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Max Verstappen: ‘In this political environment we are in every team thinks about themselves and they are going to say ‘no, he has to take the penalty’; watch Sunday’s Las Vegas GP live on Sky Sports F1 and Sky Showcase. Race starts at 6am with build-up from 4.30am

Max Verstappen has called for an F1 rule change after labelling the grid penalty given to Carlos Sainz for Sunday’s Las Vegas GP “very harsh”, in the wake of the major damage caused to the Ferrari by a loose circuit drain cover.

And following suggestions that other teams may have challenged the matter had stewards not followed the regulations in the matter, the world champion also said rivals should be excluded from having any say as “in this political environment we are in of course every team thinks about themselves”.

Sainz said on Friday night he had been left in “disbelief” that Ferrari’s request for special dispensation to avoid a 10-place grid penalty for exceeding permitted power unit part changes had been rejected, given the freak circumstances of what happened when the water valve cover failed as he drove over it at high-speed during opening practice.

Stewards said that while they would have liked to grant the team dispensation, they were hamstrung by the sport’s regulations and so had no choice but to impose a mandatory grid drop on Sainz.

As a result, Sainz’s second-place result in Saturday’s qualifying session turns into a 12th-place starting position on Sunday’s race grid.

Although Verstappen may be the first driver to directly benefit from his Ferrari rival’s demotion, given he qualified third, the Dutchman expressed his disapproval about what happened to Sainz.

“The rules have to change for that,” said Verstappen, sitting alongside the Ferrari drivers in the post-qualifying press conference.

“It’s the same if you get taken out and have a big accident. You can lose parts of engine, energy store, all these kind of things.

“So, first of all, that needs to change and these things can be taken into consideration that you can take a free penalty or not, it will not be counted.

“Besides, I think teams should not be allowed to have a say in these kind of things because for sure they are going to vote against that. I do think it’s very harsh on Carlos but in this political environment we are in of course every team thinks about themselves and they are going to say ‘no, he has to take the penalty’.

More to follow…

When to watch Sunday’s Las Vegas GP live on Sky Sports F1 and Sky Showcase

Sunday November 19

• 4:30am: Grand Prix Sunday: Las Vegas GP build-up (also on Sky Showcase)
• 6am: THE LAS VEGAS GRAND PRIX (also on Sky Showcase)
• 8am: Chequered Flag: Las Vegas GP reaction (also on Sky Showcase)
• 9am: Ted’s Notebook (also on Sky Showcase)

Watch the whole Las Vegas GP weekend live on Sky Sports F1 with lights out on Sunday at 6am. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW

Austin stewards ruled after video hearing that the evidence Haaa presented to them over alleged track limits from the October 22 race did not constitute a “significant and relevant new element that was unavailable” at the time of the original decision

Haas’ attempt to get United States GP stewards to re-investigate incidents of additional alleged track limits offences in the October 22 race has been rejected.

After a video hearing which started on Wednesday and was adjourned until Thursday for further discussion, stewards decided Haas’ submissions in the case did not meet the required criteria for a full right of review investigation.

A stewards’ statement read: “The Petition for the Right of Review is rejected because there is no significant and relevant new element that was unavailable to Haas at the time of the decision”.

More to follow…

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Fernando Alonso has admitted he thought a Sao Paulo Grand Prix podium “was gone” before reclaiming third place from Sergio Perez on the final lap of the race to conclude a thrilling battle between the pair.

Having spent the majority of the race chasing Alonso, Perez finally passed the Aston Martin on the penultimate lap of the race with a move into the first corner that appeared to have sealed a double podium for Red Bull, with world champion Max Verstappen easing to victory.

However, a small error from Perez gave Alonso the opportunity to retake the final podium spot in the second DRS zone on the run to Turn Four on their final tour, before the Spaniard held on to the position by just 0.053s on a charge to the finish line.

Alonso explained to Sky Sports F1 that he thought he had blown his chance of responding by running off line on the penultimate lap as he attempted to hit back having been passed.

“Honestly, I thought that maybe my chances were gone in Turn Six,” he said.

“I went on the outside to change line but then I picked up a lot of marbles and the tyres were dirty, they were vibrating as well and I thought, ‘ok, this is gone’.

“But then I wanted to have one more chance into Turn One or Turn Four with the DRS, maybe braking very aggressive, very late.

“I think he understood that as well, so he broke late into Turn One, missed the apex by one metre and that gave me the run into Turn Four.

“Unexpected, to be honest, when I lost the place I thought it was gone.”

Perez: Other drivers can learn from our battle

Perez, who crashed out of last weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix and last month’s Qatar Grand Prix Sprint following collisions, said that other drivers could learn from the way he and Alonso had fought for position.

“It was quite an intense battle,” Perez told Sky Sports F1. “We tried everything.

“Unfortunately we didn’t succeed on that, but it was well deserved for Fernando.

“I think we had a great fight, very fair and to the limit. I think this is something that a lot of drivers can learn from because what we did, the way we fought today, it’s how it should be done.

“I’m in the wrong side, I end up losing but it’s fine because it was a great fight.”

Alonso agreed that it had been a “clean” contest, and admitted he was surprised to find Perez had matched his tyre-saving ability going into the final stages.

“It was nice, it was a clean battle,” Alonso said. “A very aggressive, but clean battle. Always with Checo I think he has a very good record on finishing the races and always battling hard but keeping both cars on track.

“I knew that he was coming, I knew that he was a threat, and at the end it was maybe more difficult than I thought, to be honest.

“Five laps to the end, I thought that I had things under control, so I start pushing and then I look in the mirror and Checo was there, and I said ‘uh oh, I think he was saving tyres as well’.”

Perez: Matter of time before podium | Alonso happy for ‘united’ Aston Martin

Perez came into the weekend under major pressure amid continued speculation that Red Bull could look to replace him next season, despite a year still remaining on his contract.

While his run of races without a podium extends to six, a solid display in coming from a starting position of ninth to finish fourth was an improvement on many of his recent efforts.

“We’ve seen in the last couple of races that the pace has been there, that we’ve been really strong,” he added.

“For some reason or another we haven’t been able to get the final end result, but I just know that it’s a matter of time.”

Alonso’s podium puts an end to a dismal run of form from Aston Martin, with the Spaniard having retired from the previous two races after qualifying outside the top 10 on both occasions.

After a stunning start to the season which saw them surprisingly emerge as Red Bull’s closest challengers, the Silverstone-based team have failed to keep up with the development of the likes of Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren.

However, after choosing not to go with some of the upgraded parts that have failed to provide improvement, they returned to prominence in Brazil, with Alonso’s team-mate Lance Stroll finishing fifth.

“In the end I’m happy that we did it for the team,” Alonso said.

“We’re struggling a lot in the last two races but we never lost focus on what were the targets, we went deep in the analysis, we stayed united, we stayed together and this was a very nice thing to witness in the last two events.”

Get ready for the big one: Formula 1 in Las Vegas! See drivers race down the Strip, and past landmarks like Caesars Palace and the Bellagio, on F1’s newest street track. Watch the whole Las Vegas GP weekend live on Sky Sports F1 on November 17-19. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW

Formula 1 returns to the legendary Interlagos Circuit on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil, in part three of the triple header across the Americas, and even if they are tired, the teams and drivers will be arriving with a bounce in their step and smile on their face.

Why the optimism, we hear you ask?

Sao Paulo has a knack for delivering surprises, shocks and a sprinkle of that Senna magic.

We looked back at seven of our favourite moments from one of F1’s best Grand Prix.

1991: There was only one Senna

Sport is an integral part of Brazil’s culture, and while football and Pele are No. 1, F1 and Ayton Senna are a close second in terms of legacy.

To say that Senna was special would be an understatement – a hero on and off the track, he was more than capable of winning more than the three world drivers championships were it not for his tragic death at Imola in 1994.

Despite being the home favourite, even Senna struggled to tame the beast that is Interlagos, where anything can happen, and it usually does.

By 1991, Senna was in his eighth season, looking for his first victory at home despite already being a two-time F1 champion.

