Brazil - Sprint

Three cars decided to begin the Saturday sprint from the pitlane: two Aston Martins, and the Kick Sauber of Zhou. The other seventeen took their spots on the grid and patiently waited for the lights to go out for the first time this weekend. 

Oscar Piastri, the man who qualified on sprint pole, held his lead throughout the first lap, keeping a safe distance between himself and his teammate. Behind the two McLarens, Verstappen tried to take P3 from Leclerc but didn't find a chance to get past. Further down the grid, Hamilton was overtaken by both Haas drivers and Perez, falling down to P14. 

During the first few laps of the race, Verstappen only had one task on his mind: overtaking the Ferrari. But Leclerc wasn't going to make it easy for him. He defended his position at every corner, covering off any attempt made by the reigning world champion. 

The top four were within a few seconds of each other, with a bigger gap building up between P4 and P5. Norris tried to catch up to his teammate but never got close enough to attempt an overtake. He asked for team orders to be issued, but the team was reluctant to switch positions straight away. He was told that to ensure a sufficient gap between the two McLarens and Leclerc, they would hold positions until the last lap of the race. 

Verstappen felt stuck behind the Ferrari and complained about Leclerc making mistakes and costing both of them precious time. It took him a while but on lap 18 he found a way past Leclerc and settled behind the two McLarens. It was a great moment for his team, made only better by the fact that Perez, who had been slowly climbing up the field, managed to move to a point-scoring position. 

Just when it seemed that the race was all but over, smoke coming out of the back of Hulkenberg's car caught the attention of all viewers. On lap 24 the German driver stopped, bringing out a yellow flag in sector two. The McLarens, sensing that his incident might also cause a virtual safety car and disrupt the race, quickly swapped positions, making Norris the new race leader. They were right: the virtual safety car was brought out on lap 22 and lasted well into the last lap of the race. As soon as it ended, Verstappen tried to overtake Piastri but didn't find a good enough opportunity. 

Oscar Piastri had, by all means, a perfect sprint run, he qualified on pole, kept the lead for as long as he could, and even scored the fastest lap, but it was Lando Norris who took home the win and, more importantly, the 8 points that came with it. With Verstappen gaining 6 points for his 3rd place, the gap between the two drivers in the championship decreased once more.

UPDATE: After the race, Max Verstappen received a 5-second penalty for infringing the rules of the virtual safety car. This pushed him to P4, behind Charles Leclerc.

Order of the grid:

1. Lando Norris

2. Oscar Piastri

3. Charles Leclerc

4. Max Verstappen

5. Carlos Sainz

6. George Russel

7. Pierre Gasly

8. Sergio Perez

9. Liam Lawson

10. Alex Albon

11. Lewis Hamilton

12. Franco Colapinto

13. Esteban Ocon

14. Olivier Bearman

15. Yuki Tsunoda

16. Valtteri Bottas

17. Zhou Guanyu

18. Fernando Alonso

19. Lance Stroll

DNF: Nico Hulkenberg