Valtteri Bottas piped Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to win the Brazilian Grand Prix sprint qualifying and grab the pole position for Sunday’s race. Meanwhile, his Mercedes teammate, Lewis Hamilton, charged past a barrage of cars to finish in fifth after starting from the back of the grid for being disqualified in Friday’s qualifying.

Bottas, who started P2, enjoyed a superior start compared to Verstappen, who had sketchy turns through the initial corners. Once he grabbed the lead of the race, the Finn maintained his degrading soft tyres to perfection and held Verstappen behind him for the 24 laps. The Dutchman had at one point dropped to third behind Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari, but ultimately regained the spot. 

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After finishing second in the sprint, Verstappen has bagged two points and extended his lead over Hamilton in the championship race to 21. 

Meanwhile, Sainz showed incredible heart to defend Sergio Perez on fast degrading tyres throughout the race. Hamilton finished fifth ahead of birthday boy Lando Norris, however, the seven-time world champion has been handed a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race as he has opted to change parts of his car’s engine. 

On Friday, Hamilton beat Verstappen by more than 0.4 seconds in qualifying for the sprint race and took the pole position, however, the regulators said that his No. 44 Mercedes was under investigation as the Drag Reduction System wing was exceeding the maximum distance when opened. 

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Meanwhile, ahead of the sprint race, Hamilton’s rival, Verstappen, was also fined 50,000 euros after the Dutch driver was seen touching the rear wing of the Mercedes car.

Tomorrow, Hamilton will be starting from 10th and will be hoping his teammate Bottas can hold off Verstappen as he makes his places up the grid.