He qualified on pole position, and it looked like he’d finally do it the easy way as he pulled out a lead.

But Senna – as you sense with Lewis Hamilton in this era of F1 – never did things the easy way.

His McLaren’s gearbox had jammed, and he was stuck in sixth gear, taking the Brazilian to a new level of difficulty in an era with no power steering, which massively increases the exertion on the driver’s upper body.

In 2023, a driver would usually have retired the car, and it was the same situation on this day.

But Senna is not usual – while he wanted to stop, his desire to win the race and raise the flag for his people gave him a hero-like inner strength to take him to the chequered flag.

When he got the job done, the relief and emotion came flooding through on the radio in the form of screams, audible sobbing and the words “I can’t believe it”.

Before he could return to the pit lane to celebrate, Senna passed out at the wheel due to the immense muscle spasms.

While he could not find the strength to eventually lift the trophy, he could raise the Brazilian flag to the delight of his fans – “there could only be one result”, said Senna following the race.

2008: Magnanimous Massa loses out to last-gasp Lewis

Brazil’s hopes of championship success returned when Felipe Massa headed into the 2008 finale needing to win the race with his rival Lewis Hamilton in sixth position or lower – a challenging task – but the home crowd believed.

They especially believed having seen Ferrari’s other driver Kimi Raikkonen beat title rival Hamilton a year earlier.

On the day, Massa did everything he needed to do, winning the Grand Prix in perhaps his most dominant performance – but sometimes even a heroic drive is not enough in F1.

The Interlagos Circuit has a microclimate, allowing rain showers to arrive unexpectedly.
On this day in 2008, a downpour of rain came with just a handful of laps to go.

A young Sebastian Vettel overtook Hamilton for fifth place, putting Massa on course to be champion.

The home crowd erupted.

They thought their driver had done it.

However, another young German called Timo Glock had elected to continue on his dry tyres on the wet track while others had pitted – a risk that nearly paid off.

In a frantic finish matched only by Abu Dhabi 2021, in the final corner of the last lap of the final race, Hamilton took the position he needed to become champion.

Massa, Ferrari and the Brazilian fans thought they had won, but they were wrong.

The news filtered through, and despite losing out, a hurting Massa put on a brave front, sharing love with his people, beating his heart and pointing to the fans.

A genuinely gracious gentleman had become an eternal hero in his city despite losing on the day.

The McLaren garage, on the other hand, were breathless, bouncing around as they had snatched victory from the jaws of defeat at a track where they had lost out in gut-wrenching fashion just a year earlier.

Hamilton and team Woking were the away team, and looked to have lost out, but in the against-all-odds fashion that we have become used to in Hamilton’s career, he had become the youngest-ever world champion (at the time).

The first of many titles for the now honourary Brazilian.

2012: Vettel matches Senna – the hard way

While 2008 was a fight for two drivers’ first, 2012 saw the titans of Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel take one another on to become a triple world champion.

Becoming a triple world champion in Brazil is extra special – this is the number of titles Ayrton Senna managed.

And irony would strike when Vettel was tagged by Senna’s nephew, Bruno, on the first corner, leaving the German, who was leading the championship by 13 points, facing the wrong way and last.

Things got even better for Alonso when he slipped past team-mate Felipe Massa and Vettel’s team-mate Mark Webber to take third position – the Spaniard was in place to win the championship.

Vettel, though, was not in the mood to give up, and despite the damage he had sustained, somehow had made his way to eighth position by lap eight.

Things were thrown up in the air again when leaders Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton collided on the ever-slippery surface, moving Alonso into second position.

But it wasn’t enough to beat the might of Vettel, who passed his hero Michael Schumacher on his way to emulating Senna, crossing the line in tears to secure the title.

While Vettel was the winner, like 2008, it was the runner-up and his thousand-mile stare that will live on as some of F1’s most iconic content.

2016: Senna-esque through the ‘Senna S’

Max Verstappen returns to Sao Paulo this weekend for the first time since matching perhaps one of F1’s most famous triple world champions in Senna, and the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2016 rubber-stamped just how special a talent the young Dutchman was.

