F1 Grand Prix sprint results: Bottas wins for Brazilian GP pole

Bottas grabbed the lead away from the startline and was helped further as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen – who started on pole – was pushed back to third by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. The Dutchman recovered and quickly repassed Sainz to chase down Bottas.

But Verstappen couldn’t beat the Finn, and the win officially gives Bottas the Brazilian GP pole position accolade. His team-mate Lewis Hamilton drove from last to fifth in the 24-lap race.

2021 Brazilian Grand Prix sprint results

Cla	Driver		Laps	Time	Interval
1	Valtteri Bottas		24	29'09.559
2	Max Verstappen		24	29'10.729	1.170
3	Carlos Sainz Jr		24	29'28.282	17.553
4	Sergio Perez		24	29'29.346	1.064
5	Lewis Hamilton		24	29'30.431	1.085
6	Lando Norris		24	29'32.117	1.686
7	Charles Leclerc		24	29'34.615	2.498
8	Pierre Gasly		24	29'43.717	9.102
9	Esteban Ocon		24	29'44.191	0.474
10	Sebastian Vettel		24	29'44.426	0.235
11	Daniel Ricciardo		24	29'45.428	1.002
12	Fernando Alonso		24	29'46.137	0.709
13	Antonio Giovinazzi		24	29'51.439	5.302
14	Lance Stroll		24	29'53.596	2.157
15	Yuki Tsunoda		24	29'55.709	2.113
16	Nicholas Latifi		24	29'56.319	0.610
17	George Russell		24	29'57.298	0.979
18	Kimi Raikkonen		24	29'59.573	2.275
19	Mick Schumacher		24	30'11.239	11.666
20	Nikita Mazepin		24	30'17.033	5.794
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How the Brazilian Grand Prix sprint unfolded

With Hamilton banished to the back of the grid after his Mercedes breached the DRS rules in qualifying, new polesitter Verstappen led the pack off the startline. But he was beaten into Turn 1 by Bottas, who chose the soft tyre and launched ahead of him on the short run to the first corner.

Bottas led Verstappen, who was on medium tyres, the fast-starting Sainz, Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc. Soft-shod Sainz passed Verstappen at Turn 4, the Red Bull driver running very wide and touching the grass as he rejoined.

Verstappen used DRS to repass Sainz for second into Turn 1 at the start of lap four and set off after leader Bottas. Verstappen got into Bottas’s DRS range with 10 laps to go but was unable to really get on terms and Bottas won by 1.1s.

As the Ferraris began to struggle with graining on the soft tyres, McLaren’s Lando Norris passed Leclerc for fifth on lap nine at Turn 4. Perez repeatedly attacked Sainz for third but couldn’t find a way past.

Hamilton was the star of the race and, on the medium tyres, rose to 15^th on the opening lap after a strong start, and was helped when Kimi Raikkonen spun ahead of him after Kimi clipped his Alfa Romeo team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi. By one-third distance, Hamilton passed Fernando Alonso’s Alpine for 11^th.

Hamilton entered the top 10 by overtaking the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo on lap 13 and then passed Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin on lap 15 and Esteban Ocon’s Alpine a lap later.

He then moved past Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri with ease for seventh and passed Leclerc at Turn 4 with four laps to go. He caught Norris on the final tour, lunging ahead at Turn 1 to grab fifth place.

But Hamilton will start 10th on Sunday, due to an engine change grid penalty.

2021 Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix sprint fastest laps

Cla	Driver	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Max Verstappen	9	1'12.114			215.109
2	Valtteri Bottas	8	1'12.300	0.186	0.186	214.556
3	Lewis Hamilton	5	1'12.357	0.243	0.057	214.386
4	Lando Norris	8	1'12.994	0.880	0.637	212.516
5	Sergio Perez	13	1'13.110	0.996	0.116	212.178
6	Charles Leclerc	4	1'13.140	1.026	0.030	212.091
7	Carlos Sainz Jr	13	1'13.167	1.053	0.027	212.013
8	Pierre Gasly	4	1'13.342	1.228	0.175	211.507
9	Fernando Alonso	4	1'13.397	1.283	0.055	211.349
10	Daniel Ricciardo	9	1'13.463	1.349	0.066	211.159
11	Sebastian Vettel	5	1'13.558	1.444	0.095	210.886
12	Esteban Ocon	11	1'13.615	1.501	0.057	210.723
13	Antonio Giovinazzi	11	1'13.627	1.513	0.012	210.689
14	Lance Stroll	9	1'13.666	1.552	0.039	210.577
15	Yuki Tsunoda	11	1'13.747	1.633	0.081	210.346
16	Kimi Raikkonen	9	1'13.900	1.786	0.153	209.910
17	Nicholas Latifi	7	1'13.934	1.820	0.034	209.814
18	George Russell	14	1'14.056	1.942	0.122	209.468
19	Mick Schumacher	9	1'14.387	2.273	0.331	208.536
20	Nikita Mazepin	6	1'14.583	2.469	0.196	207.988
View full results