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Lewis Hamilton beat Max Verstappen at the F1 Brazilian Grand Prix after starting tenth on the grid at the Interlagos circuit. The Briton claimed a 101st career victory, while the Dutchman claimed his 15th podium of the season. Hamilton's teammate Valterri Bottas claimed the final podium of the 71-lap race.
Red Bull F1 driver Sergio Perez who finished fourth, claimed the fastest lap of the race to take a point off Mercedes. The Mexican's fastest lap of the race was clocked at one minute and 11.010 seconds.
The race result in Brazil reduces the gap between Hamilton and Verstappen to 14 points, which was 21 after the sprint. In the Constructors' Championship, Mercedes F1 extended their lead over Red Bull F1 by 11 points.
Ferrari F1 team drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finished fifth and sixth, respectively. Alpine F1 drivers Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso followed the Ferraris in eighth and ninth place, respectively. McLaren driver Lando Norris claimed the final points, finishing on the grid in tenth place.
Red Bull Racing drivers Verstappen and Perez jumped into first and third at the start of the race. In the process, pole-sitter Bottas and Sainz got demoted to second and fourth, respectively. However, due to several incidents during the chaotic start, the two Red Bull F1 cars failed to put a gap on the rest.
In lap 1, Norris made contact with Sainz' car, making the McLaren pit and leaving debris all over the circuit. When McLaren came into the pits to change tyres, Norris collected a puncture, and Yuki Tsunoda made contact with Lance Stroll in lap 4, littering the track with more debris.
In the meantime, by lap 2 Hamilton had made up five places on the grid, avoiding the chaos at the start. By lap 4, he was running fourth. In lap 6, Tsunoda and Stroll's incident brought out the safety car, which aided Hamilton to swap places with his teammate who was running third.
When the race restarted on lap 10, Hamilton was already in Perez's slipstream. However, a collision between Kimi Raikkonen and Mick Schumacher brought out the virtual safety car (VSC). Tsunoda was penalised with a ten-second penalty, but no action was taken on Raikkonen or Schumacher.
Post the VSC period, Hamilton overtook Perez, and started to charge Verstappen, who by then had a three-second lead over the rest of the drivers. The Mercedes F1 team tried to undercut Verstappen by pitting Hamilton early on lap 25. However, the undercut didn't fare as well as expected, as Red Bull F1 pitted Verstappen a lap later in response.
At the end of lap 40, when Verstappen undercut Hamilton on the second pitstop, the Dutchman got stuck behind another car in the pitlane while heading out. That reduced his undercut advantage. Mercedes responded to the undercut by pitting Bottas first and then Hamilton.
It wasn't until lap 45 when Hamilton started to hunt down Verstappen. By lap 48, he was in the Dutchman's slipstream, and pressured the driver to run wide. However, he got pushed wide himself off-track. While stewards noted the incident, they declared it not worthy of an investigation.
From there on, Hamilton had to overtake Verstappen on the track itself. After making several attempts, he was able to get past the Red Bull F1 driver on the straights in lap 59, where the Mercedes had a significant advantage over the Red Bull F1 cars. Although Verstappen weaved on the straight, and was warned with a black and white flag, he couldn't keep out Hamilton, who had a new motor and more horsepower.
Red Bull F1 and Verstappen's only advantage around the Interlagos circuit was the sections comprising complex corners, including the Senna Esses. Eventually, in a weekend where the Briton was pushed to 20th on the grid after a disqualification, he redeemed himself with a powerful drive.
Full Results of the F1 Brazil Grand Prix Race
The full results of the race at the Brazil GP is as follows:
