From the outset, Lewis Hamilton set a trend from the start and took the lead. For his part, Max Verstappen had started five places behind his position in the classification.
Anyway, the Dutchman recovered and placed in third place in the fifth lap of the race. Finn Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) was also penalized, but with two places as he missed a single yellow flag.
But the victory went to Hamilton, who achieved his seventh victory of the season and narrowed the gap with Verstappen to eight points.
The next date will be December 5 with the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at the brand new Jeddah street circuit and a week later the closing will be in Abu Dhabi, on the Yas Marina route.
This is how the table was
World Drivers Championship
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 351, 5 puntos
- Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 343.5 points
- Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) 203 points
- Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) 190 points
- Lando Norris (McLaren) 153 points
Constructors’ World Championship
- Mercedes 546,5 Points
- Red Bull 541.5 Points
- Ferrari 297,5 Points
- McLaren 258 Points
- Alpine 137 Points
The previous
The defending champion was the first out of the pits on the final stage, setting a surprising time of one minute, 20.827 seconds to claim pole 102 of his career and fourth of the season.
The 36-year-old had already achieved provisional pole with a time of 1: 21.262 after being the fastest in the first and second stages of qualifying and also being the fastest in all sectors of the track.
The 0.455 margin between the two title contenders is the largest it has seen all season in a dry qualifying session.
Hamilton commented that he had not been feeling well on Thursday and Friday, when he was also working with his engineers until midnight.
“I had a little stomachache since Wednesday, but today I felt fantastic. I slept well last night, so that makes a big difference,” he said.
Verstappen, whose team has openly questioned the legality of Hamilton’s rear wing and raised concerns about the Mercedes’ impressive straight-line speed, noted that his car was only lacking some pace.
“It was a bit more difficult for us again in qualifying,” said the 24-year-old Dutchman, whose Mexican teammate Sergio Pérez came in 11th in a strategic setback for Red Bull.
“Checo (Pérez) is not even in Q3 (the final qualifying round), so it definitely shows that we are having a little more problems than normal.”
Pierre Gasly was fourth despite breaking his front wing on the pianos and suffering a puncture, leaving debris on the track, causing the yellow flags to fly briefly on his final lap.
Double world champion Fernando Alonso qualified fifth with Renault’s Alpine, while McLaren’s Lando Norris was sixth and Carlos Sainz seventh with Ferrari.
“I think there are certain circuits that seem to be better for our package and this is one of them,” said Alonso, whose team is tied on points with AlphaTauri, but ahead thanks to a victory in one race.
“Being at night, I know there shouldn’t be a big difference, but the track is quite cool at night and that helps a lot to overheat the tires,” added the Spaniard.
AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel rounded out the top 10.
Source From: Ambito
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