[iamahunter]

Kevin Magnussen takes pole!



What an unusual Q3, thanks to the rain and George's beached Mercedes which got out a red flag handing the pole position to a Haas (although I don't think it would last very long in the sprint race).

Eight months after making his shock return to Formula 1, Kevin Magnussen took a stunning pole position in qualifying for the 2022 Sao Paulo Sprint.
Although Q1 began on a damp track, slicks were soon fitted and it was Lando Norris who led the opening session, before Max Verstappen took over in a dry Q2. The top-10 shootout was a different story.
With two minutes of Q3 completed, Kevin Magnussen was top of the timesheets, and it was then that George Russell locked up and beached his Mercedes at Turn 5, bringing out a red flag to leave the Dane incredulous. A short stoppage later, and the rain began to fall: Magnussen’s time would stand, and he would have his first Formula 1 pole position.
Verstappen finished second, 0.203s off the pace, while Russell took third for the Sprint. Norris ended up fourth for McLaren, while Carlos Sainz – who has a five-place penalty for Sunday – rounded out the top five.

Source.

Haas has got the field covered with first and last car to start tomorrow are Haas!


Who would have thought this would be real!

Nevertheless a brilliant qualifying by Kevin and the Haas team. Looking at Kevin's excitement made me a happy man!


The top 10.

[Scarlet_Rider]

Really happy for Kevin Magnussen and Haas! Let's hope the weather favours him for a podium finish.

[amitoj]

No matter who you support, watching KMag and Haas celebrate the pole position is why we still watch Formula 1. What a joy! He was blistering fast too, so even if this had been a full session, he would still have been very competitive, I feel.

[AZT]

All the Sky sports TV crew covering this should wear this shirt while presenting. https://haasf1team.tricorp.com/product/t-shirt-legend/
I want to see the DTS episode with Gunther behind the scenes. They definitely dont look like wankers this week

[BrokenHW]

Lewis Hamilton mural in Brazil

It was unveiled by artist Eduardo Kobra and Hamilton showed up to sign the bottom left with spray paint.



It's the same artist that did the Senna mural

[ninjatalli]

what a wonderful sprint - one of the best & engaging races this year so far. While KMag was able to keep his 1st position only for the first 2 laps, he gave a good fight to the top team drivers to still gain 1 point by coming 8th and not getting beaten further. But it was the fight of the Mercedes duo that made the race really interesting. Russell didn't let off any pressure and kept racing after Verstappen to finally beat him with around another ~8 laps to go. The soft tires really gave him the edge over Verstappen's medium compound tires but the Mercedes cars have had some good upgrades to keep up with the Red Bulls. So were Sainz and Hamilton able to overtake Verstappen - a sight that has been never seen all year.

In the middle, Hamilton raced from P8 to nearly get to P2. Another lap and he would have beaten Sainz to make it 1-2 for Mercedes. With Sainz getting a 5 place penalty, it's a Mercedes 1-2 followed by Red Bull 3-4 for the race tonight. It's definitely going to be the best opportunity for Mercedes to get a win for sure.

We also need to remember it was Brazil last year where Hamilton moved up from P5 to win the sprint and then had to start from P10 in the main race (due to a penalty) and blazed through the top 10 to win the race with over 10s to space. He was at a different level in this race last year and he seems to be showing similar signs yesterday. My money is on him for tonight for sure.

Originally Posted by BrokenHW

Lewis Hamilton mural in Brazil

It was unveiled by artist Eduardo Kobra and Hamilton showed up to sign the bottom left with spray paint.

Wonderful. Being an honorary citizen of Brazil, Hamilton's got a huge fan following in Brazil.

[FuelInjector]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

The soft tires really gave him the edge over Verstappen's medium compound tires but the Mercedes cars have had some good upgrades to keep up with the Red Bulls.

Was this a goof up in strategy part of RB? ONly Max and Latifi were on mediums, which i thought was a little dumb call.

There was this debris strewn around after the Alonso mishap and it added to some variability in performance. Checo was also gaining hard and fast on Max/Lewis clocking some real good numbers in sector 1 and 3.

