First Pole Position for Magnussen and Haas F1, first Sprint Race win for Russell and then the first Grand Prix win for Russell. Interlagos delivered and it delivered bag. From Qualifying to the Sprint Race to each and every lap of the 71 lap Grand Prix. A Mercedes 1 – 2 that was formed of Russell keeping that lead from pole position and Hamilton making his way up from the midfield after his incident with Verstappen on the Safety Car restart on Lap 7 after Ricciardo tagged Magnussen and got hit back from a spinning and reverse rolling Magnussen.
A start that saw Norris get away well before getting too close to the side of Perez and also locking up as the Mercedes cars pulled away from the 2 Red Bulls as the Ferraris, currently one after another worked smoothly. Towards the back, moves happened but it wasn’t the most chaotic of starts until Riccardo hit Magnussen and both were out of the race bringing out the first Safety Car. After this nothing was calm.
MCLAREN BRING IT
Two Safety Cars, one at the start, one towards the end were both caused by McLaren’s involvement. The second being a mechanical power failure on Norris’s car. Norris tagging Leclerc from the side off the racing line also meant that even though a Safety Car wasn’t brought out at the Safety Car restart, Leclerc was sent tumbling down the grid after he was fortunately able to get his car going from the side impact. That meant that Leclerc had to make the journey up the grid alongside Verstappen who would later also serve a 5 second time penalty.
The first Safety Car led to the Verstappen incident which sent Verstappen down the order and also Hamilton dropped from P2 to the midfield and that set up 2 chases to go up. The second Safety Car brought about the Sainz podium more quickly, the Perez fall, and the Alonso attack on all ahead! The Safety Car restarts were action filled both times and that was not just because of the long run down to the start – finish line and Turn 1 which allowed them time to attack but also because of the fact that they could follow and in Interlagos were able to stay close through several turns and keep the pressure on.
ALPINE AFTERALL
Alpine had a disaster on Saturday in the Sprint Race . Alonso and Ocon came together and both were to start towards the back of the grid and that sent both of them to start from the back portions of the grid. But Sunday went absolutely absolute all well for them. In terms of the race as well as the championship. A P5 – P7 finish that saw them challenge the Red Bulls and the Ferraris and being best if the rest while McLaren suffered their first double DNF in about 4 years which almost seals the P4 position in the championship for Alpine as well.
This was built on the back of some sound pace and again good straight line speed and acceleration with the DRS enabled. Alonso was in the spirit on Sunday and knew he had the ability to make moves which was visible in his positivity and his fight everytime even after the slow pitstop for him without which, he could have posted a more serious threat to Leclerc as well.
spielens 