Brazil GP : First win for George
George Russell secures his first in F1 at Brazil. Lewis Hamilton came second, making it a Mercedes 1-2, first for the season.
Roaring Russell in Brazil
When George Russell for called up for a Mercedes spot in 2021 he never would have thought it would take him so long to win a race. Well destiny had some other plans for him. With the rule changes Mercedes went for a radical design, unique on the grid. Unfortunately the radical design did not convert into race pace. Mercedes was far behind the Red Bulls and the Ferraris and were nowhere near Championship contention. Still both George and Lewis stayed positive. They were consistent and regularly scored podiums, although a race win remained elusive.
That is until now. Mercedes slowly figured out their porposing issues and brought steady development to their car. Mexico was really good them and for the first time they had the pace to compete for wins. Still Mercedes was not very optimistic in replicating the pace at other tracks. That wasn’t the case to be. In Brazil George had a brilliant drive in the Sprint race, overtaking Max Verstappen and finding himself first on the grid. Lewis Hamilton too had a superb race, going from P8 to P3 and having a Mercedes front after row after Sainz penalties.
George had a flawless race. He was ahead at turn 1 and never looked back. Mercedes did not make any mistake in strategy, earning George his first win in Formula One. It has been a hardly earned victory for him, given his struggles in Williams and even at Mercedes. This is one to remember for a long time.
Max and Lewis clash in Brazil again
It was a deja vu moment for us fans as Max and Lewis collide in the first half of the race. Max was handed a five second penalty and had to take an extra pitstop to fix his front wing. Still he went into damage control mode and ended up finishing P6. Lewis meanwhile drove brilliantly despite the minor damage and slowly moved up the grid to finish P2. This was a good opportunity for him to score a race win. It he doesn’t win at Abu Dhabi, which is the last race of the season, then it will be the first year since 2007 where he has not won a single race.
Multi-21 for Red Bull again
Max Verstappen despite having won the World Championship refused to let his team-mate Sergio Perez pass through. Apparently this was some revenge for Monaco where Sergio crashed and taking away Max’s chance to get a Pole. Still this was really uncalled for. The team had given him very clear instruction to let Sergio pass by and he blatantly refused team-order when he has already won the Championship. Red Bull will have to work hard to mend the relationship between their drivers.
Ferrari made the most at Brazil
Ferrari had the race pace but circumstances were unfortunate. Carlos has a 5 place grid penalty and he had to make an extra pitstop to resolve brake issues. Also Charles had a crash as Lando knocked him off but he miraculosuly kept moving on. Carlos and Charles finished P3 and P4 respectively and should be happy with the result.
Brazil GP: Race Classification , First win for George
