Hamilton appears as I sign out, so let’s go again. He doesn’t remember another weekend like this other than that one he mentioned in Bahrain. His dad told him not to worry, just to “brush it off and go forward”, and he feels great in mind and body.
He’s loved the crowd this weekend, saying the Brazilians and British flags inspired him through a hard weekend. The disqualification was devastating, but the mechanics stayed focused and did their jobs.
Finally, on the Verstappen off-road incident, he says he knew the authorities wouldn’t penalise, but needs to go back and have a look at it.
Here’s Giles Richards’ report from another monumental altercation - see you next Sunday for Qatar!
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And relax. That was, as the kids like to say, “awesome” and “epic”, except it actually was both of those things – not something that happens very often. No other driver would’ve got near doing what Hamilton did today, and very few in history had such behaviour in their ambit; Verstappen might yet hold out, but momentum and, most importantly, speed, are with the champ.
Driver standings
- Verstappen 332.5
- Hamilton 318.5
- Bottas 203
- Perez 178
- Norris 151
- Leclerc 148
- Sainz 139.5
- Ricciardo 105
Updated
Hamilton accepts his winner’s trophy and accepts the acclaim of the crowd, absolutely loving it as you would. He then joins Toto Wolff, while Verstappen lifts his pot, a wan smile on his phizog.
Draped in the Brazilian flag, Hamilton enjoys the British national anthem, after which Mercedes’ win is celebrated with the German version.
There are some boos as Verstappen ascends the podium – that’s a bit odd, whatever you think of his running Hamilton off the track, or not, he’s an amazing driver and without him we’d not have what might just become the greatest season of all-time. Respect that, people.
Bottas wasn’t happy with his start but is otherwise satisfied, and in as much awe of Hamilton as are the rest of us.
Hamilton says he appreciates the support of the Brazilian people – it’s an “amazing country” – and it’s been a humbling weekend for him, thanks to the support he’s had. He praises Bottas, notes that he pushed as hard as he could in the hardest weekend of his racing life, and credits his dad with this win, for reminding him that something similar happened to him in Bahrain, racing Formula 3. “It feels like the first,” he says.
Updated
Results
- Hamilton (Mercedes)
- Verstappen (Red Bull)
- Bottas (Mercedes)
- Perez (Red Bull)
- Leclerc (Ferrari)
- Sainz (Ferrari)
- Gasly (AlphaTauri)
- Ocon (Alpine)
- Alonso (Alpine)
- Norris (McLaren)
- Vettel (Aston Martin)
- Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo)
- Russell (Williams)
- Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo)_
- Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
- Latifi (Williams)
- Mazepin (Haas)
- Schumacher (Haas)
Ricciardo, Stroll, did not finish.
Verstappen tells his team he did what he could, but Hamilton was just quicker. His team are happy with his performance, which they term “damage limitation”.
Hamilton takes the Brazilian flag for his victory lap, and he is absolutely buzzing. We’ve just witnessed one of the all-time great performances.
“That’s how you do it man,” Hamilton’s team tell him. “That - is -how - you - do - it.”
“Whoooooo!” he replies. “Keep pushing.”
Perez does nab the fastest lap point, taking it away from Hamilton.
LEWIS HAMILTON WINS THE SAO PAULO GRAND PRIX FROM 10TH ON THE GRID!
And just yesterday, he was 20th! Verstappen is second, Bottas third but really, whatever. That is a just a staggeringly brilliant, epochal piece of work from the champ.
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Lap 70/71 Perez does his bit for his team, trying to pinch Hamilton’s fastest-lap point, but I think Hamilton would’ve took this, as Ryan Giggs would say.
Lap 69/71 Hamilton now leads by 8.385s, while Gasly had no down shifts on his gearbox, but does now.
Lap 68/71 What’s odd about all this isn’t just what Hamilton has done, it’s how quickly he did it. It took him 14 laps to go from 10th to second, and he was in front with 11 laps still to race. An absolute doddle, basically.
Lap 67/71 It really is ridiculous what Hamilton’s doing. He’s an absolute freak of nature, a joke. And the confidence he’ll take from this weekend makes him an even more terrifying proposition for Verstappen, who will be starting to wonder.
Lap 66/71 Hamilton’s lead is now 4.933s, but Bottas has taken very little out of Verstappen.
Lap 65/71 In F1 history, only 10 races have been won from 10th on the grid – though Esteban Ocon did it in Hungary a few weeks ago.
