Lewis Hamilton shrugs off penalty to win F1’s Brazil Grand Prix – as it happened!
This article is more than 2 years old
Lewis Hamilton fought his way from 10th to first, in the process recording one of the greatest wins of his or anyone else’s career, to reduce Max Verstappen’s overall lead to 14 points with three races to go
Hamilton appears as I sign out, so let’s go again. He doesn’t remember another weekend like this other than that one he mentioned in Bahrain. His dad told him not to worry, just to “brush it off and go forward”, and he feels great in mind and body.
He’s loved the crowd this weekend, saying the Brazilians and British flags inspired him through a hard weekend. The disqualification was devastating, but the mechanics stayed focused and did their jobs.
Finally, on the Verstappen off-road incident, he says he knew the authorities wouldn’t penalise, but needs to go back and have a look at it.
And relax. That was, as the kids like to say, “awesome” and “epic”, except it actually was both of those things – not something that happens very often. No other driver would’ve got near doing what Hamilton did today, and very few in history had such behaviour in their ambit; Verstappen might yet hold out, but momentum and, most importantly, speed, are with the champ.
Hamilton accepts his winner’s trophy and accepts the acclaim of the crowd, absolutely loving it as you would. He then joins Toto Wolff, while Verstappen lifts his pot, a wan smile on his phizog.
There are some boos as Verstappen ascends the podium – that’s a bit odd, whatever you think of his running Hamilton off the track, or not, he’s an amazing driver and without him we’d not have what might just become the greatest season of all-time. Respect that, people.
Hamilton says he appreciates the support of the Brazilian people – it’s an “amazing country” – and it’s been a humbling weekend for him, thanks to the support he’s had. He praises Bottas, notes that he pushed as hard as he could in the hardest weekend of his racing life, and credits his dad with this win, for reminding him that something similar happened to him in Bahrain, racing Formula 3. “It feels like the first,” he says.
Lewis Hamilton celebrates with the Brazilian flag. Photograph: Mark Thompson/Getty Images
Verstappen tells his team he did what he could, but Hamilton was just quicker. His team are happy with his performance, which they term “damage limitation”.
LEWIS HAMILTON WINS THE SAO PAULO GRAND PRIX FROM 10TH ON THE GRID!
And just yesterday, he was 20th! Verstappen is second, Bottas third but really, whatever. That is a just a staggeringly brilliant, epochal piece of work from the champ.
Lewis Hamilton wins an incredible race in Sao Paulo to close the gap at the top of the drivers’ championship. Photograph: Nelson Almeida/AFP/Getty Images
Lap 70/71 Perez does his bit for his team, trying to pinch Hamilton’s fastest-lap point, but I think Hamilton would’ve took this, as Ryan Giggs would say.
Lap 68/71 What’s odd about all this isn’t just what Hamilton has done, it’s how quickly he did it. It took him 14 laps to go from 10th to second, and he was in front with 11 laps still to race. An absolute doddle, basically.
Lap 67/71 It really is ridiculous what Hamilton’s doing. He’s an absolute freak of nature, a joke. And the confidence he’ll take from this weekend makes him an even more terrifying proposition for Verstappen, who will be starting to wonder.
Lap 63/71 Ultimately, Hamilton just needed this win too badly. If his car stays healthy, it’ll take a monumental effort from Verstappen to beat him, because he’s faster and better. I’m not sure Red Bull have enough points in the bag.
Lap 62/71 Lewis Hamilton, though. Obviously he can handle a wheel and all that, but what continually amazes me about him is his competitive charisma: he just has that ability to impose himself on any situation, from any position, and that’s so of very few people, in any sport, ever.
Lap 61/71 “Go get him!” says Toto Wolff to Bottas, roughly nine second behind Verstappen. Hamilton now leads by 2.414s, as Gasly passes Alonso and goes seventh.
Lap 60/71 Verstappen is shown a flag for veering on the straight, but it barely matters now! He just doesn’t have the pace to dig into Hamilton from behind, and this most ludicrous of seasons takes yet another leap left! Bring it on baby!
