Brazilian Grand Prix: F1 – live | Formula One

Lap 35/71 Mercedes are proper struggling here, Sainz blazing by Russell and now in Hamilton in his sights, just 1.105s ahead. Surely they’ll pit again and try softs, because the medius are going backwards.

Lap 34/71 Perez is 1.274 behind Alonso, in third, It’ll take all the veteran’s wiles to hang onto his podium.

Lap 33/71 Hamilton, sixth, has Russell roughly a second behind, with Sainz just under a second further back; this is getting lively.

Lap 32/71 Yup, Perez is now with 1.574s of Alonso, while Veratappen leads Norris by 5.298s at the front.

Lap 31/71 Perez is closing on Alonso now, driving as quickly as Verstappen. Alonso is in trouble, I’d say.

Lap 30/71 Let’s have some standings:

1. Verstappen

2. Norris

3. Alonso

4. Perez

5. Sroll

6. Hamilton

7. Russell

8. Sainz

9. Ocon

10. Bottas

11. Gasly

12. Sargeant

13. Tsunoda

14. Hulkenberg

15. Ricciardo

16. Piastri

Lap 29/71 Verstappen’s lead is nearly 5s now and Perez is gaining on Alonso, the gap now 2.434s.

Lap 28/71 Verstappen and Norris both pit, the gap between them 3;427s. But it’s growing…

Lap 27/71 Perez is now 4.154s in front of Hamilton and closing on Alonso, out of the pits and back in third. At the front Verstappen leads Norris by 3.503s.

Lap 26/71 The leading six – Verstappen, Norris, Alonso, now in the pit, Sainz, Gasly and Tsunoda are all on mediums. Whether the teams stop twice or thrice remains to be seen.

Lap 25/71 Verstappen pushes it; he’ll want enough of a lead to pit ahead of Norris and Alonso and emerge still in front.

Lap 24/71 I’m not sure what’s gone on her, but Zhou is out of the race.

Lap 23/71 Perez is irritated he didn’t come in when Hamilton did but is soon in position to attack again. He’s shut down first go, so goes again … and slides by on the inside!

Lap 22/71 Verstappen now leads by 3.137s and he’s in so much control it’s a joke. Behind him, Alonso can’t get any closer to Norris.

Lap 21/71 Now Perez comes in and he’s out in 2.2s, emerging just behind Hamilton.

Lap 20/71 Oh, Hamilton went in last lap, coming out in 11th ahead of Ocon; Russell then does likewise and he comes out behind Hamilton, closer to him than before.

Lap 19/71 Various drivers are ordered to speed up, which suggests a raft of pit-stops are coming.

Lap 18/71 Perez gets close to Hamilton, goes wide on the outside then forces his way past on the inside! That’s a terrific piece of driving.

Lap 17/71 At the front, each driver is building a lead over the car behind, Hamilton aside; Ocon and Zhou both pit, presumably looking to steal a match on Tsunoda.

Lap 16/71 Verstappen leads Norris by 2.493s. Next is Alonso, then Hamilton, Perezm, Russell, Stroll and Sainz.

Lap 15/71 It’s just ridiculous how good Verstappen is, and there’s no chance whatsoever he’s overtaken now. If he stays on the track, he wins.

Lap 14/71 Perez, trying to beat Hamilton to second place overall, overtakes his teammate Stroll and now sits fifth he’s 1.409s behind the Brit.

Lap 13/71 It’s nuts really, Verstapopen was put under pressure, he rode it, and now he’s 2.420s in front.

Lap 12/71 Russell is concerned his Marc’s sliding; Hamilton’s is struggling for pace on the straight.

Lap 11/71 Perez gets into Russell’s slip and has DRS too … but he can’t pass. Verstappen’s lead is up to 2.190s now, with Alonso a further 1.554s off and Hamilton 3.566 behind that/

Lap 10/71 “What’s going on with Ricciardo and Piastri? How come they’re a lap down?” wonders Maximilian de Pauw Gerlings. They both went in the garage when the safety car came out, so started behind.

Lap 9/71 Verstappen, after nearly losing his lead, has extended it; the gap is up to 1.748s and he’s clearly naused Stroll got close enough for a shy at him.

Lap 8/71 Now then! Norris attacks Verstappen on the outside, has DRS with the gap is down to 0.3s. But Veastappen finds the pace he needs to close the door and move clear.

Lap 7/71 Norris is doing really well to keep Verstappen in range; I’m sure the champ was expecting his car to keep him further in front that this.

Lap 6/71 Verstappen leads by 0.785, from Norris – that’s DRS range -and he leads Alonso by 2.273. We then see Alonso getting by Hamilton, who moves over to overtake, doesn’t, doesn’t close the door, and pays the proce.

Lap 5/71 Here’s our leaderboard:

1. Verstappen

2. Norris

3. Alonso

4. Hamilton

5. Russell

6. Perez

7. Stroll

8. Sainz

9. Gasly

10. Ocon

Lap 4/71 We go again! Veratappen gets away well and Hamilton looks to have taken out Norris, but Norris comes back and then Alonso nobbles Hamilton on the outside after he wasted tim trying to skirt around the outside of Norris!

Lap 3/71 Lando Norris will, I reckon, have a sneaking fancy that he’ll nail Veratappen on the long straight. Good luck, old mate.

Lap 3/71 Our second formation lap is under way.

Lap 3/71 “This looks as if it is going to be a race I’d like to watch live,” says Anne Williams. ‘But I don’t have Sky!”

It’s a state of affairs, isn’t it?

Lap 3/71 Hulkenberg, though, whose car was worked on in the pit lane, can start from the grid.

Lap 3/71 And it looks like Piastri and Ricciardo will be there, at the back of the field; cars that went into the garage are allowed to restart, but from the pits.

Lap 3/71 We’ll resume at 2.31pm local time, so in three minutes from now.

Lap 3/71 Leclerc says he lost his steering wheel and went straight when he needed to turn spo ended up in the wall. He doesn’t think it’s a hydraulic thing but can’t go into details about what it is, but is explicit in stating it’s not the same issue as that experienced by Sainz last time out.

Lap 3/71 So what happeneed was: Hulkenberg gets squeezed out to one side, Albon and Magnussen clashed to his left, something hit Ricciardo and Hulkenberg slunk off still in the race.

Lap 3/71 “Ukulele and cavaquinho are related, and basically the same instrument tuned differently,” advises Rui Neiva. “Cavaquinho is from Portugal and was brought to Hawaii in the 19th century by Portuguese immigrants and eventually evolved to become the ukulele.”

This is one of the many reasons I love these blogs. Ridiculous how much I’ve learnt about the world reading and writing them.