Lap 64/71 Ricciardo retired, it seems, because his Mercedes engine ran out of power.
Lap 63/71 Ultimately, Hamilton just needed this win too badly. If his car stays healthy, it’ll take a monumental effort from Verstappen to beat him, because he’s faster and better. I’m not sure Red Bull have enough points in the bag.
Lap 62/71 Lewis Hamilton, though. Obviously he can handle a wheel and all that, but what continually amazes me about him is his competitive charisma: he just has that ability to impose himself on any situation, from any position, and that’s so of very few people, in any sport, ever.
Lap 61/71 “Go get him!” says Toto Wolff to Bottas, roughly nine second behind Verstappen. Hamilton now leads by 2.414s, as Gasly passes Alonso and goes seventh.
Lap 60/71 Verstappen is shown a flag for veering on the straight, but it barely matters now! He just doesn’t have the pace to dig into Hamilton from behind, and this most ludicrous of seasons takes yet another leap left! Bring it on baby!
Lap 59/71 Hamilton goes again and this time Verstappen can’t shut the door! Hamilton makes him defend turn one on the inside, then veers outside at two and three, finishing the job at four! Yesterday, he was last, this morning hie was 10th, and now he’s in the lead! What a roar greets him! What a driver! What a competitor!
Updated
Lap 58/71 “What the assessors are missing,” says Steve Ditchburn, “is that Verstappen braked late - Hamilton passed him and Verstappen braked late at the corner to get back past Hamilton. Thus in braking so late he could not take the corner properly and therefore went off to the right pushing Hamilton off even further. It was dangerous by Verstappen and the assessors have no clue.’
This seems a fair assessment.
Updated
Lap 57/71 The problem for Hamilton is how long it’s taking him to get into an overtaking position. If his next bid fails, that might be it for him.
Lap 56/71 Hamilton can’t get quite close enough to have another ashy at overtaking.
Lap 55/71 Increasingly, it looks like Verstappen has the gas to stay in front while, in commentary, they wonder if we can see his steering angle, or lack of it. The FIA, though, tell us they had access to all necessary info, as we see it again and it really does look like there was room for Hamilton to pass, until Verstappen ran him off the road. He’s done really well to avoid a penalty here.
Lap 54/71 Verstappen thinks he might get DRS off Raikkonen, but Raikkonen pits, then Hamilton has DRS and can’t get close enough. “Course,” Hamilton deadpans, when told there’ll be no action taken against Verstappen.
Lap 53/71
- Verstappen
- Hamilton
- Bottas
- Perez
- Sainz
- Leclerc
- Alonso
- Ocon
Lap 52/71 no investigation necessary, say the FIA. If Hamilton wants to win this race, he’ll have to drive by Verstappen.
Lap 51/71 It’s taken a couple of laps, but Hamilton is back to where he was, just under a second off Verstappen, as we see Ricciardo getting out of his car in the pit lane. he too is done for the day.
Lap 50/71 Stroll, who’s had an eventful little afternoon, is out, but back to that Verstappen/Hamilton conflab, both cars did go off the track, but it looked like Hamilton did because Verstappen forced him to. Either way, the lads are investigating.
Lap 49/71 I’d love to hear Horner’s reaction if they penalise Verstappen for that, but in commentary they reckon he deliberately didn’t turn into the corner which, if so, will put him at risk...
Lap 48/71 Hamilton is closer as they come down the back straight and looks like he’s past, but Verstappen forces him so wide they both go off the road for 5-10m! That’s so ballsy from Verstappen and prevents what looked like a guaranteed pass, though the stewards might fancy a squizz at that. They didn’t touch, but did Verstappen stop trying to turn the corner to run Hamilton off the road?!
Lap 47/71 The lead is down below 0.5s and Hamilton has DRS! He can’t get close enough down the hill, but he is looking dangerous, and his tyres might give him that extra bit of zip he needs to pass.
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Lap 46/71 Bottas reckons the second stop gave up track position, and that Mercedes could’ve tied up a one-two. Horner notes his driver has track position, but knows Hamilton is lapping faster, on newer tyres, conceding Verstappen doesn’t have the straight-line speed to come from behind.
Lap 45/71 Hamilton wanted medium tyres but he’s been given hard; still, he’s cut the lead to 1.820s.
Lap 44/71 In comes Hamilton and Verstappen’s told not to push too hard but to preserve his tyres; Hamilton comes out 2.753s behind, but with tyres that are a few laps fresher.
