Hamilton culminates a genius comeback at Interlagos

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  • The Briton wins in Brazil after starting 10th after a weekend of tension and sanctions

  • The World Cup is still red hot with a 14-point advantage for Verstappen, who finishes the race second despite a controversial action on his rival

Lewis Hamilton never give up. After a tough weekend for Mercedes and with double sanction for the British seven-time champion, the English driver has starred in a epic comeback and has won the sixth victory of the season in the Brazilian Grand Prix. A victory, the 101 in his record, invaluable in terms of the championship against Max Verstappen and Red Bull. The Dutchman, who this Sunday had to surrender at the speed of his rival, finished second and retains the leadership of the World Cup, now for 13 points in the absence of only three grand prizes. Carlos Sainz, third on the grid, finished sixth, weighed down by a touch with Lando Norris at the start, while Fernando Alonso He finished again in the points (9th) at the wheel of the Alpine.

Verstappen, very conservative on Saturday in the sprint race, has reserved the artillery for the start of this Sunday and has launched a withering attack on Bottas. The Finn, on whom fell all the responsibility of stopping the Red Bulls while waiting for Hamilton to start his particular comeback from tenth position on the grid, started very well, but could not prevent the World Cup leader from arriving evenly matched. at the first stop and left you behind with a perfect maneuver. Sergio perez he was seconded by his teammate and also passed Bottas before completing the first lap.

Stellar comeback

Hamilton has taken out the rage accumulated the day before, after his disqualification, and has gained seven positions in just three laps, at a fast lap pace. One of his victims has been Carlos Sainz. The Madrid native, who started third, failed at the start and after touching Norris dropped to fifth position, which he lost without resisting Lewis. The war was not with him.

Tsunoda and Stroll’s wreckage caused the first safety car on lap six and Verstappen’s 4-second lead at the front of the pack was gone. The Dutchman saw Hamilton in the rearview mirror, glued to Checo’s Red Bull and was not surprised by Mercedes’ when the race was relaunched.

Hamilton, pulling DRS, has passed Pérez like a shell, although the Mexican has not thrown in the towel and has struck back. The Englishman has learned his lesson and in his second attempt he has distanced the Czech to prevent his counterattack. Starting on lap 19, Lewis followed his title rival, who after Saturday’s sprint had raised his championship income to 21 points.

Leader pressure

Verstappen has managed his resources, keeping Hamilton at 3.5 seconds. Behind, Pérez has also measured his advantage with Bottas, in the squires’ duel, with the Ferraris of Leclerc and Sainz without any options to disturb them. The high temperature on the Interlagos track has started to wreak havoc and tire degradation has forced the favorites to change their strategy, from one to two stops. Hamilton has tried unsuccessfully a ‘undercut’ a Verstappen (v.27), while Bottas has taken advantage of a virtual safety car to leave Pérez behind.

With new tires, Hamilton was still flying at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace in Sao Paulo and for the first time he was less than a second behind the Dutchman. There was half a race left and at this point, no one remembered the ‘soap opera’ of the sanctions against Mercedes in Brazil.

Lewis, in ‘hammer’ mode

Verstappen tried to protect himself from another Hamilton attack and made his second ‘pit stop’ and Mercedes chose to reply on the next lap, although Lewis did not like the stop at all, who expressed his disagreement on the radio. All in all, he has returned to the track with a plus over his rival and has put the ‘hammer’ mode until he leans on top of the Red Bull driver. On Hamilton’s first try, Verstappen has exceeded his defense off the court, at turn 4, a incident that the stewards noted, discarding the penalty and fueling more spirits in Mercedes.

“I don’t know how much longer I can take this,” Max has warned against the pressure of Hamilton, who has responded with irony when his team has informed him by radio that there would be no sanction for the Dutchman: “Obviously”. Toto Wolff has asked race director Michael Masi for an explanation. Sparks flew on and off the track.

Hamilton has achieved it to third and has overtaken Verstappen with 12 laps to go, thus culminating a historic comeback that can have a lot of specific weight in terms of the title, when there are only three grands prix left to bring down the curtain. the most intense and exciting World Cup of the last decade.

This is how the World Cup goes:

1. Max Verstappen 332.5 puntos

2. Lewis Hamilton 318.5 points

3. Valtteri Bottas 203 points

4. Sergio Pérez 178 points

5. Lando Norris 151 points

6. Charles Leclerc 148 points

7. Carlos Sainz 139.5 points

8. Daniel Ricciardo 105 points

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9. Pierre Gasly 92 points

10. Fernando Alonso 62 points



Reference-www.elperiodico.com

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