George Russell followed up his sprint race win yesterday with his maiden Grand Prix victory in Brazil on Sunday, leading his Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton across the finish line after an action-packed 71 laps.
It's the team's first victory since Saudi Arabia in 2021. The pair were joined on the podium by Ferrari's Carlos Sainz.
Hamilton had clashed with Max Verstappen at the first corner during a restart on lap 7, which left the Red Bull with damage and a five second penalty as a result - although he still managed to battle back to sixth.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc also had a rough start to the race and made contact with McLaren driver Lando Norris, before fighting his way back to fourth. The safety car had been the result of Daniel Ricciardo tipping Kevin Magnussen at the start, spinning both cars off into early retirement.
The penultimate race of the 2022 season saw Formula 1 return to one of its most storied circuits, Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Sao Paulo, for the Brazilian Grand Prix. George Russell would be starting from P1 after winning Saturday's sprint race, with his Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton alongside him. It was an all-Red Bull line-up on the second row comprised of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, with Charles Leclerc in P5 next to Lando Norris in sixth.
The cars were baking on the grid with the sun beating down from a cloudless sky, and track temperatures almost double what they had been during the weekend up to now. Despite the heightened risk of tyre degradation in the heat, the top four were all on soft tyres to ensure the best launch when the lights went out to get the race underway.
Both Mercedes got perfect starts, Russell securing the lead into turn 1 from Hamilton. Verstappen and Perez put discretion before valour and maintained position, but birthday boy Norris pulled off a deep lunge to get ahead of Leclerc, who like his Ferrari team mate Carlos Sainz was on the medium compound. Norris was lucky not to continue and end up ploughing into the two Red Bulls before managing to make the corner.
Less fortunate was Kevin Magnussen. Starting from eighth, he made the first corner and into the Senna Esses, but was oddly slow on the exit of turn 8 which caught out Daniel Ricciardo, who ran into the back of the Haas and sent him spinning. Secondary contact then sent both cars off track and toward the barriers. Both drivers retired on the spot as a safety car was scrambled to allow the marshals to clear the scene of the incident. While the drivers waited, Leclerc was complaining that "there was something strange out of turn 3 with the engine" but the pit wall reassured him that it wasn't a problem, adding somewhat less reassuringly: "We've checked, and there is nothing we can do at the moment."
The race resumed on lap 7 with Russell, Hamilton, Verstappen, Perez, Norris, Leclerc and Sainz all chomping at the bit to get going, followed by Sebastian Vettel, Pierre Gasly and Mick Schumacher who was now left flying the flag for Haas in tenth. Weaving energetically to break the tow he was lending to those behind him, Russell left it late to get underway. It left Hamilton vulnerable to an assertive move from Verstappen even as Perez tried to take advantage of the situation and pass them both.
With neither Hamilton nor Verstappen giving any ground, contact was inevitable with the Red Bull coming off the worst in terms of damage to the RB18 although Hamilton's underfloor had also taken a pounding. Further back, Leclerc tried a move on Norris only to be clipped into a spin by the understeering McLaren in the process. Norris was able to continue while Leclerc has his the barriers and was left limping back to pit lane.
Despite the chaos there was no need for a second safety car this time. Russell maintained the lead from Perez and Norris while Sainz was now up to fourth. Hamilton had dropped to eighth after his clash with Verstappen but despite the suspected damage he was soon back up to speed and picking up positions, while Verstappen had fallen to P17 after pitting for repairs, Leclerc behind him in P18. Verstappen's mood got darker when he was told he had been handed a five second penalty for his part in the collision with Hamilton, and Norris was likewise sanctioned for his clash with Leclerc.
Hamilton had proved to himself that his car was essentially unharmed as he powered his way past Schumacher, Gasly, Vettel and Norris in quick succession to reclaim fourth place on lap 16. Norris seemed to be struggling after his clash with Leclerc and quickly succumbed to Vettel, dropping him to sixth. Meanwhile the pit stops had started with Fernando Alonso coming in on lap 15 to trade one set of mediums for another. Then Sainz was ordered in on lap 18 to switch to soft tyres, but there was a delay at the right-rear as a brake fire caused by a stuck tear-off took hold. The fire was finally extinguished when Sainz got back up to speed, briefly dropping out of the top ten before he started to regain some of those lost positions.
Gasly was in on lap 20, but race leader Russell was calling strategy from the cockpit and dictating a longer first stint than had originally been planned. He stayed out with Perez and Hamilton making the same call, keeping them ahead of Vettel and Norris. The first of this group to blink was Perez on lap 24, a rapid two second service for mediums which returned him to the track in sixth just behind Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas.That held him up just enough for Mercedes to respond next time by to bring Russell in.
