Sao Paulo Grand Prix Sprint: Piastri gifts Norris win, Verstappen P3
F1 NewsSaturday, 02 November 2024 at 15:37
Lando Norris won the Sao Paulo Sprint race after teammate Oscar Piastri moved out of the way as McLaren deployed team orders. Max Verstappen was third.
McLaren kept the order late into the 24-lap race and benefitted from a Yellow flag caused by Nico Hulkenberg parking his Haas on the side of the track with power unit problems.
The Woking squad gave the order just before the Virtual Safety Car was deployed, which meant Verstappen could not attack Piastri for second place and despite a last minute lunge on the Australian, the triple Formula 1 champion had to settle for third and lose two points to his title rival.
Verstappen was under investigation for violating VSC rules at the time of this report.
Behind the top three, Charles Leclerc was fourth in the Ferrari after resisting the attacks of Verstappen until Lap 18. His teammate Carlos Sainz was fifth in the sister car.
George Russell finished where he started, in sixth, as Pierre Gasly was seventh in the Alpine.
Sergio Perez did well to make up places and managed to finish eighth, taking the final point, after another tight fight with Liam Lawson, the Kiwi finishing ninth and missing out on points.
What the top three finishers said
Norris admitted he was not proud with how he win the Sprint, he said: "Not proud about it, but we worked well as a team together, so I thank Oscar. We’ve done a great job as a team. Today was the result that we wanted.
"Oscar deserved it, but we did what we had to do. So I thank him and the team. We had great pace, so looking forward to qualifying and the race tomorrow," he added.
Asked whether he could have passed his teammate without team orders, Norris explained: "It’s tough. It was yo-yoing a little bit, I would catch up and drop back and catch up. It’s just that the dirty air costs you a lot of lap time. I felt a bit quicker but I couldn’t pass at the time. But I felt good.
"I think we were clearly quicker than the guys behind, it’s just difficult in the Sprint race knowing much to manage and push but we executed it well," he concluded.
Piastri commented on his race, he said: "It was a bit tricky. Very bumpy. The racing line was incredibly narrow. You miss it by a tyre width and you are in all sorts of trouble.
"A great day from the team. A lot of points. I think we learned a lot for the race tomorrow as well.
"The Ferrari was quick at the start and Max at the end. I think we have a few things to improve but we are in decent shape," the Aussie concluded.
As for Verstappen, he added: "It was quite a tricky race but I think the pace was very good because we could always follow within the DRS, and I’m quite pleased with that.
"It took a bit too long with Charles but when everyone is in a DRS train it’s very hard to attack, so I had to wait for some mistakes and luckily they came, and I could use that to my advantage.
"It was promising, it was good. This is race pace. Tomorrow it might rain as well, so there are a lot of unknowns, but today was good," the Dutchman maintained.
Quizzed whether his pace in the Sprint meant he would be competitive for the rest of the weekend, Verstappen said: "I hope so.
"I still expect them (McLaren) to be really quick over one lap but I hope we can limit the damage a bit with the five-place grid penalty I have," he concluded.
How the Sprint unraveled
Under clear conditions the cars made their way to the track that was having a temperature of 46 degrees Celsius while the air temperature was 28 degrees.
All the drivers opted for the Medium tyre for the 24-lap race .
However Alonso, Stroll, and Zhou stayed behind in the pitlane from where they would start as they broke parc ferme conditions following Sprint qualifying to make changes on the cars.
Lap 1/24: Piastri made a clean start and the top four maintained their positions by Turn 1, Piastri leading Norris, the Leclerc, then Verstappen with Sainz in fifth.
Hulkenberg had a decent start while Hamilton dropped from 11th to 14th.
Lap 2/24: DRS was enable and Verstappen was lining up Leclerc for a move and tries a move at the end of the lap into Turn 1 but cannot make it stick.
Lap 3/24: Verstappen's engineer asks him to take his time with Leclerc who pulls out of DRS threat while Norris was within DRS to Piastri.
Lap 4/24: No changes in the top eight.
Lap 5/24: Norris hints to his team to give the orders and radios: "I'm close."
Lap 6/24: McLaren confirm they understood Norris' message but told him to keep an eye on Leclerc in third.
Lap 7/24: Verstappen posts the fastest lap and closed in on Leclerc, while Norris urged his team to give the order for Piastri to move aside.
Norris said: "I'm not sure what I'm doing here mate. We spoke about this before."
Lap 8/24: No change in the top four and McLaren held firm on team order while Norris was not impressed. Leclerc was within DRS to Norris, Verstappen within DRS to Leclerc.
Lap 9/24: Haas driver had a fight with Perez lurking. Bearman overtook Hulkenberg for ninth while Perez also passed the German for tenth.
Lap 10/24: McLaren order Piastri to give Norris DRS. It was very close at the front and there was no chance for making mistakes.
Lap 11/24: Piastri was still leading the DRS train dragging Norris, Leclerc, and Verstappen behind while Sainz was further back in fifth.
Perez was now ninth having passed Bearman.
Lap 12/24: No changes up front.
Lap 13/24: Leclerc drops out of DRS and Verstappen closes in on the Ferrari. Piastri slows down and Norris closes in.
Lap 14/24: Verstappen gets a look in Turn 4 but is too far away from Leclerc while Piastri kept his lead.
Further back, Perez was not hounding his Mexico nemesis Lawson in the fight for eighth.
Lap 15/24: Perez moved up to eighth, but then Lawson hits back and retakes the position. Nothing changed up front though.
Lap 16/24: Verstappen still trying to pass Leclerc who dropped out of DRS again as McLaren ask Norris to hold position with Piastri till the fast lap.
Lap 17/24: McLaren and their drivers keep talking but nothing changes as Verstappen kept chasing Leclerc.
Lap 18/24: Verstappen finally passed Leclerc for third at Turn 4 and sets out chasing the McLarens.
Lap 19/24: Verstappen's engineer asks him to chase the McLaren's down, while Norris was not settling and taking matters into his own hands.
Lap 20/24: Perez passed Lawson for eighth while the Haas of Hulkenberg started to smoke. .
Lap 21/24: Hulkenberg stops the car on track at Turn 10 and the Yellow flag is out in sector two.
Piastri was still leading Norris with Verstappen closing in on DRS.
Lap 22/24: McLaren give the order and Piastri gives Norris the lead but the Australian now fell into the clutches of Verstappen.
But then the Virtual Safety Car is deployed. Verstappen cannot attack.
Lap 23/24: The cars drive around under the Virtual Safety Car.
Lap 24/24: VSC is away and Verstappen attacks Piastri immediately but cannot make the move stick. And the top three cross the finish line unchanged.
Norris first with Piastri in second and Verstappen third. Verstappen was noted for a VSC infringement.
Sao Paulo Grand Prix Sprint - Classification
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