Valtteri Bottas had enough on the soft tyres to take pole in F1 Sao Paulo GP from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.

The tyre strategy saw Valtteri Bottas, Pierre Gasly, Carlos Sainz, Esteban Ocon, Kimi Raikkonen, Antonio Giovinazzi, Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin start on the soft tyres in F1 Sao Paulo GP (Brazil GP) sprint qualifying with rest on the mediums.

It worked Mercedes’ Bottas as he had a good launch to lead F1 Sao Paulo GP sprint qualifying from Ferrari’s Sainz after the Spaniard used the slipstream from Red Bull’s Verstappen to get ahead of him in second in a wheel-to-wheel tussle.

Verstappen had to go off at Turn 4 but could rejoin well ahead of teammate Sergio Perez, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in fifth from McLaren’s Lando Norris – both gaining on a slow starter AlphaTauri’s Gasly who was seventh at the end of Lap 1.

Alpine’s Ocon made a good start in eighth from Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel as McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo dropped to 10th. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, was up to 14th already in the first few laps as Alfa Romeo duo had a tangle at Turn 1.

With Alpine’s Fernando Alonso chased them on, Giovinazzi had the inside line at Turn 1 with Raikkonen on the outside. A slight touch sent the Finn into a spin and last but he was quick to regain the places on both the Haas cars – also on the soft compound.

At the front, Bottas had a good lead over Verstappen who managed to get through Sainz for second, as teammate Perez started to chase him on. Leclerc, meanwhile, lost fifth to Norris on the run-up to Turn 4 in a solid move on the outside of the Monegasque.

Gasly dropped back a bit in seventh with Ocon also a bit further away, defending from Vettel, Ricciardo and Hamilton who managed to himself in 11th at the halfway mark of the 24 laps race, with Alonso also not far behind the chasing pack.

As Verstappen closed in on Bottas, Hamilton was on a charge after he cleared Ricciardo, Vettel, Ocon and Gasly at Turn 1 to move to seventh. He eventually caught Leclerc and Norris to pass them and end up fifth eventually after starting last.

At the front, his teammate Bottas did enough to take pole in F1 Sao Paulo GP after winning the sprint qualifying from Verstappen as Sainz managed to fend off Perez for third. Norris was sixth from Leclerc with Gasly keeping off Ocon and Vettel for eighth.

Ricciardo missed out a Top 10 to be 11th from Alonso as Giovinazzi hung on to 13th from Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll after he cleared AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda. Williams’ Nicholas Latifi made it second time to out-qualify teammate George Russell in 16th, as Raikkonen was 18th from Schumacher and Mazepin.

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