George Russell claimed the maiden win of his Formula 1 career at the Brazilian Grand Prix race. The Mercedes driver drove superbly in the race, not coming under any severe pressure from either Hamilton or Verstappen. Lewis Hamilton finished P2 behind his teammate. Carlos Sainz finished third for Ferrari ahead of his teammate Charles Leclerc.
Max Verstappen failed to extend his winning streak to 15 in a single season in this race. There are very interesting outtakes to take from this race. The most talking point for the coming days is Verstappen’s failure to acknowledge team orders, which would have benefitted his teammate Sergio Perez in his race for P2 at the drivers’ table.
Table of Contents
- George Russell made a good getaway at the start.
- Magnussen and Ricciardo crashed on Lap1.
- Verstappen and Hamilton collided on restart.
- Norris and Leclerc came together on Lap 7.
- Lando Norris’ retirement brought out the second safety car.
- Team orders drama at Interlagos.
- Verstappen refused team orders from Red Bull.
- George Russell claimed his maiden F1 win.
- Final Classification
George Russell made a good getaway at the start.
George Russell made the ideal start to his race. He maintained track position at Turn 1, ahead of his teammate and the Red Bulls. Norris got ahead of both Ferrari cars, which started the race on medium tyres.
Magnussen and Ricciardo crashed on Lap1.
Daniel Ricciardo and Friday’s Qualifying hero Kevin Magnussen collided with each other on Lap1. Ricciardo was chasing Magnussen, and the Aussie driver, in an audacious move, tried to go around the inside of the Haas car. What Ricciardo managed to achieve was clipping Magnussen’s rear tyres and spinning the Haas around.
Magnussen couldn’t control his Haas in any manner, and the rear of his car hit Ricciardo’s Mclaren, which was going around the grass to avoid him. Both vehicles were damaged heavily, which meant the end of their race. The Safety car was deployed, which remained on the track till Lap 7 after the stranded Haas and Mclaren were removed from the track.
Verstappen and Hamilton collided on restart.
George Russell managed to survive the Safety Car restart without losing any positions. Behind him, Verstappen and Hamilton were jostling for positions. Verstappen had the inside line at Turn 1 and tried to edge Hamilton out of the way. In no mode to concede, Hamilton didn’t provide Verstappen with enough room.
Both cars collided, which resulted in Verstappen damaging his front wing badly and Hamilton sustaining damage to the floor of his Mercedes. Verstappen had to pit for a new front wing while Hamilton carried on. The stewards deemed Verstappen to be at fault with this crash and gave him a 5-second time penalty which he served in his first pitstop.
Norris and Leclerc came together on Lap 7.
In the same lap where Hamilton and Verstappen collided, Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc also got involved in an accident. Norris was trying to stop Leclerc from overtaking him. In his effort to keep his position from Leclerc, who was edging forward, Norris clipped the rear wheel of the Ferrari.
Leclerc spun around and hit the barriers head-on. His front wing got detached from the car, but he managed to keep the car running. The Ferrari driver went to the pits for a new front wing while Norris was served with a 5-second time penalty for causing a collision.
Lando Norris’ retirement brought out the second safety car.
Norris struggled with steering problems after his incident with Leclerc; however, he was still in points when suddenly, on Lap 53, his engine gave out. The McLaren driver parked his car just on the side of the track, which brought out the second safety car.
This allowed drivers to dash into the pits and bolt on new tyres. While many chose scrubbed or new softs (if they had any), Perez decided to go for medium tyres. He struggled for pace from then on and was overtaken by Hamilton, Ferraris, and Alonso. The last person to overtake him was his teammate Verstappen, which later caused a lot of controversial chatter in the paddock.
Team orders drama at Interlagos.
After the safety car restart, Estaban Ocon was asked by his Alpine pit wall to allow Alonso to go through who was the fastest driver of the two. Ocon resisted at first, insisting he wanted to overtake Vettel first. He managed to do so and later allowed Alonso to go through after constant insistence from his race engineer.
Charles Leclerc wanted Ferrari to enforce team orders on Sainz as well. Sainz was running third and had the chance to get the final spot on the podium. Leclerc insisted that he needed all the points he could get, to finish the season on P2 in the drivers’ table. Ferrari resisted the call, and rightly so, as it would have been too much to ask Sainz to give up the podium finish.
Verstappen refused team orders from Red Bull.
Perez wanted team orders from Red Bull. He was struggling on medium tyres, and Verstappen was catching him quickly. He asked the team to ask Verstappen not to attack. Christian Horner replied that they wanted Verstappen to attack Alonso and Leclerc ahead for positions. If Verstappen doesn’t manage to overtake them, then they will reverse the position before the end of the race. Verstappen, however, didn’t want to concede the place and finished the race ahead of Perez.
When asked on the radio why Verstappen didn’t give the place back to Perez, he refused to give a straight answer and replied that he had his reasons which he gave them last summer, and didn’t feel the need to explain any further. This made Perez understandably very upset. Perez has played the team game for Verstappen on many occasions. Most notably in the last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where he held up Hamilton for so long that his 10-second gap to Verstappen was reduced to just 1 second. As a result, Hamilton couldn’t pit for new tyres, and Verstappen managed to overtake him later, giving him his first world championship title.
George Russell claimed his maiden F1 win.
Amid all the drama and safety car restart, George Russell maintained his composure. He crossed the line at P1 and claimed his maiden F1 win. Hamilton finished P2 ahead of Sainz and Leclerc. Alonso and Ocon finished the race at P5 and P8, respectively, for Alpine.
The double DNF for McLaren meant that Alpine had extended their lead in the constructors’ table for P4. Verstappen classified P6 ahead of Perez. Leclerc has overtaken Perez in the driver’s table for the second spot. Valtteri Bottas of Alfa Romeo and Lance Stroll of Aston Martin rounded up the Top 10.
Final Classification
