Martin Brundle on the results of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix

Former Formula 1 driver and Sky Sports F1 commentator Martin Brundle summarized the results of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix…

This was the sixth and final Saturday sprint weekend of the season. With two qualifying sessions and two races of 24 and 71 laps.

Friday’s qualifying ended early due to thunder. You don’t see this often during Grand Prix weekends. The cloud was black and so ominous that no one doubted the seriousness of its intentions.

In the final session, under an almost pitch-black sky, the battle was incredibly fierce until Oscar Piastri crashed at Turn 12. It looked like the rain started earlier than expected, but the cause was a strong gust of wind.

In this chaos, Max Verstappen won his eleventh pole position of the season, while drivers from other teams tried to compete with him – this weekend Aston Martin returned to the fray and Mercedes took a step back.

Leclerc’s natural speed allowed him to reach the front row of the grid, but for the second time in the last four Grand Prix, Ferrari lost one of its cars before the start. On the warm-up lap, Leclerc spun out due to electrical problems, lost control and crashed into the barrier at turn six.

Between the storm on Friday and the race on Sunday we had an action packed Saturday with sprint qualifying and the sprint itself. There was no precipitation, the balance of forces was slightly different – and Norris showed what would have been possible the day before if qualifying had not been stopped, by leading the protocol in the Sprint Shootout.

I see a negative attitude towards sprints among the press and fans. Verstappen also openly says that he does not like this format. This position deserves attention, but television viewers say the opposite: the size of the audience is growing and viewers are interested in it.

As I said live, a bad sprint is always better than a great second workout, because there is no struggle during training, but there is competition during sprinting. Next year the format of the sprint weekend will be changed again, with qualifying for the main race likely to be moved to Saturday – this will take place in the afternoon after the morning sprint and on Friday there will be a 90-minute training session and Sprint Shootout.

It turns out that every day will be interesting for the fans. This will give the teams more time to work with the cars, which will no longer be in a closed park from Friday, which will help enormously if rain prevents the only practice or its duration is shortened.

Perhaps the points in the sprint will not be awarded to eight, but to ten riders, and will be held on circuits where you can overtake, such as in Interlagos.

In the event of a reverse positioning of the riders at the start of the sprint, everyone will try to ride slowly in qualifying for the Sprint Shootout, and if the riders are placed at the start in the reverse order of their positions in the individual competition, then the Sprint Shootout is not necessary at all and the race can prove to be interesting.

If you split the sprints into a separate championship, a significant part of the participants who have no chance of winning will calmly drive to the finish, saving the power plant and tires. But there is no reason not to create such a championship and send the proceeds to charity or the development of motorsport to help future stars.

The sprint format clearly needs improvement. Let’s see what the Formula 1 committee comes up with after the meeting in Abu Dhabi.

Over the past two seasons, Max Verstappen has honed many of his skills, especially when it comes to starting. In both races, three starts in fact, he led into the first corner and took a crushing victory.

Only Lando Norris in a McLaren could stay behind the Red Bull leader. In Sunday’s Grand Prix he followed closely and on lap 7 he tried to take the lead to control the pace and destroy Verstappen’s tires. But Verstappen positioned his car well and then drove away to escape the competition.

Norris got off to a great start, finishing second after starting in sixth place. There was talk of a collapse at the start; on a narrow circuit, Albon and Magnussen collided after contact with Hulkenberg, who was overtaking Piastri, and a ruptured tire flew into Ricciardo’s car. To eliminate the consequences, the race was stopped with red flags.

This was by no means a classic race: the two Mercedes drivers lacked speed, just like in the sprint, but the race lasted three times longer and it was painful to watch. Ultimately, Russell retired and Hamilton earned some points for eighth place.

Sergio Perez returned to the fight and demonstrated his racing qualities more than once, performing agile maneuvers when braking. He successfully recovered from a poor qualifying and battled with Alonso for the final spot on the podium at the end of the race. I enjoyed watching this fight. Alonso positioned his car well to make it difficult for Perez to attack him. Sergio’s car was faster, the tire life was the same, they both fought fair, leaving space, for which they applauded each other after the race.

Alonso used unconventional lines to achieve the best grip in critical corners while keeping the battery charged. But then he went a little wider into turn 12 and Perez passed him in the first. Did it seem like it was all over? But Alonso was there, using DRS on the last lap, and this time Sergio overdid it defensively and went a little wider, allowing Alonso to take the lead. At the finish they had a distance of 0.053 seconds. A great race by two drivers with 76 years and 630 Formula 1 races between them.

Lance Stroll took fifth place to cap off a great day for Aston Martin. In the next two races we will see an intriguing battle between Mercedes and Ferrari, between McLaren and Aston Martin for positions in the Constructors’ Championship and prize payouts at the end of the season.

Lando Norris received a point for the fastest lap and, according to the fans, again became the best driver of the day, with 26.7% of the votes.

Max, who dominated this weekend as he has done for the past two seasons, overtaking Alain Prost with 52 wins, was only fourth in this poll, with just six percent of the vote. I don’t know how many people actually participate in the study, but it’s all surprising.

Las Vegas leads the way with its glamor and crazy atmosphere…