In this week’s stop of Formula 1, the Brazilian GP, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton won by a wide margin in Friday’s qualifying.
After the developments after the qualifying laps on Friday, Hamilton, who started the sprint race held from the last place today, passed 15 pilots and rose to the 5th place. Both Red Bull drivers, who lost their places at the start, could not regain their lost places and the golden opportunities offered for Sunday were lost.
Developments on Friday evening and Saturday morning
Mercedes’ British driver Lewis Hamilton finished first in Friday’s qualifying, 0.4 seconds ahead of Red Bull’s Dutch driver Max Verstappen. But after the qualifying laps were over, the world of Formula 1, so to speak, shook its place.
First, news broke backstage that Red Bull had spoken to the FIA (International Automobile Federation) about Lewis Hamilton’s rear wing prior to qualifying. After qualifying, Red Bull engineers Adrian Newey and Paul Monaghan went to the FIA office with some documents and video recordings and made a mini presentation.
Mercedes is starting to get a headache: FIA inspected in an unusual way
Red Bull claimed that Lewis Hamilton had an irregularity in his rear wing. With the end of qualifying, FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer inspected the rear wings of all cars one by one and found that Hamilton’s rear wing was irregular, as Red Bull claimed.
On Saturday morning, the FIA invited Mercedes officials to a meeting to discuss Hamilton’s rear wing. According to the FIA, Hamilton had an advantage of at least 5km in qualifying. With its decision, the FIA seized and sealed the rear wing used by Hamilton. Mercedes is no longer allowed to use this wing.
Disasters do not stop: Hamilton gets grid penalty
Events are not limited to this; The FIA also announced that it has disqualified Hamilton from Friday’s qualifying rounds. So Hamilton started today’s sprint race from the last row instead of the first row.
As you can imagine, Lewis Hamilton requested special permission from the FIA to fit a regular rear wing, as he could not race without a wing. With the permission of the FIA, Hamilton was fitted with a new and regular wing.
Red Bull and Max Verstappen also got their share from the penalties.
Friday’s events in Formula 1 are not limited to these. Max Verstappen was fined €50,000 for touching the rear wing of Lewis Hamilton’s car after qualifying. As it is known, it is forbidden to touch rival vehicles in Formula 1, except for technical officials.
Training session: the day’s surprises are endless, Alonso is in the first place
The fastest name in the training session was surprisingly Alpine driver Fernando Alonso. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took second place; Verstappen was followed by Bottas, Ocon, Hamilton and Perez.
Start moment: Bottas and Sainz make a great start, Red Bulls are missing
The top four in the sprint race were Verstappen, Bottas, Perez and Sainz. Mercedes’ Finnish driver Bottas had better traction at take-off than Verstappen and was able to overtake the Dutch driver in the first seconds. In the back, Ferrari’s Spanish driver, Sainz, presented a section of Ferrari’s former glory days. The Ferrari driver, who first passed Perez, then came side by side with Verstappen. The duo, who passed the half-turn together, then broke up with Verstappen’s exit and Sainz moved to second place. Thus, the ranking in the top four was formed as Bottas, Sainz, Verstappen and Perez.
Especially the pilots, who started with soft tires, had a great advantage at take-off. Lewis Hamilton, the British driver of Mercedes, who started the sprint race from the last row due to the penalty he received, passed 4 people in the first lap and took the 16th place. At the start of the second lap, Alfa Romeo driver Kimi Räikkönen spun and placed in last place. It was reflected on the screens that Räikkönen had contact with his teammate Antonio Giovinazzi during the spin, so he spun.
Round 3: On the third lap, Verstappen reported to the team radio that there was a gearbox synchronization problem.
Lap 4: Max Verstappen passed Sainz with the help of DRS (accelerating by opening the rear wing only in certain parts of the track when the difference with the lead car is less than 1 second) to move into second place.
5th lap: Verstappen is 2.2 seconds behind the leader Bottas. The difference between Verstappen – Sainz is 3.7 seconds and the difference between Sainz – Perez is the DRS distance (less than 1 second). Hamilton continues the race in 12th place.
Lap 10: The gap between Bottas and Verstappen is reduced to 1.4 seconds. Perez and Sainz are still within DRS distance. Hamilton, on the other hand, placed 11th after lingering behind Alpine’s Alonso for a long time and is currently in contention with McLaren’s Ricciardo.
Lap 13: After attacking the leading Ricciardo from the outside on the start flat in the DRS zone, Hamilton passed Ricciardo and moved up to 10th place.
Round 15: The difference between Bottas and Verstappen is reduced to 0.6 seconds. Verstappen started using DRS this round and now wants to hunt Bottas. The difference between Perez and Sainz is also 0.6 seconds, but Perez continues to linger behind Sainz. Hamilon is chasing Vettel, the 9th-place Aston Martin driver.
Lap 17: Every time Hamilton comes to the starting line, he passes an opponent. He passed Vettel first, then Ocon and finally Gasly on the starting straight with DRS.
Lap 20: Hamilton beats Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc of Monaco to 6th place. Verstappen and Perez continue to follow their rivals.
Final lap: Lewis Hamilton swept past McLaren driver Lando Norris as he entered the final lap and placed 5th. Hamilton presented a recital today, surpassing exactly 15 people. If this was a normal race and not a spint race; It wasn’t even sincere that Hamilton took the lead at this speed.
While the first five rows are Bottas, Verstappen, Sainz, Perez and Hamilton; Hamilton will start Sunday’s race from 10th place due to an engine penalty. With these results, Bottas 3, Verstappen 2 and Sainz 1 points; The difference between Verstappen and Hamilton increased to 21 (314.5 / 293.5). The difference in points between Mercedes and Red Bull increased by 1 point to 2 points (481.5 / 479.5).
A possible Red Bull double position on Sunday (top two places) will also place Red Bull at the top of the teams standings. The race, which is the last entertainment of the week in Brazil, will start at 20:00 on Sunday.
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