Brazil GP Qualifying and Sprint Report

It was a doozy of a Qualifying session, interrupted by rain but without endless red flags and pauses.  The headline, of course, was Magnussen getting pole to the shock and immense joy of his Haas team.  He was rewarded by doing a shed load more press.  This is the nearest thing we've had to a surprise winner, the first season I can ever remember not having one underdog race winner.

A red flag was brought out when Russell misinterpreted the advice of visiting the beach whilst in Brazil and beached his car in the gravel.  Verstappen, whom some would consider the natural pole-sitter, was second and Russell kept third place, as his red flag, followed by the rain, meant that no one else could set a quicker lap than the initial laps set.  Williams managed a creditable 11th place, just ahead of a frustrated and sarcastic LeClerc.  Once again Ferrari, Ferraried things up again, by being the only team to send a car out on wet weather tyres on a dry track.  Norris took 4th place despite having been suffering from a bad bout of food poisoning and looking like the shell of a man.  Unfortunately this all set the grid places for the shorter spring and not the main race, which would have been much more interesting.  

A new day and a new event, the Sprint...Magnussen held his position off the start, with Russell challenging but ultimately not taking second from Verstappen.  Carlando were battling in 4th and 5th.  Alonso's team mate pushed him off the track,  The inevitable happened on the third lap and Red Bull were in the lead, by midway through the Great Dane was 6th.

With the one (world champion-driven) Alpine having to pit for a new wing and tyres and ending up at the back of the pit, the Aston Martin drivers battled with Stroll pushing the (world champion-driven) Aston Martin off the track.  Stroll was given a 10 second penalty for the event, so doubly bad for the team.

Verstappen and Russell (miraculously) were able to battle it out for the lead.Whilst Albon spun his Williams and, having qualified 11th, will start last (Alonso starting next to him).  The Mercedes were absolutely storming, Russell able to take the lead and Hamilton battling for third from Sainz.

Did Verstappen have a fault with his car from the beginning of the race or was he playing it safe (very off-character if so), as not only Russell got past but Sainz too, damaging the Red Bull front wing in the process.  Next, Hamilton was cleanly past on the main straight, to the delight of his countrymen.  I suppose if Verstappen can have several home tracks, then Hamilton can scoop this one up through his honoury citizenship.

Not really a maiden win for Russell but glory nevertheless.  Perez asked if Verstappen would give him the place to get himself an extra point, which he needed in his championship battle again LeClerc.  I don't understand why Red Bull didn't put team orders in place for this.

Then the post-race shenanigans happened.  Zhou, Ricciardo and Hamilton were being investigated for a starting procedure infringement.  Gasly was called to the stewards for breaching some kind of speed limit.  Gasly was now close to having too many penalty points and being awarded a race ban.  Stroll denied any wrongdoing, as did Ocon, who is clearly now just riding out his Alonso experience.

With Verstappen starting 4th on the grid for the main race, the grid wasn't too "back to normal" after the sprint.  It's set for an interesting race, if only at the start.