The world has had to go around the sun, and F1 consume 22 races for Mercedes to win a race again. Finally, the silver car with George Russell at the wheel at the Brazilian GP won. In his 81st race, the 24-year-old Englishman made his debut in the pleasure of victory, having triumphed in the Sprint Race on Saturday.
A full weekend for the Englishman and for Mercedes, who completed his great performance – it seems that he has found the trick to this new technical F1 – with a double, thanks to Lewis Hamilton's second place. Carlos Sainz closed the podium. Fernando Alonso was fifth.
It had been almost a year, since Saudi Arabia 2021, that the two Mercedes had not taken the first starting line. In Brazil, thanks to Russell's pole and Sainz's 5-place penalty that opened the door for second place to Hamilton, the two silver Englishmen started first, with the two Red Bulls behind.
They kept all their positions in a cautious start, with the exception of Norris, who with great traction and going through the inside curb overtook Leclerc in fifth place. Sainz remained seventh, and behind him Magnussen's spin, hit by Ricciardo's McLaren, caused an accident and the appearance of the first safety car on the first lap.
Saturday's war between Ocon and Alonso did not go any further at the start. They started in neighboring positions, 17th the French and 18th the Spanish. And both overtook 14th and 15th places at the start, due to the two accidents.
The safety car was withdrawn and the controversy was unleashed with a touch from Verstappen and Hamilton. Sparks returned between the last two champions. Russell accelerated and escaped, but the Red Bull was on top of Lewis, he entered the outside in turn 1, and when steering towards the center the two cars touched laterally. The Mercedes, inside, withstood the onslaught and the Red Bull damaged its wing and had to go through the pits and ruin its chances of victory. Hamilton dropped to 8th place. The stewards decreed Verstappen a 5-second penalty "for causing a collision". Like Alonso on Saturday.
Then, on the same lap, Norris took Leclerc off the track, who was sidelined. So with the two incidents, Russell established himself as the leader, followed by Pérez and Sainz moved up to third place. Fourth was Norris and fifth Vettel. The stewards also decreed a 5-second penalty for the McLaren driver for causing the touch.
While Russell took more income in the lead (2 seconds in v.17/71), Hamilton advanced squares. He overtook Mick Schumacher, Gasly, Vettel and Norris and was already fourth on lap 15. And third on lap 18, when Carlos Sainz stopped prematurely to remove the visor protector from a brake that caused him to overheat, and put on the soft (and leave 4.1s at the stop). The man from Madrid fell back to 12th position and had to make up ground.
On lap 24 Pérez stopped and on lap 25 Russell did to protect his position with the Mexican. Hamilton, still with the initial softs, was provisional leader, with 11.3s over his teammate, who was cutting him. Lewis stopped on lap 30 to put on the medium tire and fell back to fourth position behind Sainz (6.6s behind the Spaniard). There was one of the battles of what remained of the race. By rhythm with his new tires, the Englishman would catch the Ferrari driver sooner rather than later.
It happened on lap 37, but because Sainz made his second stop. Although the English was already on top, at 2.3 seconds. So the Mercedes was third and Sainz fourth at 18 seconds. The best on the track was Hamilton, with a devilish pace. He approached Pérez on lap 44, prepared to overtake and hit him with the ax at the end of the straight on the outside. Lewis was already second, with 26 laps to go. He had Russell 10 seconds away. But the team made him change (soft) tires two laps later. "Why the hell do you stop me?" complained Hamilton, who fell back to third place, behind Sainz again (5s behind).
The script was altered with the Virtual Safety-car caused by Norris's McLaren stopped trackside at Turn 10 as the race entered its 52/71 lap. A circumstance that some took advantage of to stop to put on soft tires: Alonso (fell to 9th, ahead of Verstappen) and Sainz (to 4th, behind Pérez), but the two Mercedes and the Mexican remained on track. The virtual became a Safety-car (v. 55/71) and the race would be relaunched, again with Russell and Hamilton in front, both with soft rubber, Pérez third with average, and Sainz, fourth, with new soft. The emotion was served.
The safety-car retracted on lap 60. Russell accelerated, Hamilton hit and prevented Pérez from passing him, distanced, Sainz fiercely attacked the Mexican, but the Red Bull held on like a cat belly up. Alonso overtook Ocon in 8th place; The Frenchman did not resist, warned by his team not to fight with the Spanish because he had better tires. Alonso then moved up to 6th by overtaking Bottas.
It took Sainz three laps to overtake Pérez, the lame fawn of those in front. With 8 laps to go he was on the podium. Leclerc also passed him, with younger and softer tires. Behind him, Alonso continued to progress on his red tires as he overtook Pérez to take fifth position, which equaled his best result of the year. The threat in the remaining 4 laps was Verstappen, 1.6 seconds behind. The Asturian endured and signed one of his best performances of the year.
Although the leading role of the day went to Russell, with his first victory in F1, and to Mercedes, for his first one-two since 2020 at Imola. Sainz, third, scored his 9th podium of the year.
The cross of the race was Verstappen, sixth, who earned a reprimand from his team for not leaving his position to Checo Pérez, who is playing for runner-up with Charles Leclerc. "If you can't pass Alonso, leave your position to Checo," they told him. But he paid no attention.