But George was in another planet the way he drove. Am surely smacking my lips for the race tonight . Mercs arent going to allow an inch. Finally some real wheel to wheel racing i hope.

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

what a wonderful sprint - one of the best & engaging races this year so far. While KMag was able to keep his 1st position only for the first 2 laps, he gave a good fight to the top team drivers to still gain 1 point by coming 8th and not getting beaten further.

Did you notice KMag lost 7 positions and Mick gained 7? I thought that was a funny coincidence.
Lance Stroll still does not know how to race.
Apart from him, everyone else seems to have had a thrilling race, from drivers to spectators! Some excellent wheel to wheel racing brought on by a mix of cars with high straight line speed and high cornering ability.

[Ashishkel]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

what a wonderful sprint - one of the best & engaging races this year so far. While KMag was able to keep his 1st position only for the first 2 laps, he gave a good fight to the top team drivers to still gain 1 point by coming 8th and not getting beaten further. But it was the fight of the Mercedes duo that made the race really interesting. Russell didn't let off any pressure and kept racing after Verstappen to finally beat him with around another ~8 laps to go. The soft tires really gave him the edge over Verstappen's medium compound tires but the Mercedes cars have had some good upgrades to keep up with the Red Bulls. So were Sainz and Hamilton able to overtake Verstappen - a sight that has been never seen all year.

In the middle, Hamilton raced from P8 to nearly get to P2. Another lap and he would have beaten Sainz to make it 1-2 for Mercedes. With Sainz getting a 5 place penalty, it's a Mercedes 1-2 followed by Red Bull 3-4 for the race tonight. It's definitely going to be the best opportunity for Mercedes to get a win for sure.

We also need to remember it was Brazil last year where Hamilton moved up from P5 to win the sprint and then had to start from P10 in the main race (due to a penalty) and blazed through the top 10 to win the race with over 10s to space. He was at a different level in this race last year and he seems to be showing similar signs yesterday. My money is on him for tonight for sure.


Wonderful. Being an honorary citizen of Brazil, Hamilton's got a huge fan following in Brazil.

Fantastic race.
Mercedes, especially Hamilton gets some new energy when he gets here I think. I thought i was watching last year's sprint replay.

The track supports overtaking so well, still Max going with MEDs, brave decision, but I'm still confused, why? All going on slicks and Max alone on Mediums. Weather was sunny,..

Vettel, man should he be retiring?

Russel, wonderful driving, but Max, the way he held track position, gets my respect. .
With a broken wing, he managed to hold Hamilton a bit too, but that said, mediums had more grip too.

[ninjatalli]

What a brilliant brilliant race. If I thought the sprint was action filled, the race turned out even more, right from the start of the race to the last lap.

So many twists and turns and the only constant through the entire race was Russell's being at the front from start to the end (except a few laps in between). And what an excellent win for Russell and the Mercedes team.


An interesting incident on the last lap - Checo and Leclarc are fighting for the championship points, both aiming for the second position.

- Leclarc requests the team to ask Sainz to let him ahead to get the 3 extra points. The team rightly refuses, especially given Sainz would have to give up a podium finish.

- RedBull team orders Verstappen to give the position (back) to Checo as anyway he was unable to overtake Alonso in front of him and the extra 2 points would benefit Checo much more. Verstappen refuses saying "he's discussed this in the past and he does not want to entertain such requests and has his own reasons for doing so".

Seems like short term memory loss - last year's Abu Dhabi win was largely due to Checo helping him (by blocking Hamilton for 2 laps). What an irony. If Checo loses the 2nd position (in the Driver's Championship) by a few points,
next year Verstappen is not going to see the friendly team mate he's had over the last two years.

[adwaith]

Mercedes are back on top again and boy I can't contain my excitement. What an epic weekend! The Sprint had so many overtakes it made me rethink my earlier stand that we should get rid of them and then Mercedes getting a 1-2 in the main race with George's maiden win.

Netflix is going to have a wonderful time with this episode of DTS. So much content. Especially Lewis's comments on the collision with Max.

It was quite sad to see Leclerc plead with the team, with what I thought was an unreasonable request considering that he was almost 4 seconds behind.

