Max Verstappen took the lead from Lando Norris to win F1 Brazil GP sprint race, with Sergio Perez fighting back to third.
It was a clean start to F1 Brazil GP sprint race as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took the inside line to lead from McLaren’s Lando Norris, who lost second to Mercedes’ George Russell towards the end of the lap in an opportunistic move.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez lost out to Russell and also Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton to drop to fifth from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who passed AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda. The other Ferrari of Carlos Sainz was eighth from the other AlphaTauri of Daniel Ricciardo.
It was a fight for the final point between the Spaniard and the Australian, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in the pack along with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso. The McLaren driver dropped to the fag end of Top 10 after an off moment.
With Verstappen stretching out a lead, Norris came back on Russell to take second, with Perez getting the better of Hamilton with Leclerc just behind. But the Monegasque started to drop off where Tsunoda was on his tail in the fight for sixth.
After Perez got the better of Hamilton, the Mexican tried a move on Russell and got through him at Turn 1. But the Brit got back at Turn 4 only to lose out again at Turn 1 in a couple of laps to take third, with Hamilton a bit far off in fifth.
The fight for the last point was on with Sainz defending from Ricciardo. The Australian got him at Turn 1 but he got it back at Turn 4. It happened for the second time with the Spaniard holding the place, but the AlphaTauri driver came under pressure from Piastri.
The Australian eventually made the move to take ninth, with Alonso, Gasly and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in the pack too. Sainz cleared them away but Piastri had to defend from Ricciardo, Alonso and Stroll after the Canadian passed Gasly and dropped him off.
As Verstappen lead the way from Norris and Perez, Russell was at distant fourth from teammate Hamilton who came under pressure from Leclerc and Tsunoda soon. Both of them managed to clear the Brit to be fifth and sixth in a sound run.
Sainz was eighth but Ricciardo started to catch him after passing Piastri for ninth in the fight for eighth. It was a clean F1 Brazil GP sprint win for Verstappen by a comfortable margin of over four seconds on Norris, with Perez ending up 13s off the Dutchman.
Russell was fourth from Leclerc and Tsunoda, with Hamilton fending off Sainz who held off Ricciardo for the final point by 0.197s margin. Behind, Piastri managed to hold off Alonso for 10th despite the Spaniard’s last ditch effort.
