Liam Lawson has finished in the points in this morning’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix at Interlagos, holding off late challenges from Sergio Perez and then Lewis Hamilton to take two championship points for RB.
Conditions had not improved much following this morning’s chaotic qualifying session that was red flagged a record five times, where the Kiwi driver had qualified fifth.
Lawson ran deep in the top ten for much of the opening stint, but was spun by at Turn 1 by Oscar Piastri mid-race, which dropped him from sixth to tenth.
He fell out of the points at times, but, following several interventions, would bring his car home in ninth.
The race was won by Max Verstappen, who puts one hand on the World Championship after Lando Norris was left to battle for sixth.
A mid-race red flag worked massively in the championship leader’s favor and prevented any requirement of a pit stop. Norris had changed tyres moments before the delay that came following a heavy crash for Franco Colapinto while the race was behind a Safety Car due to the weather conditions.
Verstappen had started 17th and quickly charged his way through the pack in wet conditions, hitting the front at the race’s final restart following a Lap 40 crash for Carlos Sainz.
He would extend his advantage to take the chequered flag a comfortable 19 seconds ahead of the field.
Following Verstappen home were the Alpine duo of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, who ran an excellenet strategy and also benefitted from the mid-race red flag.
George Russell was fourth, ahead of Charles Leclerc and Norris, while Yuki Tsunoda was promoted to seventh at Piastri’s expense once the Australian’s 10-second penalty for spinning the Kiwi was applied.
Hamilton completed the top ten, having passed Perez late in proceedings before challenging Lawson but running out of time to make a move.
Only 15 cars finished the race, with Alex Albon and Lance Stroll not making the start, Colapinto and Carlos Sainz crashing out, and Nico Hulkenberg being disqualified.
Norris, Lawson, Russell and Tsunoda faced post-race investigations for a start line infringement which threatened to shake up the results, however stewards decided to only fine Russell and Norris 5,000 Euros each.
Remarkably, four of the five cars that crashed in qualifying were able to make the grid, with Albon, who crashed heavily at Turn 1 in Q3, the only one to sit out. Sainz, who crashed in Q2, started from pit lane.
Colapinto, Fernando Alonso and Stroll started in their qualified positions, while Verstappen took his five-place grid penalty for taking an additional power unit and lined up 17th following his surprise elimination in Q2.
The race hadn’t even started before Stroll found trouble, spinning out at Turn 4 on the formation lap and nudging his front wing on the barriers.
Stroll then decided returning to the track from the runoff through the gravel was the best course of action, which resulted in him beaching his Aston Martin.
A DNS was an unfortunate result for the team which had been forced to repair the car in the three hour gap between qualifying and the race.
The start was aborted as Stroll was recovered, and Norris took the field off on a second formation lap, despite not being told to. The entire field followed, leading to the McLaren driver being placed under investigation for a start procedure infringement. Russell, Tsunoda, and Lawson were also placed under investigation
Once proceedings did finally begin, it was Russell who got the better launch to take the lead into Turn 1, with Norris slotting into second.
Ocon and Tsunoda battled hard for third, which gave Lawson a glimpse down the inside of both at Turn 3. As Tsunoda closed down, however, Lawson was forced to back out, which allowed Leclerc through to take fifth.
Lawson then came under pressure from Piastri and Alonso, but did well to retain sixth over the opening laps.
Verstappen was the biggest mover from his grid position of 17th, and by the end of Lap 2 had climbed into the points. By Lap 7, he was eighth and on the tail of Piastri, who had been unable to find a way past the Kiwi.
Up front, Norris and Russell steadily built an advantage over the field which had grown to over 9 seconds by Lap 20, with Tsunoda retaining third over Ocon, Leclerc and Verstappen, who had worked his way past Piastri and Lawson before bridging a three-second gap to the train ahead.
The opening 20 laps came without drama, with the exception of a Lap 1 spin for Perez, and a spin for Bearman, who made contact with the rear of Colapinto before turning then received a 10 second penalty slapped on top.