Lap 43/71 Perez pits, meaning Hamilton is the only one of the top four still out there; meantime, Verstappen sets the race’s fastest lap.
Lap 42/71 Bottas pits, before Hamilton; might it be that Mercedes think, with clear track and clear air in front, that they’ll be quick enough not to be caught?
Lap 41/71 Verstappen goes in, coming out behind Latifi! That’s a bit of felicitous fortune for Hamilton, who leads him by 20 seconds; 22 is what you need to pit, so Hamilton will want to extend his lead towards that.
Lap 40/71 Hamilton and his team are indeed considering another stop, but colour-code the tyres they’re discussing so that Red Bull are none the wiser.
Lap 39/71 Verstappen’s lead is down to 1.171, while in comms they wonder if Hamilton will stop again...
Lap 38/71 If Verstappen scores three points more than Hamilton, he could finish second to him in the three remaining meetings and still take his first title. Or, put another way, Hamilton needs to find a way of winning this, else it’s out of his hands.
Lap 37/71 Verstappen leads from Hamilton by 1.331s...
Lap 36/71 After an action-packed start, there’s not loads going on now. My guess is that Hamilton is consolidating, gathering himself before letting it all hang out.
Lap 35/71 The lead is 1.223s, and Hamilton is struggling to make an impression.
- Verstappen
- Hamilton
- Bottas
- Perez
- Leclerc
- Sainz
- Gasly
- Ricciardo
- Norris
- Tsunoda
Lap 34/71 Verstappen is told he’s three-tenths quicker in the middle sector – Hamilton is struggling in the dirty air through the corners. If he can stay in front, this’ll be an almighty statement.
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Lap 33/71 I say that, but Verstappen – then Bottas – set fastest lap times. This is intense.
Lap 32/71 We see that Verstappen’s pit-lane performance was slightly better than Hamilton’s, but the gap has closed to below a second - that DRS help is surely imminent? Gosh, how do you keep the Mercedes off you?
Lap 31/71 Verstappen now leads by 1.420, which doesn’t seem like much to defend; if Hamilton gets DRS, he’s toast.
Lap 30/71 Hamilton nudges closer to the DRS limit - if he can get hold of Verstappen with Bottas still out there, he’s laughing. Further back, Gasly breezes by Stroll, and the virtual safety car is out, so Bottas takes the opportunity to pit. Bottas re-emerges in third.
Lap 29/71 Hamilton sets the fastest lap and sits third, behind Verstappen and new leader Bottas. He’s 1.519s behind the former, a further 8.86s behind the latter. My guess is Bottas is staying out to slow down Verstappen.
Updated
Lap 28/71 Leclerc pits so Hamilton moves into fifth, then uses DRS to nail Ricciardo, who emerges from the pits ahead. He’s fourth now, but then Perez and Verstappen both pit...
Lap 27/71 Hamilton pits! That’s a bold strategy, sticking him on hards to put Verstappen under pressure. He comes out sixth, 24.318s off the lead.
Lap 26/71 Norris, who was last, is now 13th; I wonder if he’ll be our next great. Meantime, Gasly pits, and countless Mercedes and Red Bull are playing close attention to how his hards get on.
Lap 25/71 Australia have won the men’s T20 World Cup. Otherwise, it’s as you were.
Lap 24/71 Verstappen leads Hamilton by 3.680s but it might be that both are conserving tyres now, opting to drive within themselves before pitting to giving it everything.
Lap 23/71 Increasingly, it looks like the leaders will be pitting just once, and Verstappen’s team tell him his car has what it needs to stay in front.
Lap 22/71
- Verstappen
- Hamilton
- Perez
- Bottas
- Leclerc
- Sainz
- Gasly
- Ricciardo
- Vettel
- Ocon
- Alonso
- Stroll
- Giovinazzi
- Norris
- Tsunoda
- Raikkonen
- Russel
- Mazepin
- Latifi
- Schumacher
Lap 21/71 Norris has made up three places since the restart – he now sits 14th. Red Bull, meantime, tell Verstappen that Hamilton’s tyres won’t have enjoyed the fighting he made them do.
Lap 20/71 Hamilton takes a tenth of a second out of Verstappen...
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Lap 19/71 Right, eyes down! Can Hamilton dig into Verstappen? Earlier, they were saying that if he’s got the pace to nail Perez, he’s got the pace to nail Verstappen...
