Russell gets what he deserves
George Russell is officially a Formula 1 race winner! The young brit converted his sprint win into another win to finally give Mercedes a race victory in 2022. Teammate Lewis Hamilton secured P2 ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz who came through from 7th.
The Biggest Talking Points
A lot of different things happened in this race. On lap 1, Daniel Ricciardo clipped the back of Kevin Magnussen’s car and he went spinning back into Danny Ric meaning both men were out after just 1 full sector. After the safety car restart, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton once again came together. This weekend has really been the first time that these two have properly fought each other since last season’s championship battle and what do you know, the two collide. Max received a 5-second penalty for this which seemed pretty harsh. Later on in the lap at turn 6, Lando Norris clipped Charles Leclerc’s car and he took a hard hit with the barriers. Somehow, he managed to continue and I still don’t know how. We then got another safety car with about 15 laps to go meaning it looked like we were on for a fight between the two Mercedes for the race win. In the end though, we never got a true side-by-side battle between the two because of the fact that George Russell was so quick. George managed to beat his teammate to the line by 1 and a half seconds. Meanwhile, Red Bull Racing asked Max Verstappen to let Sergio Perez through to help Checo in his battle for second in the championship but the double world champion refused to. This was bad from Max, particually given the fact that Checo helped Max win the drivers title last season. And finally, Charles Leclerc asked his team to tell Carlos to let him through so he could gain points over Perez. This was ridiculous given it was for a podium position and Carlos had been the quicker driver all weekend.
The Standout Drives in the Race
I gave out two 10’s for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. The first one was of course George Russell. Russell was quick and clean all race and I think the most impressive part of his victory was the last 15 laps. To restart with a seven-time world champion right behind you and never let him get DRS is pretty amazing. George showcased in Brazil why he was so successful in junior categories. The second driver that I gave a 10 to is Fernando Alonso. Fernando was once again unbelievable. He started from 17th and somehow managed to finish in P5. That’s also his joint highest finishing position of the season. Alpine played the strategy beautifully and Alonso was more than capable of doing the rest. What a driver Aston Martin are going to have next season. In terms of other drivers that I thought had mega drives, I would go with Lewis Hamilton, Carlos Sainz and Esteban Ocon. Charles Leclerc could have been in there if it wasn’t for his stupid team requests.
Drivers who had a Horror Race
Two people received a rating of 1. The first one was Daniel Ricciardo. He went for a move on Kevin Magnussen in the second sector, but he seemed too hesitant to go all out. That ultimately cost them both as he caught the back of Magnussen’s car. He was then quickly out of the race because Magnussen’s car got some revenge by spinning into him. Another shocker for Daniel Ricciardo. The other guy that received the worst possible rating was Yuki Tsunoda. Tsunoda has been so poor this weekend and this race finished it off. For whatever reason, he never unlapped himself behind the safety car which meant when the race got underway, he was near the front of the pack. He then had to get out of the way and by that point, he was a lap down to pretty much everyone. Even if that hadn’t have happened, it was still a really bad performance from the Japanese driver. Both Williams cars struggled and Lando Norris didn’t have a particularly good day either.
Overall Race Result and my Ratings
George Russell: 10 (FL)
Lewis Hamilton: 9
Carlos Sainz: 9
Charles Leclerc: 8
Fernando Alonso: 10
Max Verstappen: 5
Sergio Perez: 6
Esteban Ocon: 9
Valtteri Bottas: 7
Lance Stroll: 7
Sebastian Vettel: 5
Zhou Guanyu: 5
Mick Schumacher: 4
Pierre Gasly: 3
Alex Albon: 3
Nicholas Latifi: 2
Yuki Tsunoda: 1
Lando Norris: 3 (DNF)
Kevin Magnussen: - (DNF)
Daniel Ricciardo: 1 (DNF)
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