Same with GP asking Max at the end. But to be fair Checo has yielded quite a few times this season to help with Max's championship as a good teammate, but apparently Max is of the opinion that Checo's qualifying crash in Monaco was deliberate. I mean that's a massive grudge to hold against a teammate who has been not just cordial but complemented your drives. But RBR has been treating their number 2 drivers this way since water has been wet.

Danny Ric seems to be a tad desperate, engaging in moves that are not realistic. It ended up being a penalty in Austin and is likely to be one today as well. Such a talented and skilled driver, once touted to be a future World Championship, now becoming a reserve driver after ending up making too many mistakes with his team switches. Such a sad affair.

One final race to go, back at the same venue where Michael Masi sealed the fate of Lewis, Max and his own. Some outrageous race direction and stewarding last season, that has ever so slightly improved but far from being acceptable. Even today, the safety car came out late, ended late and the VSC came on just as Lando was exiting his car.

I remember Toto calling F1 a meritocracy and I hope that Liberty Media keeps up those standards and doesn't succumb to the whims of their market in the thirst for greater profits.

But all in all, a satisfactory end to the season after being a disappointed CSK, Fabio Quartararo and Mercedes fan. I may be asking for too much but I want Lewis to keep up that at least 1 win a season streak. Hopefully the F1 gods think this time it's Lewis's turn at Abu Dhabi.

EDIT: My apologies to Yuki Tsunoda for thinking that he messed up the unlapping. I incorrectly thought he was Car No. 6. Turns our the FIA completely forgot that he has to unlap as well and didn't display his car number in the unlapping procedure.

[SShandilya]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

- RedBull team orders Verstappen to give the position (back) to Checo as anyway he was unable to overtake Alonso in front of him and the extra 2 points would benefit Checo much more. Verstappen refuses saying "he's discussed this in the past and he does not want to entertain such requests and has his own reasons for doing so".

Seems like short term memory loss - last year's Abu Dhabi win was largely due to Checo helping him (by blocking Hamilton for 2 laps). What an irony. If Checo loses the 2nd position (in the Driver's Championship) by a few points,
next year Verstappen is not going to see the friendly team mate he's had over the last two years.

The infighting has already begun after the sprint, they unfollowed each other on instagram as well.
What I don’t understand is what advantage does Max gets if he lets Checo by ? Why not support your teammate who is in a close contest for P2 ? Baffles me

[Joeboy]

Redbull will support only Max and not Checo as he is the lead driver and world champion.Checho has to beat Max on the track especially in qualifying regularly which is quite unlikely and then he might have a say. Redbull has chosen checo as they know that he will not be able to challenge Max as they do not want both the drivers fighting for championship as it might be a headache to handle them both like Mercedes had when they found it difficult to handle Lewis and Nico when they were fighting for the championship.

[Turbohead]

Originally Posted by Joeboy

Redbull will support only Max and not Checo as he is the lead driver and world champion.Checho has to beat Max on the track especially in qualifying regularly which is quite unlikely and then he might have a say. Redbull has chosen checo as they know that he will not be able to challenge Max as they do not want both the drivers fighting for championship as it might be a headache to handle them both like Mercedes had when they found it difficult to handle Lewis and Nico when they were fighting for the championship.

Like it or not, but Red Bull's worst fears will begin in the next race. It's unlikely that Checo will listen to team orders from next season and he wouldn't mind getting his elbows out with Max!

If Red Bull accepts Max's decision, no driver with a wish to win races and championships will ever want to join the team unless he's just happy to get a seat although their performance may not necessarily be up to the mark which Perez sort of brought to the table.

[ninjatalli]

This is a good explanation of the situation and the state of affairs to be expected between Checo and Verstappen going forward

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWYA5k6XjrM

Max seems like the brilliant but spoilt kid who demands everyone bow to his needs. Irrespective of whether he's right or wrong, he's risked a wonderful camaraderie for something that gave him absolutely no benefits other than the cheap thrill of saying (to his team) that 'I told you so'.

What is sad (if Checo loses the 2nd position in the next race) is that Red Bull has never had the golden opportunity of winning both drivers & team championships with the drivers being 1 & 2 on the list. This year can be a new high for them.