Martin Brundle on the weekend’s events in Sao Paulo

Martin Brundle, a former Formula 1 driver and now a commentator for Sky Sports, analyzed in his traditional column the main events of the race weekend in São Paulo …

The short circuit at Interlagos gave us another three unforgettable days that will go down in Formula 1 history. And we must start by congratulating George Russell on his first Grand Prix victory, as well as the first victory, more precisely, the victorious double of Mercedes this season. A more than deserved performance after a difficult and eventful seventy laps of the race.

The weekend program included a sprint, which means that qualifications were held on Friday immediately after an hour of training. The teams in this situation had to make a lot of decisions in advance and make estimates for the remaining days of the weekend because after qualifying the closed park rules started to work and few settings could be changed.

The onset of rain added to the intrigue of sharpness, but during qualifying the track had time to dry. It was not easy to guess the moment of the transition from intermediate tires to slicks, because due to the characteristics of the track relief it can still be wet on some downhill sections.

Before the start of the final session, most of the competitors would take to the track on slicks, only in Charles Leclerc’s garage they were looking at the meteorological radar instead of the track or the sky, so the Monegask was the only one to stayed on the intermediate rubber and was very worried, because he only got a tenth starting position.

Kevin Magnussen showed impressive speed and finished the first two qualifying sessions with a seventh result. Since Haas’s pits are at the very end of the pit lane, he taxied onto the track first and put in a great lap. He was helped by all the information he got during qualifying, as well as his experience and talent. Kevin and the Haas team took pole and the whole paddock seemed to be delighted with their performance.

It helped in part that George Russell made a brake error before Turn 4 and his Mercedes was hopelessly stuck in a gravel trap.

In Saturday’s sprint, Magnussen only held on in first position for a few laps, but once DRS was available the top team racers were expected to be ahead of him, but he still finished eighth and earned one point – more can hardly be expected with a Haas car.

The sprint was led by Max Verstapen, who was on Medium tyres, and he had a slight lead over Russell, who was chasing the Dutchman on soft tyres. For the above reasons there was little time to prepare for Saturday’s race and in this situation it was logical to assume that at some point the Soft tires would fail and Max would take his third victory in three sprints of this season would take. .

But it turned out differently. As temperatures dropped in the late afternoon, the Medium tires were underpowered and wore out quickly, proving to be a key factor in the outcome of both races.

Verstappen lost speed and Russell got ahead of him – their close duel lasted several laps, but was quite correct. Of course, it was not yet a victory in the Grand Prix, but George still managed to overcome an important milestone: he realized that the speed of the car and his own talent would allow him to fight for the victory in Interlagos.

During the sprint, the Alpine and Aston Martin teams engaged in a fierce battle that could easily end in big trouble for all four.

Lance Stroll was awarded a penalty for pushing his partner onto the grass at high speed, to which Sebastian Vettel, returning to the track, only responded with a curt “OK”.

Fernando Alonso was penalized for driving his team-mate Esteban Ocon’s Alpine from behind after also pushing the Spaniard off the track eight corners earlier. The two-time world champion believed the truth was on his side, but the stewards decided otherwise.

The same riders took the podium in Brazil on both days of the weekend, only on Saturday in a different order: Russell, Sainz, Hamilton, who recovered after a failed qualifying and showed excellent speed.

I am writing this on a plane on a 14 hour flight from Sao Paulo to Dubai, with Charles Leclerc in front of me, George and Carlos on the right, and Lewis and Sebastian Vettel in the back. It seems like an appropriate opportunity to talk to everyone and find out something, but in our time the relationships between teams, riders and the press are organized differently. However, most riders still like to talk about this and that.

Some phrases from their dialogues reached me, and I was pleased that they communicated with each other very kindly and cheerfully, although quite recently, at the end of the race, one of them asked the team to let his partner in and take him upstairs. let go. the stage. Still, the world of Formula 1 is funny in its own way.

Lewis and Max clash, George remains calm

As Sainz was fined for changing the engine, the entire front row of the grid was occupied by Mercedes cars on Sunday, and when the Grand Prix started, Russell and Hamilton immediately went into the gap, mainly George.

