Formula One was in Brazil this weekend of the penultimate round of the 2022 season. It was the FORMULA 1 HEINEKEN GRANDE PRÊMIO DE SÃO PAULO 2022 around the loved counter-clockwise circuit. Mercedes were the favourites after a strong showing in the sprint qualifying race on Saturday to lock out the front row of the starting grid. By the end of the 71 laps, it was a Mercedes 1-2 finish, but it was not easy.
Both Mercedes drivers got away well from the front row of the grid for the first time in 2022. George Russell got away better than his teammate, having won the first grid slot in the sprint race on Saturday. Things were relatively orderly behind, with Sergio Perez briefly looking on the inside of the other Red Bull in the first corner as Lando Norris secured P5 in the first corner.
Having originally qualified in pole position on Friday before dropping to P8 during the sprint race, Kevin Magnussen’s race day came to a premature end on the opening lap. Daniel Ricciardo looked to make a move on the inside of the Haas in turn 8, but the gap closed well before Ricciardo was there. Ricciardo tapped the rear of the Haas, spinning Magnussen around. Magnussen’s car rolled backwards into Ricciardo’s McLaren, taking both drivers out of the race and forcing a safety car to be deployed.
The race restarted on lap 7 and Russell led the way. Lewis Hamilton was immediately under pressure from Max Verstappen behind on the main straight. Verstappen made a very late braking move around the outside of the first corner, but couldn’t get by. The two were side-by-side into the second corner with Verstappen on the inside. The two collided, dropping them both down the field.
The drama was not done on the restart, as Charles Leclerc spun into the barriers on the outside of turn 8, having been hit by Lando Norris. Norris was on the inside of the corner and suffered some understeer after touching the inside kerbs.
All drivers involved were able to keep racing, although both Leclerc and Verstappen needed to pit for replacement front wings. The stewards investigated both incidents. They gave Verstappen a 5-second time penalty for causing a collision and gave Norris the same treatment.
Despite his involvement in the restart incident, Lewis Hamilton appeared to escape without any serious damage. He proved this by going into attack mode to gain positions he had lost. In just a handful of laps, he had made his way u to P4.
Carlos Sainz had to make an early pit stop on lap 18, even though he started the race on the more durable medium compound tyres. A visor tear-off had gotten stuck in the car’s right-rear brake duct, causing the brakes to overheat. The brake was smoking heavily in the pit lane, but cooled off again once it returned to racing speed.
Sergio Perez was the next of the leaders to pit on lap 24, taking the medium compound tyres since he had no remaining sets of soft tyres. He exited the pit lane alongside Valtteri Bottas and had to concede the position. He fought back for much of the lap, eventually taking the position back from Bottas. Critically, Lando Norris pitted at the end of the lap, clearing the path for Perez.
Mercedes responded the following lap, pitting Russell to cover off the potential undercut by the Red Bull. He rejoined the race alongside Sebastian Vettel, but was able to get ahead of the retiring German. Hamilton pitted for medium tyres a few laps later.
Around lap 44, Hamilton was able to chase down Sergio Perez for P2. He took the position from Perez down the main straight with some assistance from the DRS and a powerful slipstream. However, the team called him into the pit lap for soft tyres five laps later. Hamilton was unhappy about this because his tyres were good, but the team made the call to cover off the performance of Carlos Sainz. Russell pitted the following laps for soft tyres.
On lap 52, the race was neutralized when the McLaren of Norris came to a stop in turn 10 with a mechanical issue. He parked up on the inside near an escape road. The virtual safety car was deployed to allow marshals to clear the stranded car.
Some cars took the opportunity to pit under the VSC, including Carlos Sainz, who put on another set of soft tyres. After a couple of laps under the VSC, it was clear that the marshals were struggling to remove the car, so the full safety car was deployed.
During the safety car, there was some confusion regarding the lapped cars. When the lapped cars were eventually allowed to overtake the safety car, it seems as though race control forgot about Yuki Tsunoda, who was ahead of Valtteri Bottas and behind Carlos Sainz. Alex Albon was allowed to overtake the safety car from behind the race leader and Nicholas Latifi was allowed to do so as well from further down the field. Tsunoda actually lost a position under the safety car. Fortunately, when the race resumed, he the AlphaTauri driver pulled off to the side to prevent obstructing the lead-lap cars.
The race resumed with just over 10 laps remaining in the race. Carlos Sainz, on the fresher tyres, was all over the back of Sergio Perez. Despite the clear pace of Perez, Sainz struggled to overtake and it took a few laps for him to finally get the move done. Perez was clearly struggling on his tyres, losing out to Leclerc and Fernando Alonso in the closing stages of the race.
In the closing laps of the race, all eyes were on the Mercedes drivers. Just a few weeks ago, the team was looking at their first winless season since 2011, but now they were looking at their first 1-2 finish since Imola in 2020. It was just a matter of what silver car would cross the line first.
In the end, it was George Russell who led his teammate home for his first career victory in Formula One. Carlos Sainz finished on the bottom step of the podium, despite the demands of his teammate to swap positions to help his World Drivers’ Championship results.
Just a single race remains in the 2022 season. The action will continue for the final time this season at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on the weekend of November 20.
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| Race Results | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | G. Russell | 26 | |
| 2 | L. Hamilton | 18 | |
| 3 | C. Sainz | 15 | |
| 4 | C. Leclerc | 12 | |
| 5 | F. Alonso | 10 | |
| 6 | M. Verstappen | 8 | |
| 7 | S. Perez | 6 | |
| 8 | E. Ocon | 4 | |
| 9 | V. Bottas | 2 | |
| 10 | L. Stroll | 1 | |
| 11 | S. Vettel | ||
| 12 | G. Zhou | ||
| 13 | M. Schumacher | ||
| 14 | P. Gasly | ||
| 15 | A. Albon | ||
| 16 | N. Latifi | ||
| 17 | Y. Tsunoda | ||
| DNF | L. Norris | ||
| DNF | D. Ricciardo | ||
| DNF | K. Magnussen | ||