Lap 18/71 But have a look! Perez gets DRS, climbs in, and nips back in front! Meantime, Verstappen takes the opportunity to extend his lead beyond three seconds and as I type that, Hamilton blazes by Perez at the end of the Senna S!
Lap 17/71 Hamilton is getting closer to Perez now; Perez is moving around in front, trying to shake Hamilton off the slipstream, but Hamilton dances around his outside!
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Lap 16/71 “Wow! “ says Michael Cosgrove. “Hamilton seems to have found bucketloads of power just at the right time. And talking of he who has the Power...”
I’m doing running man and sidestep under my desk.
Lap 15/71 Tsunoda is handed a 10-second penalty for his collision with Stroll.
Lap 14/71 Hamilton is 2.553s behind Perez but we get to the main straight – can he make his speed count? Well, he takes a few chunks out of the gap, but can’t get near enough to overtake.
Lap 14/71 Verstappen has extended his lead – Hamilton is around two seconds behind – but the virtual safety car means no overtaking ... and it’s gone! Here comes the green and Perez is further in front of Hamilton than you’d expect.
Lap 13/71 Norris, who had the situation at the start, is using the safety-car situation to motor through the field – he’s 15th now.
Lap 12/71 The virtual safety car is out – there’s a piece of debris on the track – but this time, Verstappen won’t be able to decide when to stamp on iyt, the car will disappear and then it’s all against all.
Lap 11/71 The Stroll/Tsunoda bump will be looked at, we learn, and we can see that Hamilton’s straight-line speed is serious. Back in last place, Schumacher has a bit of car hanging under his nose, so he’ll try and limp through to the pits.
Lap 10/71 Hamilton can’t get at Perez; the Red Bulls seems to have warmed their tyres more effectively. Verstappen leads by 1.297, with Hamilton 1.760s behind.
Lap 10/71 Horner concedes this safety-car sitch isn’t what he wanted to see and notes that Hamilton looks “ominous” out there, but knows his team have a job to do. In commentary, they reckon Verastappen won’t go till we’re right close to the line, to stop anyone cadging a ride in his slipstream and off we go again!
Lap 9/71 I’d rather be Verstappen than Hamilton, but it won’t have escaped Verstappen’s attention that things are moving in Hamilton’s favor.
Lap 8/71 The safety car leads the drivers through the pit lane as the marshals clear the remaining muck. This is going to be a helluva restart.
Updated
Lap 7/71 This is the 13th race this season that we’ve seen a safety or virtual safety car.
- Verstappen
- Perez
- Hamilton
- Bottas
- Leclerc
- Sainz
- Vettel
- Gasly
- Ocon
- Ricciardo
- Alonso
- Stroll
Lap 6/71 Hello! The safety car is out, I think because there’s debris on the track from Tsunoda’s car. That’ll suit Hamilton nicely, truncating the field, and yup, we see Tsunoda trying to overtake Stroll, who closed to door and chopped off part of yerman’s wing.
Lap 6/71 Hamilton is just under five seconds off the lead, but he’ll find it harder to pass Perez than the seven drivers he’s taken out so far.
Lap 5/71 Bottas lets Hamilton through, and he’s not 3.4s behind Perez, who’s 1,575s behind Verastappen. Elsewhere, Tsunoda has lost a wing.
Lap 4/71 Hamilton passes Leclerc to go fourth.
“Bottas had one job: not to back out,” says Hugh Molloy. “One job. He wasn’t even pushing the action, he just had to not bottle it and he did.”
He actually started well, but then Verstappen found another gear.
Lap 3/71 Hamilton eases by Sainz – he has rrrridiculous speed! In just three laps, he’s halved the deficit, but Verstappen has a lot of open track in front of him and a teammate bouncing behind. “If your name’s not down, you’re not coming in.”
Lap 2/71 Hamilton moves by Vettel into sixth, but with Bottas back in third he’s got no one controlling the race for him from the front.
1 Verstappen
2 Perez
3 Bottas
4 Leclerc
5 Sainz
6 Hamilton
Lap 1/71 Bottas gets away well, so does Verstappen, and Versatappen takes the lead! Norris gets a puncture, Hmilton get sup to seventh, and Perez nobbles Bottas to go second! It’s a Red Bull one-two!
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Right, ready?
“Liberty Media have got most things right when it comes to updating F1,” emails Hugh Molloy, “but that Pirates of the Caribbeanesque replacement for The Chain remains abhorrent.”
Ultimately, you can’t perfect perfection, but yup, you can have a better go at it.
The formation lap is away!
