F1 Brazil GP: Russell secures maiden win as Mercedes seal first 1-2

Mercedes’ George Russell secured his maiden win, in Brazil, while Mercedes secured their first 1-2 finish of the season.

How the race unfolded…

It was a fantastic start from the Mercedes pole sitter, Russell, as the young Briton led into turn one unchallenged ahead of his teammate, Lewis Hamilton. While the drivers managed to filter through the opening set of corners, the safety car was quickly deployed as the McLaren tagged the rear-right tyre of the Haas of Kevin Magnussen, on the exit of turn eight.

The Dane’s Haas spun around and Magnussen tried to roll back onto the right-hand side grass verge. However, Magnussen quickly made contact with Ricciardo which saw the Australian spin off into the barrier with suspension damage to his rear-left tyre.

Fortunately, both drivers were okay after their opening-lap incident.

While Russell got the race underway, at the end of lap six, Hamilton was left to contend with both Red Bull drivers into the opening corners. On the run down to turn two, the old championship rivals of Hamilton and Max Verstappen came together.

As a result of the contact, they quickly fell down the order.

Verstappen was forced to quickly pit at the end of the lap, to replace his front wing. The two were quickly put under investigation by the race stewards for causing a collision but it was found that Verstappen was deemed at fault and was slapped with a five-second time penalty.

Shortly after the two made contact, McLaren’s Lando Norris and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc made contact on the run through turn seven. Norris was able to continue on as the Monegasque was flung into the barrier. The damage was, fortunately, not terminal which allowed Leclerc to continue on.

In a similar instance to Verstappen and Hamilton, Norris and Leclerc were also under investigation for causing a collision. Quickly after the stewards delivered their verdict on the Verstappen/Hamilton incident, race control slapped Norris was his own five-second time penalty.

On lap 18, the first front runner of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz – who sat in P3 – peeled into the pit lane for an unscheduled stop as the team had to remove a tear-off from the Spaniard’s rear-brake duct. The Spaniard quickly returned to Interlagos fitted with the soft, red-walled, compound tyres after he started the race on the, yellow-ringed, mediums.

Six laps later, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez pitted from second place and this allowed Hamilton to inherit of second place – in free air. As Perez raced back onto the track, the Mexican driver filtered into traffic which allowed Russell to obtain a fairly cheap pit stop on the lap that followed.

On lap 29, Hamilton finally peeled into the pit lane to exchange his worn soft tyres for the medium tyres. The seven-time world champion pitted from the race lead, after Russell pitted on lap 25, and re-emerged into the race in P4 behind Sainz.

Hamilton came within DRS range to, second-placed, as the two drivers completed lap 44. While the first time of asking wasn’t enough for Hamilton to overtake the Mexican Red Bull driver, the #44 Mercedes was able to find a way past on the following lap – down the pit straight.

As it stood, on lap 46, Russell remained out in front as the race leader ahead of Hamilton and Perez, in P2 and P3 respectively.

Although Russell had track position, Hamilton was the first Mercedes driver to commit to a second stop – on lap 49 – in a bid to cover off Perez who pitted on the lap before. The race leader soon pitted, a lap later, to cover off Sainz who had inherited third place when Perez pitted.

Norris stopped out on track on the exit of turn 10, on lap 52. As a result, race control opted to deploy the Virtual Safety Car to allow the marshals to clear away Norris’ stranded McLaren. The Briton seemed to suffer with a mechanical issue as his McLaren seemed reluctant to change gears.

Despite the track marshals best efforts, they struggled to move the stranded car away from the circuit which forced race control to upgrade the VSC to a full safety car.

The safety car was finally recalled back into the pit lane, at the end of lap 59, which left Russell to control the field’s pace once again. Despite Russell’s best efforts to catch Hamilton napping, the two Mercedes drivers managed to race down into turn one unchallenged while Perez (in P3) was forced to defend from Sainz, who was sat in P4.

Despite Hamilton’s best efforts, the seven-time world champion wasn’t able to remain close enough to his teammate to battle for the win. As such, the younger Briton was able to claim his maiden victory.

Podium:

1. George Russell, Mercedes
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
3. Carlos Sainz, Ferrari

That’s it for the all for the article; F1 Brazil GP: Russell secures maiden win as Mercedes seal first 1-2! What did you think of George Russell’s performance, in his maiden win? Let us know in the comments!

Read more Formula 1 here:

• Alonso given five-second penalty for contact with Ocon
• Pierre Gasly recieves warning for driving slowly in Brazil
• F1 Brazil GP: Russell secures Mercedes’ first win of season
• F1 Brazil GP: Ocon leads final practice ahead of Sprint
• F1 Brazil GP: Kevin Magnussen secures maiden pole

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Kamron Kent

Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.

I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

Kamron Kent

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.