SAO PAULO, Brazil —
Valtteri Bottas took pole position
for the Brazil Grand Prix on Saturday as teammate and world champion Lewis
Hamilton endured a controversial day off the Interlagos track and a storming
drive on it.
اضافة اعلان
Bottas claimed pole for Sunday's showpiece by winning the
24-lap sprint race.
World championship leader
Max Verstappen will start the
grand prix beside the Finn on the front row in his Red Bull.
It was Hamilton, however, who ended the day as the chief
headline maker.
The seven-time world champion, who now trails Verstappen by
21 points in the title race with four events left, was relegated to the back of
the grid for Saturday' sprint.
That was due to his disqualification from Friday qualifying,
where he had been the fastest man on the track, after his car was judged to
have breached technical rules.
He then shrugged off that setback by storming through the
field from last place to finish fifth in the sprint.
However, he will still start Sunday's race in 10th place
having already been given a five-place grid penalty for an engine change on his
Mercedes.
"Brilliant job, damage limitation," said Mercedes
team chief Toto Wolff.
"Copy," replied Hamilton. "It's not over
yet."
Verstappen was passed by Bottas on the first corner and then
briefly by Ferrari's Carlos Sainz before coming home in second place.
"The start itself wasn't the best and then we were on
the harder compound, that didn't help," said the Dutchman.
"I think the pace was quite good but around here once
you close up you can't really pass. But it's ok."
Earlier Saturday, after a lengthy stewards' meeting,
Hamilton was penalized after his Mercedes' DRS system (the flap mounted on the
rear wing of the car which opens to gain top speed) was judged to have exceeded
allowed limits.
"The team will not be appealing Lewis' disqualification
from Quali. We want to win these World Championships on the race track,"
tweeted Mercedes.
Fined for 'touching'
Verstappen, meanwhile, was fined 50,000 euros for
"touching" the Mercedes of Hamilton but was not handed a grid
penalty.
The Red Bull star was spotted examining Hamilton's car in
the secure parc ferme after qualifying on Friday.
"It is clear to the stewards that it has become a habit
of the drivers to touch cars after qualifying and the races," said a
statement from the stewards.
"This was also the explanation of Verstappen, that it
was simply habit to touch this area of the car which has been a point of
speculation in recent races between both teams.
"This general tendency has been seen as mostly harmless
and so has not been uniformly policed. Nevertheless, it is a breach of the parc
ferme regulation and has significant potential to cause harm."
The rest of Sunday's leading places will see Sainz and
Sergio Perez in the Red Bull on the second row.
McLaren's
Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc of Ferrari make
up the third row ahead of Pierre Gasly in the
AlphaTauri and
Esteban Ocon of
Alpine.
Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel in an Aston Martin
shares the fifth row with Hamilton.
The Brazil Grand Prix, which was cancelled in 2020 due to
the pandemic, was the third race this season to stage a Saturday sprint after
Britain and Italy.
After Sunday's grand prix, three more remain in Qatar, Saudi
Arabia and Abu Dhabi.
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