Bottas wins Saturday Sprint race to wrest pole from Verstappen; Sainz stays ahead of Perez for P3; Hamilton makes mighty recovery drive from last to take P5 after losing Friday’s qualifying time due to rear wing violation
The last of the experimental and somewhat gimmicky Sprint Qualifying races of the 2021 Formula 1 season here at Interlagos in Sao Paolo, Brazil provided the most entertainment since deploying this format, primarily due to the fact that Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton had his Friday qualifying results disqualified when his rear wing’s DRS aperture failed inspection for being too wide. That sent Hamilton, who thought he had grabbed “pole” for this mini race that sets the grid for tomorrow’s Brazilian GP all the way to the rear to start the 24-lap Sprint quali. Compounding his challenge, Hamilton, who is in the unfamiliar position of trailing Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the championship by nineteen points with just four rounds remaining, was already facing a 5-spot grid penalty after the team decided to take a fresh power unit for this weekend. But, displaying his supreme competitiveness in front of happily packed grandstands, Lewis drove the wheels off his Silver Arrow in an effort to make the very best of a bad situation, passing a veritable passel of cars to take a P5 finish after starting twentieth and dead last on the grid. That means he will at least have a fighting shot at a podium come race day Sunday, as even with his engine change penalty he will start in P10 tomorrow.
Better still for Mercedes and their own Constructors’ Championship aspirations, their second pilot Valtteri Bottas got the better of Verstappen when the lights went out and stole the lead from the erstwhile Sprint pole-sitter, which the Finn did not relinquish despite the Dutch contenders best efforts. That puts Mercedes in a good spot because it certainly looks like the Silver Arrows duo, who both have fresher engines now than their Red Bull counterparts, seem to have the legs over their arch-rivals at this short, high speed circuit. That observation appeared to be confirmed when Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was able to keep the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez behind him despite being on the more rapidly degrading Soft Pirellis, the Spaniard edging the Mexican P3 to P4.
Top 10 Sprint race qualifiers for tomorrow’s Brazilian GP:
| POS | DRIVER | TIME/RETIRED | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 29:09.559 | 3 | |
| 2 | +1.170s | 2 | |
| 3 | +18.723s | 1 | |
| 4 | +19.787s | 0 | |
| 5 | +20.872s | 0 | |
| 6 | +22.558s | 0 | |
| 7 | +25.056s | 0 | |
| 8 | +34.158s | 0 | |
| 9 | +34.632s | 0 | |
| 10 | +34.867s | 0 |
Complete Sprint results available via Formula1.com.
Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN2 beginning at 12PM Eastern here in the States. If today’s Sprint was any harbinger, look for Hamilton to carve his way to the front while hoping that Bottas can keep Verstappen behind him until he arrives at the scene. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!