Russell dominated the Interlagos sprint race

George Russell was the first to see the checkered flag at the Interlago Sprint Race. The British Mercedes driver starts Sunday’s race as first and scored the maximum of eight points.

Carlos Sainz was second (he has a five-place penalty) and third was Lewis Hamilton, who gained five places. So Mercedes will have 1-2 in the game.

Russell put up a good fight with Verstappen who eventually dropped to 4th as the middle tire strategy didn’t work as expected.

At the start, unexpected pole position holder Kevin Magnussen held first place but soon – predictably – became easy prey for the much faster cars of Verstappen, Russell, Saint and Hamilton.

In the following laps, Verstappen managed to hold the lead despite his average – and thus at least half a second slower – tire. But perhaps his pursuers were simply managing and grooming their soft rubber for the first half of the race’s 24 laps.

After that, it didn’t take them long to attack. Despite a strong – and clean – defense from Verstappen, Russell managed to pass the Dutchman with DRS and Saind did the same under the brakes at Turn One shortly afterwards.

However, Sainz’s contact with the champion’s Red Bull while overtaking left a broken front wing on the RB18 and a few more problems from debris that Max had previously run over. In any case, the Dutchman’s problem was his medium tire, which soon made him easy prey for Hamilton too.

It is not known why RBR and Verstappen chose the medium tire – perhaps they did it to save a fresh set of soft tires for tomorrow’s GP – it is not known whether they solved their understeer problems from yesterday and it is it is also not known if Mercedes she has her excellent speed today and in the sets of laps on medium or hard rubber to continue to challenge Verstappen tomorrow.

“Starting from the front row we can work as a team. We will do our best when we have relatively good tire wear and good weather. A win here would be fantastic,” said Hamilton, starting from second place because of Saind’s 5-place penalty for an engine change.

For his part, Saith said: “Normally we have a slightly higher tire wear rate than the Mercedes, so I had to be aggressive. Mercedes will be very quick in the race.”

And winner Russell added: “It was amazing, I didn’t expect that we would have so much speed but it shows how much progress we’ve made as a team. It’s a great feeling to be here. It’s crazy that we’re both starting from the front row. I’m sure Max will fly tomorrow but let’s get the win.”

For Hamilton, however, a decision is still pending from the sports commissioners due to an irregularity at the start. A similar decision awaits Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon in their two clashes in the Alps, while Lance Stroll dropped to 17th in both Aston Martins today after knocking Sebastian Vettel off the track with a penalty. disputes within the family.

Tonight’s top 8 took 8-1 staggered points but Verstappen didn’t choose to give the extra point of 4th place to Sergio Perez, who took just one more than Charles Leclerc in the battle for second place in the Championship. We remind you that today Leclerc started from 10th place in Q3 of yesterday’s qualifying tests due to the wrong choice of -medium rain tires.

The Brazilian GP, ​​the 21st and penultimate round of Formula 1 this year, starts tomorrow (November 13) at 8:00 p.m.