Valtteri Bottas held off Max Verstappen to win the Formula 1 Brazilian Sprint Race and starts tomorrow’s Grand Prix from pole.
His Mercedes teammate, Lewis Hamilton, was disqualified from Friday’s qualifying for a rear-wing infringement.
Even so, the seven-time world champion, who is also using a brand-new engine this weekend, charged through the field to finish fifth.
He’ll still take on a five-place grid drop for the new power unit.
“It’s not over yet,” Hamilton said on the team radio.
Verstappen dropped from pole to third on the opening lap.
Both Bottas and Carlos Sainz started on the soft tyre, whereas Verstappen opted to use the mediums.
The extra grip afforded by the softs gave Bottas an advantage off the line to overtake the Red Bull at turn one, with Sainz following suit at turn four.
“We gambled a bit on the soft because we knew it could be good for the start,” Bottas said.
Verstappen eventually fought back ahead of Sainz, the Ferrari lacking significant speed compared to the championship leader.
As Bottas’ softs began to degrade, Verstappen closed to within the Mercedes’ DRS range.
Despite some half-hearted looks, Verstappen never offered a real challenge.
The result does push out Verstappen’s points lead over Hamilton to 21.
Sainz clung onto his ailing soft tyres to finish on the podium.
A conservative Sergio Perez closely trailed the Ferrari but never looked to be hungry enough for an overtake.
Hamilton’s final overtake came on the last lap when he got ahead of Lando Norris at turn one.
The Brazilian Grand Prix begins at 6 am NZT.