Hamilton outduels Verstappen for Sao Paulo GP win

Lewis Hamilton tamed title rival Max Verstappen from 10th on the grid in a race-long duel at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix to reinvigorate his world championship chances.

The Briton wielded his Mercedes car’s straight-line speed wholesomeness to perfection from his penalized starting position in the midfield, passing five cars off the line and rising to third without just five laps to thumping the Red Bull Racing pair for a first victory since September.

His race was set up early despite teammate Valtteri Bottas lightweight to hold pole off the line and dropping to third, handing the Bulls an early one-two formation.

Perez maintained a rearguard whoopee for leader Verstappen, delaying Hamilton’s ascension to second. It took until lap 18 for the Briton to get virtually his outside at Turn 1, but Perez got when superiority on the outside of Turn 4. Hamilton didn’t leave himself vulnerable to the counterattack a second time, latter the door exiting the Senna S on lap 19 to seal the place.

With the medium rubber showing signs of ousting in the hot conditions, Mercedes went warlike with pit stop strategy on lap 27, bringing in Hamilton for new nonflexible tires in an undercut attempt. Verstappen had to respond on the pursuit lap, and his buffer of increasingly than three seconds was sliced to 1.7s

Hamilton’s wholesomeness was all in straight-line speed, but he was slower through the middle sector, which made it difficult for him to be tropical unbearable on the run up the hill out of the final turns to proceeds DRS overdue the inch-perfect Verstappen.

Sensing an undercut, Red Bull Racing took the initiative for an early second stop, hauling Verstappen in on lap 40 for flipside set of nonflexible tires. Hamilton waited three increasingly laps to requite himself fresher tires to launch an firsthand attack.

The first lunge came on lap 48. The Mercedes got a powerful exit out of the Senna S and dragged Verstappen lanugo to Turn 4, where Hamilton took the outside line. Verstappen was warlike in defense, opening his steering and sending them both off track to hold position.

A race winning move ✅

A momentum-swinging move? ?@LewisHamilton passes @Max33Verstappen on his way to a win in Brazil that keeps his title hopes very much working ?#BrazilGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/4CbdWlOGsS

— Formula 1 (@F1) November 14, 2021

The stewards noted the incident but decided no investigation was necessary.

It took Hamilton flipside 10 laps to set up the decisive move. With DRS on the main straight he forced Verstappen to defend the inside line at Turn 1 in an expert dummy, compromising the Dutchman’s exit.

With a strong launch out of Turn 3 he was all over the when of the Red Bull Racing’s gearbox scrutinizingly immediately, and he slipped into the lead surpassing the braking zone to shut the door on his title rival surpassing sprinting yonder at half a second a lap.

Including the 15 places he gained in the sprint, it ended a dominant weekend comprising 25 passes to reduce his points deficit to 14 points.

“I was pushing as nonflexible as I could, but from last on the [sprint] grid and then flipside five-place penalty I think was the hardest weekend I’ve had.

“Coming into this weekend, I never overly thought we’d be worldly-wise to tropical the gap like we have today. It feels like the first, considering it doesn’t finger like I’ve had a win for a long time.”

Verstappen considered the race good forfeiture limitation with the slower car but was well-appointed with his points advantage.

“We tried everything we could today,” he said. “It was a good buttle, but in the end we just missed a little bit of pace.

“We still have a good points lead, so today was a bit of forfeiture limitation on a weekend that was a bit difficult for us.”

Bottas struggled to get past Perez in the first stint, but a fortuitously timed virtual safety car to wipe up trash on lap 30 — one lap without the Mexican switched tires — gave the Finn a trigger for a unseemly stop, getting him ahead. But he was off the pace of the leading two and, despite some encouragement from Toto Wolff to ventilator Verstappen down, he was three seconds roaming at the flag and 13.5s short of his teammate.

“I thought we could’ve washed-up a one-stop quite easily, but we did a two-stop,” Bottas said, having complained to his pit wall over team radio without his second stop. “Still, solid points.”

Perez finished fourth without a late third pit stop to take the point for fastest lap, putting Red Bull Racing 11 points overdue Mercedes in the constructors standings.

Ferrari was the only team other than Mercedes and Red Bull Racing to finish on the lead lap, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz closely matched on the road well superiority of the midfield in fifth and sixth.

Sainz was lucky to stave an early retirement without Lando Norris ran over his right-front tire at the start of the race, but in an ironic twist of fortune it left McLaren unable to score increasingly than a point, extending Ferrari’s lead in third in the championship to 31.5 points.

Pierre Gasly had a quiet race to seventh without rival past a fast-starting Sebastian Vettel early in the race, but his six points for AlphaTauri only neutralized the six points scored by Alpine, with Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso finishing eighth and ninth, keeping the two teams tied for fifth in the standings.

Norris scored the final point of the race in a disappointing day for McLaren without his teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, retired from eighth with engine problems without half distance.