilton, along with Daniel Ricciardo and Zhou Guanyu, were under investigation for a starting procedure infringement, while Charles Leclerc overtook Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon to climb up to P8.
George Russell was now +0.507s away from Max Verstappen after setting the fastest lap so far. The Mercedes driver got right on the back of the Red Bull going into the first corner and pulled alongside him before the Dutchman showed off his race-craft to hold on to first.
Ferrari’s tyre degradation issues were clear once again, as Carlos Sainz’s pace gradually started to drop, with Lewis Hamilton within DRS range behind him. At the top, George Russell finally did it: The Mercedes driver used DRS to pass Max Verstappen around the outside into Turn 4. Carlos Sainz also took advantage of running on the faster tyre to overtake Verstappen for P2: the Spaniard made a move into the first corner and the pair made contact, but the Ferrari man remained ahead.
Carlos Sainz was now running second, but he was on his team radio to let his race engineer know he thinks his tyres are struggling with five laps to go: “I am running on no tyres,” the Spaniard told his team.
George Russell therefore claimed the first Sprint victory of his career in style, while Carlos Sainz held off Lewis Hamilton for second, and Max Verstappen lead home Red Bull team-mate behind them, with Charles Leclerc in fifth place. However, Carlos Sainz has a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix.
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