Leclerc was the first driver to stop on Lap 25, switching to fresh inters despite the worsening conditions.
Around the same point, Lawson was hit at Turn 1 by Piastri, which spun him into the runoff, allowing the McLaren, Gasly and Alonso through. The Australian took a 10 second penalty for the incident, and Lawson rejoined in 10th.
The Virtual Safety Car came for the first time when Hulkenberg ran off at Turn 1 and stranded his Haas atop a drain. He received assistance from marshalls to return to racing, which would ultimately lead to his disqualification for receiving outside assistance.
Piastri and Alonso immediately dove into the pits during the intervention, but RB opted to keep Lawson out. Norris and Russell stopped on the next tour, as did Tsunoda and Lawson who switched to full wets, but the race went green at the same time, seeing the quartet lose out on their stop.
This put Ocon into the lead ahead of Verstappen and Gasly, with Norris passing Russell to take fourth moments before a Safety Car was called as conditions continued to deteriorate.
That was quickly upgraded to a Lap 31 red flag when Colapinto became the second driver to crash twice in one day, making heavy contact with the Turn 14 wall while the race was under Safety Car contitions.
Hulkenberg received the black flag during his pit stop, becoming the first driver to do so since the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix.
Not stopping earlier worked in favour of Ocon, Verstappen, and Gasly, who were able to change their tyres during the delay, seeing them retain the top three positions.
Following a lengthy delay, racing resumed with a rolling start, but Bearman and Zhou didn’t even make it to the line before running off, the duo forced to inch their way up the wet grass hill before rejoining.
Lawson lost out to Hamilton off the restart to fall out of the points, and Norris fell back behind Russell when he ran long at Turn 4. Leclerc also ran long at Turn 8, which cost him time.
Up front, the surprise leader Ocon gradually built an advantage over Verstappen, which grew to nearly three seconds by Lap 38.
That gap was soon wiped when Sainz crashed for the second time of the day at Turn 7, spinning into the barriers with his left-front suspension first, with the rear following, bringing a Safety Car.
The Safety Car restart was chaotic, with Verstappen hitting the front, and Norris running off at Turn 1 and rejoining the race in seventh.
Lawson retained 11th, but quickly climbed to ninth at Turn 4, passing nine World Championships in Alonso and Hamilton in one swoop to return to the points.
Alsonso spun off shortly after to drop to the rear of the field.
Once in front, Vertsappen was unheeded, extending his advantage lap-by-lap to take the chequered flag 17 seconds ahead of the field.
Ocon held on for a surprise podium for Alpine, while Gasly made it double delight for the French manufacturer in third, a fair reward for an excellenet strategy where the team’s only tyre change came during a red flag.
Russell pressure the paid on the run to the flag but was forced to settle for fourth, ahead of Leclerc and Norris.
Once his 10 second penalty was applied, Piastri was relegated to 8th from 7th, exchanging positions with Tsunoda.
Lawson was forced to fend off an extended period of pressure from Perez and then Hamilton for ninth, with the Mercedes completing the top ten ahead of the Red Bull.
Bearman, Bottas, Alonso and Zhou completed the running order, with five cars failing to greet the chequered flag.
Formula 1 returns in three weeks with the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Sao Paulo Grand Prix Provisional Results
| 1st | Verstappen |
| 2nd | Ocon |
| 3rd | Gasly |
| 4th | Russell |
| 5th | Leclerc |
| 6th | Norris |
| 7th | Tsunoda |
| 8th | Piastri |
| 9th | Lawson |
| 10th | Hamilton |
| 11th | Perez |
| 12th | Bearman |
| 13th | Bottas |
| 14th | Alonso |
| 15th | Zhou |
| DNF | Sainz |
| DNF | Colapinto |
| DQ | Hulkenberg |
| DNS | Stroll |
| DNS | Albon |
