Brazil Grand Prix 2021: Who won the sprint race?

Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas won the final sprint race of the season at the Brazil Grand Prix at the Interlagos circuit. The Finn claimed his second sprint race victory of the season and was followed by Max Verstappen in second place and Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz in third.

Verstappen extended his championship lead to a total of 21 points. The Ducthman’s teammate Sergio Perez finished fourth while his title rival Lewis Hamilton finished fifth. Overtaking 15 cars in 22 laps, the Briton recovered from his disqualification penalty of starting 20th on the grid.

McLaren driver Lando Norris finished sixth, followed by Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. Pierre Gasly finished seventh for Alpha Tauri and was followed by Alpine driver Esteban Ocon and Sebastian Vettel in ninth and tenth respectively.

Valtteri Bottas of Finland leads Max Verstappen and the rest of the field into turn one at the start of the 2021 Brazil Grand Prix sprint race. (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images)

Bottas bested Verstappen at the start to jump into the lead. From there on, the Finn led the race for the next 24 laps. Verstappen, on the other hand, was also overtaken by Sainz at the start, and recovered second place on Lap 3.

Both Red Bull cars were struggling within DRS range of drivers ahead of them. Verstappen and Perez's RB16Bs seemed to be sliding across the circuit as they were unable to get past Bottas and Sainz respectively.

Verstappen, Perez, Leclerc, Hamilton, Norris were the drivers in the top 10 to finish the race on medium tires while the rest were on the soft tire. The drivers outside the top 10 to finish the Brazil Grand Prix on the medium tire were Daniel Ricciardo, Fernando Alonso, Nicholas Latifi, and George Russell.

Despite the early drama with Hamilton’s investigation, Mercedes seemed closer than expected to Red Bull F1 team’s pace and were in attack mode throughout the sprint race. However, in the 71-lap Brazil Grand Prix, things could be pan out differently with pitstops and strategies coming into play.

As a result of the sprint race results, Bottas will start from pole, with Verstappen alongside him on the front row of the grid for the 2021 Brazil Grand Prix. Verstappen will no doubt be looking to make a better start than he managed in the sprint race in order to grab the lead from Bottas.

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Full results of F1 Brazil Grand Prix 2021 sprint race

The full results for the sprint race ahead of the 2021 Brazil Grand Prix are as follows:

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	TIME/RETIRED	PTS
1	77	Valtteri Bottas	MERCEDES	24	29:09.559	3
2	33	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA	24	+1.170s	2
3	55	Carlos Sainz	FERRARI	24	+18.723s	1
4	11	Sergio Perez	RED BULL RACING HONDA	24	+19.787s	0
5	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	24	+20.872s	0
6	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN MERCEDES	24	+22.558s	0
7	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	24	+25.056s	0
8	10	Pierre Gasly	ALPHATAURI HONDA	24	+34.158s	0
9	31	Esteban Ocon	ALPINE RENAULT	24	+34.632s	0
10	5	Sebastian Vettel	ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES	24	+34.867s	0
11	3	Daniel Ricciardo	MCLAREN MERCEDES	24	+35.869s	0
12	14	Fernando Alonso	ALPINE RENAULT	24	+36.578s	0
13	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI	24	+41.880s	0
14	18	Lance Stroll	ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES	24	+44.037s	0
15	22	Yuki Tsunoda	ALPHATAURI HONDA	24	+46.150s	0
16	6	Nicholas Latifi	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	24	+46.760s	0
17	63	George Russell	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	24	+47.739s	0
18	7	Kimi Räikkönen	ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI	24	+50.014s	0
19	47	Mick Schumacher	HAAS FERRARI	24	+61.680s	0
20	9	Nikita Mazepin	HAAS FERRARI	24	+67.474s	0