Lap 59/71 Hamilton goes again and this time Verstappen can’t shut the door! Hamilton makes him defend turn one on the inside, then veers outside at two and three, finishing the job at four! Yesterday, he was last, this morning hie was 10th, and now he’s in the lead! What a roar greets him! What a driver! What a competitor!
Lap 58/71 “What the assessors are missing,” says Steve Ditchburn, “is that Verstappen braked late - Hamilton passed him and Verstappen braked late at the corner to get back past Hamilton. Thus in braking so late he could not take the corner properly and therefore went off to the right pushing Hamilton off even further. It was dangerous by Verstappen and the assessors have no clue.’
This seems a fair assessment.
Did Verstappen block the corner for Hamilton by braking late? Photograph: Ricardo Moraes/Reuters
Lap 55/71 Increasingly, it looks like Verstappen has the gas to stay in front while, in commentary, they wonder if we can see his steering angle, or lack of it. The FIA, though, tell us they had access to all necessary info, as we see it again and it really does look like there was room for Hamilton to pass, until Verstappen ran him off the road. He’s done really well to avoid a penalty here.
Lap 54/71 Verstappen thinks he might get DRS off Raikkonen, but Raikkonen pits, then Hamilton has DRS and can’t get close enough. “Course,” Hamilton deadpans, when told there’ll be no action taken against Verstappen.
Lap 51/71 It’s taken a couple of laps, but Hamilton is back to where he was, just under a second off Verstappen, as we see Ricciardo getting out of his car in the pit lane. he too is done for the day.
Lap 50/71 Stroll, who’s had an eventful little afternoon, is out, but back to that Verstappen/Hamilton conflab, both cars did go off the track, but it looked like Hamilton did because Verstappen forced him to. Either way, the lads are investigating.
Lap 49/71 I’d love to hear Horner’s reaction if they penalise Verstappen for that, but in commentary they reckon he deliberately didn’t turn into the corner which, if so, will put him at risk...
Lap 48/71 Hamilton is closer as they come down the back straight and looks like he’s past, but Verstappen forces him so wide they both go off the road for 5-10m! That’s so ballsy from Verstappen and prevents what looked like a guaranteed pass, though the stewards might fancy a squizz at that. They didn’t touch, but did Verstappen stop trying to turn the corner to run Hamilton off the road?!
Lap 47/71 The lead is down below 0.5s and Hamilton has DRS! He can’t get close enough down the hill, but he is looking dangerous, and his tyres might give him that extra bit of zip he needs to pass.
It’s so close between Hamilton and Verstappen. Photograph: Nelson Almeida/AFP/Getty Images
Lap 46/71 Bottas reckons the second stop gave up track position, and that Mercedes could’ve tied up a one-two. Horner notes his driver has track position, but knows Hamilton is lapping faster, on newer tyres, conceding Verstappen doesn’t have the straight-line speed to come from behind.
Lap 44/71 In comes Hamilton and Verstappen’s told not to push too hard but to preserve his tyres; Hamilton comes out 2.753s behind, but with tyres that are a few laps fresher.
Lap 42/71 Bottas pits, before Hamilton; might it be that Mercedes think, with clear track and clear air in front, that they’ll be quick enough not to be caught?
Lap 41/71 Verstappen goes in, coming out behind Latifi! That’s a bit of felicitous fortune for Hamilton, who leads him by 20 seconds; 22 is what you need to pit, so Hamilton will want to extend his lead towards that.
Lap 38/71 If Verstappen scores three points more than Hamilton, he could finish second to him in the three remaining meetings and still take his first title. Or, put another way, Hamilton needs to find a way of winning this, else it’s out of his hands.
Lap 36/71 After an action-packed start, there’s not loads going on now. My guess is that Hamilton is consolidating, gathering himself before letting it all hang out.
Lap 34/71 Verstappen is told he’s three-tenths quicker in the middle sector – Hamilton is struggling in the dirty air through the corners. If he can stay in front, this’ll be an almighty statement.
The fans look on as Max Verstappen goes through. Photograph: Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images