In Turn 8 of the first lap, Daniel Ricciardo lightly pushed Kevin Magnussen’s Haas, sending it into a spin. The Dane reversed the car to get off the track and not interfere with anyone, after which he would rejoin the track. But then there was a second contact between McLaren and Haas, after which both cars suffered serious damage and Daniel was fined. For the fact that the Australian knocked another driver off the track and could no longer serve his penalty during the race, he will lose three places at the start of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The safety car took off, but the marshals quickly cleared the track debris, quickly announcing a restart. Russell acted very sensibly, accelerating only at the last minute and not letting anyone use the slipstream.

Behind him, two Red Bull cars were already overtaking Hamilton, and at first it looked like Max was going to protect the inside lane from a partner, then suddenly decided to attack Lewis along the outside radius.

I have no doubt that when Max fights Lewis he has his own ideas about the limit of what is allowed, but Hamilton has also decided to add fuel to the fire of this fight in my opinion. Of course they collided, but both kept moving. The stewards then said that Lewis could have given the opponent a little more room, but Max in my opinion could have either driven further up the pavement or taken his foot off the gas, but that doesn’t happen in racing.

The stewards decided that Max was more at fault for what happened, and the Dutchman received a 5 second time penalty. He also had to go to the pits for a new nose cone. Personally, I thought it was a racing incident. Lewis’ Mercedes was slightly damaged, but the elements affecting speed were not affected and in the end he made a perfect recovery.

After this episode, George was quietly in the lead, noticeably ahead of Sergio Perez. On the plane he told me that when he was in first position he didn’t feel that much pressure, because he could control the pace and tire wear, because the runway was clear for him.

Red Bull took Pérez into the pits on lap 23 with a fresh Meduim kit – Mercedes responded to this a lap later. Lewis had to bounce back, so he tried to work with rubber gently, which allowed him to last up to 29 laps on the track.

Sainz also had to make amends after an unscheduled early pit stop on lap 17, when a film from the visor lodged in the air duct of the right rear brake. By the way, such things are happening more and more and attention should be paid to this. This forced Carlos to make three pit stops and the team chose the right tactics by putting soft tires on him during the period when the safety car came out for the second time.

This happened after the departure of Lando Norris due to equipment failure, and the virtual safety car mode was initially introduced, but for some reason the marshals did not immediately manage to evacuate the McLaren. This put the real safety car back on track and it was a worst case scenario for Russell as he got a Soft set on lap 49 with Hamilton behind him with less worn tyres.

Just before the restart, the engineer told George to fight with his partner, but the main condition was that everything was right. After that, Russell won the race, and what the engineer told him only sweetened the taste of victory – he did everything right that day.

Hamilton bounced back beautifully to finish second, while Sainz finished the race in third. It is worth recalling that Charles Leclerc drove behind Carlos, who competently resolved the situation associated with the second appearance of the safety car. As he was fitted with soft tyres, he was able to help Ferrari minimize losses in a dispute with Mercedes for 2nd place in the Constructors’ Championship.

Equally interesting, Fernando Alonso finished fifth, ahead of both Red Bull cars, thanks also to the excellent pace that allowed the soft tires to remain at the end of the race. And everyone who rode the Medium had clutch issues.

Verstappen should not have missed Perez

Initially, Perez calmly let his partner go forward, believing that if Verstappen couldn’t catch up with Alonso or Leclerc, he would give the position back. Max couldn’t overtake anyone and the team asked him to let Sergio pass, who is competing with Charles for second place in the individual classification.

But Verstappen refused to do so, citing some historical reasons, which he had reportedly already spoken to the team about. As far as you can understand this is due to the events that took place in Monaco during qualifying.

Although this is not a parade of popularity, but the harsh world of Formula 1, you still need to show kindness and respect here, and it costs Max nothing to give his partner 6th place, because the title has long been in his pocket. I think it will come back to haunt him, and very seriously…

But now Abu Dhabi is waiting for us and for the season finale everyone is experiencing some excitement, although there are not many places left for the teams and drivers to play for the Constructors’ Championship and in the individual competition. However, it is to be expected that the friction between some partners will only increase.