Bar Tsunoda, who’s on softs, they’re all on medium.
Righto, we’re almost there. In the meantime, we see drone shots of Sao Paulo, which has grown somewhat since I last saw it from the air, in August 2000.
Over the PA, they’re playing this banger: may we be blessed with the racing equivalent.
Back with Horner he’s asked about Wolff’s gripe that he’s making changes to his rear wing. But he thinks his rival is just trying to throw shade, and nothing’s been done without the permission of the stewards.
Lando Nozzer tells Sky that it’s much hotter today than yesterday; I’m not certain if that’ll help Hamilton, who has the quickest car, or allow the others to stay in front of him.
Joao Carlos Martins is going to play the Brazilian national anthem on the piano.
Toto Wolff isn’t happy at all, feeling that Red Bull have changed parts of their rear wing and not been punished, whereas Mercedes have. He doesn’t want to complain and thinks the talking needs to be done on the track, on which point he doesn’t know if Hamilton can win, saying Bottas and Verstappen both can; when asked when he’ll do if his two drivers are together, he doesn’t say that Bottas will let Hamilton through, but that’s clearly what’ll happen.
Christian Horner thinks it’ll be harder for his boys, given how quick Mercedes are, but hopes Sergio Perez will help Verstappen keep Hamilton at bay by holding him off if ever he’s in front.
Felipe Massa says the uphill start is crucial, and he doesn’t think Hamilton can win from tenth, but says the podium is possible.
Those who know reckon it’ll be harder today than yesterday for Hamilton to carve through the field – the front wheels might slide about more than they did.
Martin Brundle grabs Lance Stroll, who says he’s honoured as he’s never been required for one of these interviews. He thinks there’ll be some degradation today, but seems exactly as relaxed as you assume he’ll be.
Vettel doesn’t think the shady side of the track will be a problem for his car – he’s checked, and it’s warm enough.
Hamilton’s car arrives into its slot and has its tyres wrapped up. It’s on the sunny side of the track, so might need a little bleeding before racetime.
Meantime, Man City’s women are taking another beating.
The final of the men’s T20 World Cup is getting to that point...
It’s nice and warm in Sao Paulo, and the cars are coming out to warm up as we learn that eighth is the lowest on the grid that anyone has ever won this GP, Giancarlo Fisichella in 2003. Likewise, it’s the furthest back anyone has won from this season, Esteban Ocon doing so in Hungary.
Valentino Rossi, what a name. How can you be called Valentino Rossi and not be as cool as Valentino Rossi is?
Elsewhere, the great Valentino Rossi has finally turned it in. Doesn’t he like racing?
Let’s get into a Brazilian state of mind: here’s Innerground 100, a banging drum n’ bass collection, out last week, curated by Sao Paulo’s very own DJ Marky.
In particular, Drumsound and Bassline Smith’s Sanctuary 93, featuring an Ofra Haza sample made famous by Eric B and Rakim, is a belter.
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The grid
- Bottas (Mercedes)
- Verstappen (Red Bull)
- Sainz Jr (Ferrari)
- Perez (Red Bull)
- Norris (McLaren)
- Leclerc (Ferrari)
- Gasly (AlphaTauri)
- Ocon (Alpine)
- Vettel (Aston Martin)
- Hamilton (Mercedes)
- Ricciardo (McLaren)
- Alonso (Alpine)
- Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo)
- Stroll (Aston Martin)
- Tsunoda (AlphaTuari)
- Latifi (Williams)
- Russell (Williams)
- Schumacher (Haas)
- Mazepin (Haas)
Updated
Preamble
Oh my days! Not words one expects to see at the start of sporting coverage, but here we are: it’s already been a ridiculous weekend in a ridiculous season, such that we await the actual race already ensconced in a state of disbelief.
Max Verstappen, who leads the driver standings by 21 points from Lewis Hamilton, starts second on the grid, and ordinarily, he’d be confident of making it home in front of his rival – most likely, having won the race too. But Hamilton’s qualifying run yesterday, that took him from 20th to fifth, showcased every aspect of the genius that will surely see him finish his career as the greatest of all-time, and whatever Verstappen tells himself to feel better, he knows that the hunt is on.
That said, Verstappen will also know that if he drives well today, it’ll take something monumental to beat him. A new engine penalty means Hmailton starts in 10th, and though 71 laps gives decent scope for overtaking, Verstappen is good enough to look after himself. This going to be something.
Lights out: 2pm local, 5pm GMT
