Valtteri Bottas wins 2021 Brazilian GP Sprint ahead of Verstappen and Sainz

Valtteri Bottas won the Sprint in Brazil to take pole position for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix ahead of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz, as Lewis Hamilton recovered from last place to fifth with a astonishing drive.

“We knew the soft would be a benefit for the start and it worked, and then it was all about trying to survive until the end… I’m glad it worked out perfectly!”-said the Sprint winner Valtteri Bottas during post-sprint interview with Brazilian racer Masa.

Bottas, starting on soft tyres from P2, began with a huge launch off the line to pry the lead off medium-shod Verstappen, who went wide in the opening lap but rescued P2 by re-passing Sainz soon afterwards. As those soft tyres began to drop off, Verstappen closed in on Bottas but ended up 1.1s off the Finn for P2 at the flag. Sainz, meanwhile, held off Sergio Perez for the final point by a second.

“The start wasn’t the best. I think our pace was quite good, but sometimes here you just can’t pass. We will try again tomorrow!”– said Championship leader after the Sprint race.

Sainz took the final point in P3 having withstood unrelenting pressure from Perez, who could not pass the Ferrari despite getting within a car’s length into Turn 1 a couple of times, and the Mexican therefore starts fourth on Sunday.

“The first three corners I just went onto the attack. It was a bit tight with Checo and Max but we made it stick!”– said Carlos Sainz after taking final point position on Saturday.

Ferrari’s Leclerc was up to P5 at the start but lost the place to McLaren’s Norris, who passed him in a stunning battle through the esses that culminated tn the straight up to Turn 4 on Lap 9. Leclerc finished seventh at the end, Norris sixth.

Pierre Gasly started fourth but fell to seventh on his brand-new medium compounds at the start, losing another place to Hamilton for P8 overall.

Esteban Ocon finished ninth for Alpine having made it to eighth from 10th on Lap 1 with his new soft tyres, while Sebastian Vettel rounded out the Top 10. He kept McLaren’s Ricciardo behind in P11 while Fernando Alonso fell from P9 to P12.

Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen started on a new set of softs but lost his advantage, spinning after contact with fellow soft-shod team mate Antonio Giovinazzi, who finished 13th, at Turn 1 on Lap 2.

The Finn soon passed Haas’s Nikita Mazepin (P20) for 19th then the other Haas of Mick Schumacher (P19) as he settled for 18th.

Lance Stroll finished 14th from 15th for Aston Martin, while AlphaTauri’s Tsunoda couldn’t make use of his new soft compounds and fell three places in the Sprint.

Behind Tsunoda were the Williams, Nicholas Latifi ahead of George Russell as the Canadian outqualified his team mate for the first time on Friday.