Red Bull’s triple Formula One world champion Max Verstappen raced unchallenged to the Sao Paulo sprint victory on Saturday after seizing the lead from McLaren’s Lando Norris at the first corner.
Norris, who had lined up on pole position with Verstappen alongside, was second and 4.287 seconds behind with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez starting and finishing third after dropping to fifth on the opening lap.
The win, in the sixth and final sprint of the season on a hot and dry day at Interlagos after Friday’s wind and rain, was Verstappen’s fourth in the Saturday race.
“The initial launch wasn’t amazing but the second part of the start was very good so we got alongside,” said Verstappen, no fan of the sprint format, of the key moment. “Then it was all about management.”
The Dutch 26-year-old will be chasing a record-extending 17th grand prix win of the season from pole position on Sunday to take his career haul to 52, one short of retired four-times champion Sebastian Vettel.
He and Red Bull have already wrapped up both championships.
“Well done Max, that’s a great start to the weekend,” said team boss Christian Horner. “A lot of good information there.”
Norris said he lacked the pace at the end due to tyre degradation.
“Max had that little bit extra always in the bag, the Red Bull’s race pace and Max’s race pace is just a little bit too strong for us” said the Briton.
“I tried and for a few moments thought ‘I could be close here’ but then just didn’t quite have enough.”
George Russell, last year’s sprint winner in Brazil, finished fourth for Mercedes with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc fifth and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda sixth for his team’s first sprint points.
The three points also lifted AlphaTauri clear of Alfa Romeo in the battle for eighth place in the constructors’ standings.
Mercedes’s seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton was seventh, falling back in his chase of Perez for runner-up in the championship, and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz took the final point in the standalone 24-lap 100km race at the Interlagos circuit.
While Verstappen had an uneventful race as he managed the soft tyres, there were plenty of battles behind him for the crowd to enjoy.
Russell and Hamilton both passed Perez on lap one, with Russell also going past Norris for second before the McLaren driver took back the position on lap five and then put clear air between himself and those behind.
Perez passed Hamilton for fourth on lap four and then battled Russell for third before finally making a move stick on lap 10.
Hamilton also lost out to Leclerc and Tsunoda on a tough afternoon for Mercedes, whose team boss Toto Wolff described it as a “bruising day”.
“Everything went against us today. We need to really scratch our heads hard over what we can do for tomorrow, and improve,” said the Austrian, who had been hopeful earlier in the week of his team challenging for victory.
AlphaTauri’s Australian Daniel Ricciardo fought Sainz for the final point, passing the Spaniard twice and then losing a position to rookie compatriot Oscar Piastri, Norris’s team mate, before taking it back to finish ninth.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was also busy, going from 15th to 11th, with team mate Lance Stroll 12th after starting 17th.
The pair will start on the second row in Sunday’s race.
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