Max Verstappen won his fourth Sprint race of the 2023 F1 season, beating Lando Norris at the start. There were many exciting battles happening behind these two drivers.
Max Verstappen battled Lando Norris in an exciting Sprint at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix in Interlagos.
Norris started in the first position but was overtaken by Verstappen at the beginning. Verstappen made a quick move on the inside at Turn One, taking the lead and keeping it until the end. This was Verstappen’s fourth Sprint win of the year.
Sergio Perez lost positions to George Russell and Lewis Hamilton at the beginning, but he managed to regain his original position of third. George Russell finished in fourth place.
Mercedes had a difficult time keeping up with the pace during the race. Despite strong starts from both Russell and Hamilton, Hamilton was overtaken by Leclerc and Tsunoda in the final five laps and ended up finishing seventh.
Carlos Sainz finished in eighth place, beating Daniel Ricciardo, and secured the last point of the Sprint.
Sao Paulo GP Sprint Result
1) Max Verstappen, Red Bull (8 points)
2) Lando Norris, McLaren (7 points)
3) Sergio Perez, Red Bull (6 points)
4) George Russell, Mercedes (5 points)
5) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari (4 points)
6) Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri (3 points)
7) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes (2 points)
8) Carlos Sainz, Ferrari (1 point)
9) Daniel Ricciardo, AlphaTauri
10) Oscar Piastri, McLaren
After leading from the start, Verstappen kept his control of the race but faced some challenges from the McLaren driver during the middle of the Sprint.
Russell overtook Norris on the inside at Turn 10 on the first lap. However, Norris regained his position on Lap 5 and started to push to attack Verstappen.
The time difference varied between one and two seconds until the last five laps, when Verstappen started to extend the gap because his tires were wearing out less.
“It was of course important to try and get ahead at the start. The initial launch wasn’t amazing but the second part of the start was very good so we got alongside [Norris],” said Verstappen.
“Then it was all about management. Here at this track there is a lot of deg, the tyres are wearing a lot, so 24 laps on one tyre set is very long so just trying to maintain a constant lap time and I think we managed the race quite well out there.
“Last year was very difficult for us around here so today it was much better. But it’s still, for everyone out there, you can’t push flat out. It’s about keeping the tyres under control and I think we did that well today.”
Perez struggled for third place in the Sprint race at Interlagos. He had a bad start but managed to overtake Hamilton and secure fourth place on lap four.
Russell was ahead of Perez on the road. It took a few laps, but eventually, the Red Bull driver managed to pass him after they had several close battles.
Hamilton struggled with tire wear more than his teammate Russell. He had a group of cars behind him, including Leclerc, Tsunoda, Sainz, Ricciardo, Oscar Piastri, Pierre Gasly, and Fernando Alonso, all within DRS range of each other.
Hamilton seemed to be on track for fifth place, but on the last four laps, Leclerc and Tsunoda overtook him on the home straight.
Ricciardo and Sainz changed positions several times at the Interlagos circuit. Sainz came out on top and Ricciardo managed to hold off Piastri to secure 10th place, despite Alonso’s attempts to overtake him on the final lap.
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