Bottas tops sprint qualifying in Brazil as Hamilton recovers to fifth after disqualification
Valtteri Bottas topped F1 Sprint qualifying in Brazil as Lewis Hamilton charged through the field to fifth.
Valtteri Bottas celebrates after topping the F1 Sprint in Brazil (Steve Etherington)
Bottas took the second consecutive Sprint victory for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team, while Hamilton made the most of his Saturday after starting from the rear of the grid.
"Today the start was the key thing for me and I got a good one!" said Bottas.
Verstappen started from first but Bottas was able to pass at the start.
Verstappen was able to keep pace with the Mercedes driver but unable to mount a pass for the lead.
Bottas took the chequered flag for his 20th career pole position.
"We gambled a little bit with the soft tyre," said the Finn.
"We knew that it would be a benefit for the start and it worked and it was all about trying to survive until the end."
"It was quite tricky in the final laps but Max still struggled to follow in the corners, so I'm glad it worked out perfectly."
"The support here from the fans has been amazing here, so thank you as well to everybody who came out today!
Bottas earnt three points for his efforts, adding to the tight Constructors' battle between Mercedes and Red Bull.
Max Verstappen was beaten by Bottas off the start and finished second. (Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool)
Max Verstappen finished second, with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz in third.
"We started on the harder compound and as soon as I saw Valtteri was on the softs I knew it would be quite tricky to keep position," said Verstappen, "especially in these colder track temperatures."
"After the first lap we had good pace but it’s hard to overtake here and the tyres overheat a lot so there’s not much you can do so I ended up sitting behind."
Verstappen's podium earnt him two points, extending his championship advantage over Hamilton to 21 points.
"At the end of the day I always try to do the best I can and it was good to score a few points today."
"Tomorrow is the important day and it will be different when we have more options with pit strategies."
"Let’s see what happens tomorrow, it’s going to be quite a bit warmer so hopefully that will be better for us but it’s difficult to say at the moment."
Lewis Hamilton charged through the field after starting at the rear of the grid. (Jiri Krenek)
Hamilton was disqualified from Friday qualifying due to a technical infringement with his rear wing, putting him last on the grid for the Sprint.
He sped through the field to fifth at the flag, and after taking a new engine for this weekend, will start the Grand Prix from P10.
"Honestly, I had no idea what was possible today - I didn't set a limit or a maximum," said Hamilton.
"When I was at the back of the grid at the start before we pulled away for the formation lap, I think I might have been able to see like, 10 and I was like 'okay, that's my goal, I've got to try and get up as far as possible' but then all of a sudden I was chipping away at it much faster and I really used a lot of different things for motivation today."
"I just never give up, you can't ever give up."
"It has been tough today: while the team was working away, talking with the stewards, I was just trying focus on my work with my engineers and keeping the morale with my mechanics high and just focusing on the job at hand."
"Not thinking about it."
"Of course, it was devastating when I heard about the verdict but you can't let that hold you back." "You've got to keep your head down and keep going."
"I quickly reset, got my mind focused on doing what I could do and just giving it my everything."