Now in the lead of the race to the delight of the Brazilian crowd, Hamilton stayed out until lap 30 when he came in for mediums which dropped him back into fourth. It returned the lead of the race to Russell who was five seconds ahead of Perez and Sainz. By then Vettel had pitted and come back out in ninth, while Norris had dropped to P12 after pitting and serving his penalty. Verstappen had also paid the price for his own misdemeanour and was mired in 17th with just Nicholas Latifi's Williams in his rear view mirrors, but he wasted little time putting his foot down to dispatch Alex Albon and Lance Stroll.
With the first pit stops done and half race distance approaching, the race settled down for a spell, a chipper Russell reporting that his tyres were "feeling good" in the clear air out in front. Some way behind the top four, Alonso was running in fifth after being the first man to make his initial pit stop, but that meant his tyres were wearing which put him under pressure from Bottas. After that the rest of the top ten - Vettel, Ocon, Gasly and Norris - were closely packed and vying to take advantage of any openings that came their way.
Alonso pitted again on lap 36 and opted to stick with the mediums again meaning a third stop was now mandatory for the Alpine. Delayed by a sticky wheel nut at the rear, he was also held in the pit box as Gasly came past. Alonso came back out in 16th, while next to pit was Sainz from third. A swift service helped the Ferrari driver head back out in fourth, soon setting fastest laps on the fresh rubber but nonetheless a long way behind Hamilton. The Mercedes meanwhile was bearing down on Perez, the Mexican now gradually falling away from race leader Russell who seemed serenely in control of everything at this stage.
Hamilton finally arrived on the back of the Red Bull on lap 44 and quickly went to work. Perez resisted, and at the start of the very next lap Hamilton slipstreamed the Red Bull down the straight before flying around the outside of turn 1 to snatch second place, the fans in the grandstands roaring approval of their new honorary national here. By now, Russell's lead had extended to ten seconds.
Just moments after pulling off a fine pass on his new nemesis Norris, Leclerc pitted for a third time for used soft tyres, returning in P14. Bottas and Vettel had also pitted for a second time, and then it was Norris' turn for service. It left Ocon in fifth but yet to make his second stop, and Verstappen up to P6 with Alonso back in seventh followed by Gasly and Stroll, with Bottas provisionally holding the final championship point.
Hamilton was ordered to pit on lap 48, which did not go down well with the driver: "My tyres are good!" he shouted. But the Mercedes pit wall was adamant that now was the time to come in to protect against the undercut from the cars behind. Russell himself was in next lap, opting for the same softs as his team mate. Also in on lap 49 was Verstappen as he continued to battle for a points finish, albeit out of any realistic chance of a podium.
Russell had come back out in the lead four seconds ahead of Sainz. Hamilton was in third but flying and setting new fastest laps, with Perez some way behind in fourth by the time a Virtual Safety car was deployed on lap 53 for Norris pulling over to the side of the track at turn 10 having lost all power in the McLaren - not the birthday gift he wanted, on top of feeling ill all weekend. That gave Alonso, Gasly and then Sainz the chance to dive down pit lane for a 'free' service.
The VSC was changed to a full safety car while the marshals worked to remove the inert MCL36, wiping out Russell's lead at the front and bringing Hamilton back into contention. "So what are we doing? Are we racing or securing the one-two?" enquired Russell. The answer was that they were free to race with no team orders: "Just be respectful," his race engineer added. Further back the team communications were even more fraught with Ocon told on no account could he fight with Alonso: "Fernando has a tyre advantage on us, let him through nice and clean." Grudgingly, Ocon agreed.
The race resumed on lap 60 with an impressive launch from Russell keeping him clear of Hamilton and Perez - and Sainz, who was on new tyres. Further back, Ocon got the jump on Vettel for P7 but then complied with the Alpine team orders to let Alonso go ahead. The Spaniard then lined up Bottas for a pass to move into sixth. Vettel was the big loser in all this, dropping to tenth after also being picked off by Verstappen.
Russell had managed to move out of DRS range of Hamilton, while behind the two Mercedes drivers was a hard fight between Perez and Sainz for third place which was ultimately snatched by the Ferrari. Perez was then dispatched by Leclerc and soon fell prey to Alonso to drop him to P6, just one place ahead of Verstappen in what was proving to be a frustrating day of miscues and errors for Red Bull. The team then ordered Verstappen to go catch Alonso and Leclerc - by implication giving him the green light to make light work of Perez on the way. There were also discussions at Ferrari, Leclerc pleading to be allowed to pass Sainz before the chequered flag. His exhortations were firmly rebuffed.
By contrast, all was calm at the front. Russell maintained his lead and Hamilton looked to have made peace with the idea of allowing his young team mate to clinch his maiden F1 victory. Sainz held on to the final podium position ahead of Leclerc while Alonso managed to stay out of reach of Verstappen, who appeared to forget that he had promised to return the position to Perez by the finish. The top ten was rounded out by Ocon, Bottas and Stroll, with Vettel having dropped out of the points in 11th.
Gasly finished in 12th but was demoted to P14 by a five second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane, dropping him behind Zhou Guanyu and Mick Schumacher.
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