Max Verstappen was penalized for colliding with Lewis Hamilton in Sao Paulo, allowing George Russell to win his first grand Prix and Mercedes’ first of 2022.
After Verstappen and Hamilton collided while disputing second place early in the race during a restart with the safety car, Russell dominated the remainder of the event.
Hamilton fell to ninth place after colliding with his challenger for the 2021 championship, but he recovered to secure a Mercedes one-two and seal the team’s revival after a tough season in which the eight-time winners began with an uncompetitive car.
Russell’s impressive performance included surviving a late caution that bunched up the race and put Hamilton directly behind him with 10 laps remaining.
The Mercedes drivers were given permission to race, but Russell maintained the lead at the restart and kept Hamilton at bay until the finish.
Behind them, the final ten circuits were a furious battle as several drivers who had endured challenging races redeemed their afternoons.
Among them was Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who had been knocked off the track by McLaren’s Lando Norris at Turn Five shortly after the collision between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, and Max Verstappen.
Leclerc was sixth at the restart, but he overcame Sergio Perez’s fading Red Bull to finish fourth behind his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz.
Fernando Alonso of Alpine also passed the Mexican to take the fifth position after starting 18th.
The late caution period also enabled Verstappen to climb from the bottom of the top 10 to sixth place, narrowly missing out on passing Alonso in the last sprint to the finish line.
Verstappen was permitted to pass Perez a few laps earlier to pursue Alonso, but he was instructed to let his teammate regain the lead if he did not reach Alonso before the last corner. He did not comply, though.
When asked what occurred, Verstappen replied: “I warned you guys the last time not to ask me again, so please don’t. Are we all on the same page? I have provided my justifications and I stand by them.”
Perez stated over his radio, “It reveals his true nature.”
An extraordinary race marked Russell’s first victory
Mercedes entered the race with a front-row lockout, thanks to Russell’s victory in the Sprint race on Saturday and a grid penalty for Sainz, who had placed second ahead of Hamilton, but they were anxious about Verstappen’s potential speed.
They maintained their positions at the start but had to do it again a few laps later due to the safety car.
Russell executed the restart flawlessly, but Verstappen gained an advantage over Hamilton and dove to the outside of Turn One.
They collided while attempting to handle Turn Two side-by-side with Hamilton.
Verstappen argued that Hamilton had not given him enough room, but the stewards viewed the situation differently and issued Verstappen a five-second penalty, stating that he was “primarily at fault.”
That left Perez as Russell’s sole potential rival for the victory, but after regulating his pace for the opening few laps, the Briton complied with the team’s instruction to increase his speed and develop a distance, to which Perez had no response.
As Russell assumed leadership of the race, the question arose as to how far Hamilton might climb back up the field in his recovery, and it quickly became evident that he had a chance of finishing second.
Hamilton ran longer on his initial set of tires to gain a speed advantage. He stopped six laps after Perez and finished fourth, also behind Sainz.
Sainz, whose race was interrupted early when a visor tear-off became entangled in a rear brake duct, pitted out of the way, and with 26 laps remaining, Hamilton caught and passed Perez.
Eight laps later, the additional danger was presented when Norris’ McLaren stalled on the track, triggering the deployment of the virtual safety car and eventually the safety car.
But none of the primary contenders stopped for tires, therefore the winner was determined by who had the most recent tread.
Perez, who took his final pit stop sooner than others and opted for medium tires instead of softs, was left exposed, and he was passed by Sainz, Leclerc, and then Verstappen, whom he was instructed to allow to pass so the world champion could attempt to gain points on those ahead of him.
As a result, the Red Bulls finished sixth and seventh, in front of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas, and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel.
