Lewis Hamilton closed the gap to Max Verstappen in the championship after a brilliant drive that saw him go from tenth to first to win the Brazilian GP.
Hamilton enjoyed a terrific start from tenth on the grid that saw him overtake his teammate, Valterri Bottas, on lap five to take fifth. Hamilton then took second off Sergio Perez in a duel that began on lap 17 and ended at lap 19 with a lovely move by Hamilton at turn four.
Verstappen managed to maintain a three second advantage until the first set of stops, where Mercedes blinked first on lap 25 and pitted Hamilton. After Verstappen pitted the next lap, the gap came down to just over a second.
But Hamilton couldn’t get close enough and this time, Red Bull blinked first as they pitted Verstappen on lap 41. Hamilton didn’t pit until lap 44, giving him a slight tyre life advantage.
The Mercedes driver slowly creeped up on Verstappen until the two came extremely close to colliding on lap 48. Hamilton tried a move around the outside of Verstappen at turn four, but the Dutchman pushed both Hamilton and himself off the track. The FIA deemed, controversially, that no investigation was necessary.
Hamilton, however, did not give up, trying again on lap 58, only to meet a stubborn defence. The winning manoeuvre came a lap later, with Hamilton baiting a move going into turn one, forcing Verstappen to take a slower line. This left Hamilton with an easy overtake going into turn four.
Hamilton ended up 10.4 seconds up the road in first place at the flag, cutting Verstappen’s championship lead from 21 points to 14 points.
Valterri Bottas, who took an opportunistic stop during the Lap 30 Virtual Safety Car period and another on Lap 41, finished third ahead of Sergio Perez, who started fourth, was up to second, but lost places to the two Mercedes. The Mexican however took the fastest lap at the expense of Hamilton, on the final tour having pitted for softs on Lap 70.
The Ferraris got a grip on third in the constructors after Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finished fifth and sixth respectively. Pierre Gasly continued his strong run for Alpha Tauri finishing seventh.
The two Alpine’s of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso finished eighth and ninth respectively. Lando Norris ended another miserable weekend for McLaren by finishing tenth.
F1 heads to Qatar as the championship heats up going into the final three rounds.
By Charlie Parker
