The Finn Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) won the Sprint and took pole position for the Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix, which will be run this Sunday for the 19th date of the calendar and will be the scene of a new page in the battle between the Dutch Max Verstappen and English Lewis Hamilton.
Bottas, who had also achieved pole for the competition last Sunday at the Hermanos Rodríguez de México, was favored because Hamilton, his Mercedes teammate and who had set the best time for the Sprint, was sanctioned for an infraction to the regulations in the DRS system of your machine.
The Englishman was forced to start last and climbed to fifth place. Due to another penalty he received after changing the internal combustion engine of his Mercedes yesterday, he will drop five places and start tenth in tomorrow’s Grand Prix in São Paulo.
This scenario favors the ambitions of Verstappen (Red Bull), who this afternoon was second in the Sprint, added two more points and affirmed himself in the first place of the positions: he now has 314.5 against 293 of Hamilton.
It was the third time in the season that the Sprint was used, after England and Italy: a 30-minute race that awards three, two and a point to the first three and that serves to order the grid.
The first line will be for Bottas and Verstappen, the Spanish Carlos Sáinz (Ferrari) will share the second with the Mexican Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) and then the British Lando Norris (McLaren), the Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), the French will join. Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri), Frenchman Esteban Ocon (Alpine), German Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) and Hamilton.
After this race in São Paulo there will be three competitions: Qatar (11/21), Saudi Arabia (12/5) and Abu Dhabi (12/12).
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