VALTTERI ON POLE, BUT LEWIS DOMINATED SPRINT QUALIFYING

At Silverstone, the owners of Formula 1 tried the new format of the race weekend for the first time, with sprint qualifying on Saturday, 100km race, and qualifying on Friday.

Today, Valtter Bottas won the sprint in Sao Paulo and will start from pole position in Sunday's race, sharing the front row with Verstappen. Sainz Jr. and Perez start from second, Norris and Leclerc from the third. Lewis Hamilton finished fifth, but will lose five places tomorrow due to a change of engine.

Saturday's sprint race ended the program on the second day of the race weekend in Brazil, a day in which the two rivals for the title received penalties from the stewards. Hamilton won the qualifying, but an inspection of his car showed that the upper element of the DRS system opens more than it should, so the Briton was disqualified and he started last.

Verstappen was also fined with 50.000 euros for touching the back wing of Hamilton's car after qualifying, trying to test the flexibility of its elements. The stewards accused Max of violating the Formula 1 sporting rules.

Verstappen and Bottas started the sprint from the first row, Perez and Gasly from the second, Sainz Jr. and Leclerc from the third. The drivers had to complete 24 laps to determine the starting grid for tomorrow's Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

In the sprint, the teams were free to choose their starting tires, so Bottas, Gasly, Sainz Jr., Ocon, Tsunoda, Raikkonen, Giovinacci, Schumacher and Mazepin started in with red compound, while the others chose the yellow.

At the start, Valtteri overtook Verstappen to lead the sprint after the first corner, and couple corners ahead, the Dutchman was overtaken by Carlos Sainz Jr. Daniel Ricciardo lost two positions, and Lewis Hamilton climbed to 16th place.

Alfa Romeo drivers had contact, after which Kimi Raikkonen ended up off the track, losing several positions. In the fourth lap, Verstappen overtook Sainz Jr. for second place.

Hamilton's Mercedes AMG car had no competition, easily overtaking Tsunoda and Giovinaci and climbing to 12th place. In the 8th lap, Hamilton overtook Alonso for 11th place.

In the ninth lap, Lando Norris overtook Leclerc and climbed to 5th place, but star of the sprint qualifying was Hamilton, who already on the lap 13 overtook Ricciardo for the Top 10 ranking.

Ahead Verstappen closed the gap to the leader, but the Finn managed the red tires well, so the difference in speed was not enough for an attack.

On the 16th lap, Hamilton overtook Vettel and Ocon, and Pierre Gasly in next one. Charles Leclerc's Ferrari was also pray amd in the last moments, Hamilton overtook Norris for the excellent 5th position.

2021 SAO PAULO GP - SPRINT QUALIFYING 24 laps,; 100km., Weather: Sunny
CLASSIFICATION:
P.	DRIVER	TEAM	TIME/GAP
1.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG	29:09.559
2.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+ 1.170
3.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	+ 18.723
4.	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	+ 19.787
5.	Lewis Hamilton*	Mercedes AMG	+ 20.872
6.	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 22.558
7.	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 25.056
8.	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	+ 34.158
9.	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	+ 34.632
10.	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	+ 34.867
11.	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	+ 35.869
12.	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	+ 36.578
13.	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	+ 41.880
14.	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 44.037
15.	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	+ 46.150
16.	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	+ 46.760
17.	George Russell	Williams	+ 47.739
18.	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo	+ 50.014
19.	Mick Schumacher	Haas	+ 1:01.680
20.	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	+ 1:07.474
* penalty 5 grid places POINT AWARDED 3 - Valtteri Bottas 2 - Max Verstappen 1 - Carlos Sainz Jr. @МкФормула1 - РЕПУБЛИКА МАКЕДОНИЈА @MkFormula1 - REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

CLASSIFICATION 18/22
DRIVERS:
1.	Max Verstappen	314.5
2.	Lewis Hamilton	293.5
3.	Valtteri Bottas	188
4.	Sergio Perez	165
5.	Lando Norris	150
6.	Charles Leclerc	138
7.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	131.5
8.	Daniel Ricciardo	105
9.	Pierre Gasly	86
10.	Fernando Alonso	60
11.	Esteban Ocon	46
12.	Sebastian Vettel	42
13.	Lance Stroll	26
14.	Yuki Tsunoda	20
15.	George Russell	16
16.	Kimi Räikkönen	10
17.	Nicholas Latifi	7
18.	Antonio Giovinazzi	1
19.	Mick Schumacher	0
20.	Robert Kubica	0
21.	Nikita Mazepin	0
CONSTRUCTORS:
1.	Mercedes AMG	481.5
2.	Red Bull	479.5
3.	Ferrari	269.5
4.	McLaren	255
5.	Alpine	106
6.	AlphaTauri	106
7.	Aston Martin	68
8.	Williams	23
9.	Alfa Romeo	11
10.	Haas	0