Lewis Hamilton recovered from 10th on the grid to claim victory at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The Briton gained seven places in the opening five laps and then made his way past both Red Bulls, including a tense battle with Max Verstappen to revive his championship chances.
Race Review
A great start for Verstappen gave him the lead ahead of Bottas into Turn 1, with Sergio Perez making it a Red Bull one-two after the Finn ran wide at Turn 4.
LAP 5/71
1 VER
2 PER
3 HAM (4.7s behind VER)
4 BOT
5 LEC
6 SAI#BrazilGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/fGY2KKYkHD— Formula 1 (@F1) November 14, 2021
Lando Norris suffered a puncture after being touched by Carlos Sainz, demoting the McLaren to the back of the field.
Hamilton made another blistering start from P10 gaining four places on the opening lap before quickly passing both Ferraris to run fourth by Lap 4.
Mercedes then wasted little time ordering the Briton ahead of Bottas into third and free to chase the two leaders.
Contact between Yuki Tsunoda and Lance Stroll caused a Safety Car to clear debris at Turn 1.
Verstappen waited for as long as possible at the restart as the top three resumed in formation. Bottas just retained fourth despite big pressure from Charles Leclerc.
The action was paused again soon as more contact between Mick Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen left more debris on track in the middle sector.
At the resumption, Hamilton wasted little time attacking Perez for second and would pass the Mexican at the second attempt into Turn 1.
LAP 18/71
After briefly swapping positions, Lewis Hamilton passes Sergio Perez to take P2 – and makes it stick
He’s now off in pursuit of title rival Max Verstappen
We told you this might be pretty good, didn’t we? ?#BrazilGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/cN6xGKjh7Y
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 14, 2021
Their battle allowed Verstappen to open up a three-second lead out front, with the Dutchman able to match the Mercedes’ pace.
With tyre wear high in the warmer temperatures, Hamilton would stop early to try the undercut but only succeeded in closing the gap as Max reacted a lap later.
A brief Virtual Safety Car also enabled Bottas to stop and jump ahead of Perez in third.
Red Bull would trigger the second round of pit-stops with Verstappen to avoid Mercedes attempting the undercut again and also forcing Hamilton to stay on the hard tyre.
On the fresh tyres, Lewis stormed upto the rear of Verstappen and made a move with DRS down to Turn 4, but Max would brake late forcing both off the track before continuing.
LAP 48/71
;kljhfdjksahfljkahdfaljkdsfhlajksdhf#BrazilGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/JEidAt74Xq
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 14, 2021
The stewards took a look before deciding no investigation was needed.
Hamilton regrouped and came back at his championship rival making a decisive move into Turn 4 to take the lead.
Once ahead, victory was secure as he eased to a comfortable 10-second lead over the Dutchman by the chequered flag.
Bottas came home in third ahead of Perez, who took the extra point for fastest lap away from Hamilton on the final lap.
In the midfield, Ferrari led the way in fifth and sixth, extending their lead over McLaren in the fight for third in the Constructors’ Championship.
Pierre Gasly took seventh ahead of the two Alpines as Esteban Ocon led Fernando Alonso by just 0.4s over the line.
Norris recovered from his Lap 1 puncture to claim the final point in 10th.
Full results from the race can be seen below:
