Hamilton battles back from penalties & P10 start to take crucial victory in Brazil, besting P2 Verstappen; P3 Bottas heads P4 Perez on good rebound day for Mercedes

Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton put his indelible stamp on this race weekend from Sao Paolo, Brazil, and added to his already formidable legend as one of Formula 1’s absolute greats. Overcoming adversity in the form of multiple penalties that led to him starting from P10 on the grid today, he masterfully drove his way through the field to earn a decisive victory over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the Brazilian Grand Prix. The hard earned win delivered a crucial hit of momentum to Hamilton’s quest for an unprecedented eighth Drivers’ Championship. After seeing his top spot in the Sprint Qualifying race disqualified due to an illegal rear wing DRS aperture after Friday “qualifying”, the English marvel put the bit between his teeth to finish P5 in Saturday’s Sprint race, which sets the grid for Sunday’s GP. But he was already facing another 5-spot penalty for the team’s decision to change internal combustion components, so that meant he therefore lined up in P10 to start the race. However, Mercedes power proved supreme at the short, high speed Autódromo José Carlos Pace, aka Interlagos, and no matter how many advantages Verstappen appeared to have by starting from P2 and quickly passing Hamilton’s pole-sitting teammate Valtteri Bottas for the top spot midway into Lap 1, Hamilton just kept coming at the Dutchman all race long.

After both Red Bull and Mercedes teams determined that a two-stop strategy and doing the last two stints on Hard Pirelli tires was optimal for this warm weather, 71-lap contest and the quartet of top contenders had all made their second stops — Verstappen trying for the undercut on Lap 40, followed by Bottas on Lap 42 and the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez and Hamilton on Lap 43 — the blue touch paper on this simmering race was well and truly lit. On lap 47, P2 Hamilton set the race’s fastest lap and pulled himself within DRS range of the leader, Verstappen. On the subsequent lap he tried for a move going into Turn 4 and Verstappen appeared to shove him off track and into the large runoff area in defense but the stewards determined no investigation was warranted. Hamilton was forced to grit his teeth, clean his tires for serval laps and regroup for another run to try and take that elusive lead. By Lap 58 he was back on Verstappen’s tail despite the Dutchman’s use of creative lines to defend. But on Lap 59 the pure power of that fresh Mercedes engine paid the dividend the team were looking for, as Hamilton again made a forceful move against the weaving Red Bull heading into Turn 4 to finally execute the pass and take a lead that Hamilton held, leading to an ultra-satisfying victory when the checkers flew.

Perez was able to steal the bonus point for fastest lap off Hamilton with a late pit stop but Lewis still pulled himself to within 14 points of Max in the title hunt. Mercedes also slightly padded their lead in the all important Contractors’ standings to a still pretty skinny eleven points by dint of Hamilton’s win and P3 Bottas finishing ahead of P4 Perez. With just three races remaining in the season, it will now be difficult but not impossible for Hamilton to come from behind and derail Verstappen’s quest for his first title. After his sublime and gritty performance to take a remarkable victory in Sao Paolo, Verstappen certainly knows Hamilton can never be counted out. He has, of course, done it seven times before.

Top 10 finishers of the Bazilian/Sao Paolo GP:

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time but half a world away — the debut of the Qatari Grand Prix and the Losail International Circuit on the F1 calendar at a vital point in the season. Heading to the third leg of a triple header of race weekends, the teams will be under tremendous pressure to get all their gear over, get set up and then extract as much data as they can about this brand new circuit before next Sunday’s race. And nothing will be as pivotal as how Hamilton and team Mercedes and Verstappen and team Red Bull deal with that diamond-forming pressure as the 2021 Championship enters its final trio of contests. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!