Starting position:
At the Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo, a Mercedes driver took first place on the grid, although it was not world champion Lewis Hamilton, but his team-mate Valtteri Bottas. In the sprint qualification on Saturday, the Finn prevailed ahead of World Championship leader Max Verstappen in the Red Bull and Carlos Sainz jr. in the Ferrari. For Hamilton, the weekend on the tradition-steeped Interlagos circuit did not go as planned: First of all, before the sprint qualification on Saturday, after long deliberations, he was given a draconian penalty. Because he had driven an irregular rear wing in free practice, the jury moved him to the last place on the grid for the sprint. Hamilton managed the feat of fighting his way up from 20th place by 15 positions to fifth in just 24 laps.
However, after the race in Mexico, an engine part in Hamilton’s car was replaced, so that the current World Cup runner-up loses five starting positions according to the rules and only goes from tenth place to the 19th race of the season. His big title rival Verstappen, who leads the World Cup with 21 points, is in second place. Qualifying was unspectacular for the two German drivers: Sebastian Vettel starts directly in front of Hamilton from position nine, Mickj Schumacher starts the race from position 19 in the defeated Haas.
Voices:
Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes): “It was devastating, but you can’t let it stop you. It’s not over yet.”
Helmut Marko (Red-Bull-Motorsportberater): “We have to get past Bottas, otherwise he will set the pace and will dawdle so that Hamilton can get there. I am convinced that Hamilton will at least manage to finish fourth.
Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin): “For us it was the maximum. We were way too slow on the straights and lost an incredible amount of time. I know that it will be difficult to score points. The cars behind us are faster, and those in front of us are normal too.”
The Sao Paulo Grand Prix starts at 6 p.m. CET. We will keep you up to date at this point and then you can read here how the race went.
– .
