HAMILTON WINS IN BRAZIL
Lewis Hamilton channels his inner Ayrton Senna as he takes a dominant win in Brazil as he crosses the line over 10 seconds clear to second placed and closest and only rival to the title Max Verstappen. Valtteri Bottas finishes in third place.
There was drama right from the word go as off the line Lando Norris (McLaren) picks up a puncture after contact with Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) off the line as Verstappen leads from Bottas who then goes wide with both the Ferrari’s - Red Bull 1-2 and Hamilton up to seventh after starting tenth.
On lap two Norris pits and is last after his puncture on the first lap.
By the fifth lap Hamilton had already caught Bottas and is allowed past and Hamilton is now in third behind the two Red Bulls and Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri) goes for a risky move down the inside of Stroll (Aston Martin) and cuts his front wing off.
This caused a Safety car on the next lap the SC is deployed so the debris from the Tsunoda - Stroll incident can be cleared. This puts Hamilton right behind Perez who sits in third. On lap nine the Safety car comes in and the racing resumes.
It was a great restart fro Red Bull as they keep the top two positions off of the restart. The two Mercedes sit in third and fourth then its the two Ferrari’s in fifth and sixth.
Just 18 laps into this race and Lewis Hamilton manages to pass Perez (Red Bull) into turn one and gets into second but going into turn four Perez is back past and keeps second place.
On the next lap Hamilton passes Perez again and keeps second place - Perez into third and Hamilton can now hunt down Verstappen.
On lap 27 Hamilton pits from second it was a 2.4 second stop and he comes out in sixth. Perez is into second and Bottas third. Later that same lap Verstappen pits from first - a 2.4 second stop for Red Bull - he’s out in third and ahead of Hamilton in fourth - Perez leads.
Then on lap 28 Perez pits from the lead and hands Bottas the lead - Perez rejoins in fifth.
Bottas pits from the lead on lap 31 and Verstappen and Hamilton now first and second. Bottas out in third.
Verstappen pits from the lead for his second stop on lap 41 and its a 2.7 second stop and Hamilton now leads - Verstappen comes out in fourth behind his teammate Perez.
One lap later Bottas stops again from second and comes out fifth behind Leclerc (Ferrari).
On lap 43 Perez pits from second a 2.5 second stop he comes out in fifth behind the Leclerc - Bottas fight. Later on in the lap Hamilton comes in from the lead and comes out in second 2.7 seconds behind Verstappen in first.
By lap 48 Hamilton is close enough to make a move on Verstappen and looks to make the move on Max for first going into turn four and Max pushes Lewis so wide both go off the track. Verstappen remains in first with Lewis in second.
Lap 50: Lance Stroll retires.
Lap 51: Ricciardo retires.
With 12 laps left Hamilton flies past Verstappen to lead -after relentless pressure Hamilton finally gets past Verstappen into turn four. And from this lap onwards Hamilton was simply too quick for the Red Bull to keep up and attempt another move.
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The next race is the Qatar Grand Prix.