Formula 1

Russell leads Mercedes 1-2, Hamilton in Verstappen clash

by Matt Beer
4 min read

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George Russell took his first Formula 1 victory and Mercedes’ first of the 2022 season as he led a team 1-2 in the Brazilian Grand Prix ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who had an early collision with old nemesis Max Verstappen.

The Hamilton/Verstappen collision occurred at an early restart after a safety car caused by Daniel Ricciardo tapping Friday pole hero Kevin Magnussen into a spin in the infield on the opening lap, with the spinning Haas effectively reversing into the McLaren and sending it into the wall.

Verstappen surged down the outside of second-placed Hamilton into the Senna S as the race resumed, but contact was made in the second part of the corner, with Verstappen’s Red Bull having to pit with front wing damage and Hamilton going off track and falling to eighth.

Moments later, Lando Norris sent Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari spinning into the Ferradura barriers as they fought for what had just become third place.

That left Russell leading from Sergio Perez’s Red Bull and Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari and edging clear of both, simply controlling the race from there and taking a highly accomplished first win.

A late safety car for Norris’s McLaren stopping in the infield with a loss of power brought the pack back onto Russell’s tail, but he had no problem holding onto the lead and going on to victory.

By then, his main adversary was team-mate Hamilton, who had made rapid progress back through the field that culminated with a mid-race pass on Perez.

Sainz had to go out of sequence on pit strategy and stop three times because a visor tear-off was lodged in his rear brakes. Strong pace after his early second stop meant he was just a second behind Russell when the Mercedes pitted for the second and final time.

He was then able to take a quick last pitstop under what started out as a virtual safety car for Norris’s problem and took the final restart fourth behind Perez – who was on older medium tyres compared to Sainz’s fairly fresh softs.

That left Perez vulnerable to not just Sainz, who battled past him within three laps to secure third.

Perez ultimately fell to seventh behind three drivers on recovery missions – Leclerc, Fernando Alonso and Verstappen.

The world champion’s comeback was hampered by a 5s time penalty for the Hamilton clash and a slow pitstop even without the penalty.

Leclerc made it back to the pits after the Norris collision and mounted a great comeback charge to fourth, though Ferrari denied his request for Sainz to hand him third on the last lap to help in the battle for second in the championship.

Red Bull also asked Verstappen to give sixth to Perez, but Verstappen did not do so.

Alonso’s fifth place was achieved on a very hard-charging three-stop strategy from his penalised 17th on the grid, with his speed in the middle of the race particularly impressive. He took softs for the last stint and had no trouble staying ahead of Verstappen for fifth.

His team-mate Esteban Ocon followed orders to not make Alonso’s life hard after the final restart and finished eighth ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Lance Stroll. Bottas had been as high as fifth, despite his Friday Q1 exit, but the safety car brought too many faster cars onto his tail.

Sebastian Vettel had a similarly sad end to the race, having also run in the top five after a brilliant first stint. Like Perez, he was stuck on old mediums with faster cars behind him after the restart and fell outside the points.

Race Results

Pos Name Car Laps Laps Led Total Time Fastest Lap Pitstops Pts
1 George Russell Mercedes 71 66 1h38m34.044s 1m13.785s 2 26
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 71 5 +1.529s 1m13.942s 2 18
3 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 71 0 +4.051s 1m13.953s 3 15
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 71 0 +8.441s 1m14.253s 3 12
5 Fernando Alonso Alpine-Renault 71 0 +9.561s 1m14.164s 3 10
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull 71 0 +10.056s 1m14.195s 3 8
7 Sergio Pérez Red Bull 71 0 +14.08s 1m14.283s 2 6
8 Esteban Ocon Alpine-Renault 71 0 +18.69s 1m15.093s 2 4
9 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 71 0 +22.552s 1m15.511s 2 2
10 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Mercedes 71 0 +23.552s 1m14.831s 2 1
11 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin-Mercedes 71 0 +26.183s 1m15.549s 2 0
12 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri-Red Bull 71 0 +26.867s 1m15.327s 3 0
13 Guanyu Zhou Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 71 0 +29.325s 1m15.802s 2 0
14 Mick Schumacher Haas-Ferrari 71 0 +29.899s 1m15.251s 2 0
15 Alex Albon Williams-Mercedes 71 0 +36.016s 1m15.613s 3 0
16 Nicholas Latifi Williams-Mercedes 71 0 +37.038s 1m15.327s 3 0
17 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri-Red Bull 70 0 +1 lap 1m15.508s 3 0
Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 50 0 DNF 1m15.855s 2 0
Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 0 0 DNF 0s 0 0
Daniel Ricciardo McLaren-Mercedes 0 0 DNF 0s 0 0
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