This race came towards the end of the third and final episode of the Silver Arrows’ internal tussle between Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

The race began beneath the safety car due to some of Sao Paulo’s spectacular rain – but six laps later, conditions were deemed safe enough to get under way.

Hamilton led away from lights to flag, keeping his title chances alive. While this was an impressive drive, Verstappen had all of the attention.

First, the 19-year-old pulled off a daring move up the inside of Kimi Raikkonen into the first corner, finding grip that other great drivers, including Raikkonen and Vettel, could not.

This was exemplified again as Verstappen moved into second position with a jaw-dropping move around the outside of the eventual 2016 champion Rosberg.

The youngster showed his inexperience and raw talent in a flash when it came to lap 38 – his car looked as though it was destined for the barriers, but Verstappen’s supreme car control allowed him to do what the experienced, local Massa could not.

Massa crashed out of what he thought would be his final Grand Prix, leading to an emotional walk back to the pit lane, greeted with applause from the Mercedes and Ferrari garages before reaching the arms of his wife in the paddock – while it had been raining hard, this was a moment which ensured no dry eye.

Back on track, Verstappen pitted for fresh tyres, dropping to the lower reaches of the points.

That gave us the gift of watching him fight back, including an uncompromising move on Vettel, which we have become accustomed to.

Hamilton had finally won in Brazil – an emotional moment for him as a fan of Senna – but Verstappen’s drive had captured F1’s attention, and he has only improved since.

2021: The villain becomes the hero

Formula 1 arrived at Sao Paulo with Lewis Hamilton needing some magic – Verstappen had reached the moment in the battle where another win would seriously dent Hamilton’s title defence.

In short, Hamilton needed to win, but this was at a circuit where the fans had good reason to think of him as the pantomime villain.

This was the season that had everything, including, for the first time, Sprint weekends, and in the other two weekends, Hamilton and Verstappen had come together in major flashpoints.

But this was something the Mercedes driver could not afford.

Things looked to be going swimmingly as Hamilton dominated Friday’s only practice session before qualifying comfortably on pole position by almost half a second for Saturday’s Sprint.

But this is F1, so things could hardly go the easy way – the sport’s governing body, the FIA, discovered that Hamilton’s rear wing had broken and his DRS (drag reduction system) had opened 0.2mm wider than was legal, so he was disqualified and sent to the back of the grid.

Anything can happen in Brazil, but nobody would have predicted the sort of comeback Hamilton would need to produce – this would need to be Senna-like if he wanted to keep his championship alive.

The seven-time champion wasted no time in Saturday’s Sprint, slicing through the field to take fifth position, meaning he could start 10th in Sunday’s Grand Prix after his already-scheduled five-place grid penalty.

Again, Hamilton made light work of the majority of the field, but his final target was his rival, the leader, Max Verstappen.

Verstappen made his car as wide as possible – at times, taking Hamilton off the track in what Sky Sports‘ Martin Brundle described as a ‘professional crowd’.

But like Senna, Hamilton thrives when his back is against the wall.

The Briton found a way through, boosting his championship hopes, and celebrated with the fans with parallels to Senna in 1991, with the Brazilian flag raised.

While Hamilton was dominant in 2016, 2021 was the year in which Hamilton became a legend in the Brazilian hearts – and eventually, an honorary citizen.

Another race like no other in this place like no other.

2022: A weekend of firsts

If you want proof that anything can happen in Sao Paulo, 2022 brought you a Haas pole position.

Like in 2021, qualifying for Friday set the grid for Saturday’s Sprint, which, in turn, set the starting order for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

Friday night saw a dose of challenging rain – the final session saw the top 10 drivers rushing out as the rain intensity increased, and it was Kevin Magnussen first across the line with the fastest time.

Max Verstappen was in second position on the timing screens, followed by the Mercedes’ of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton – but nobody could set a quicker time because Russell went straight on at turn four, getting stuck in the gravel.

This brought out the red flag, and when Magnusen was told of his position, the response was, “you’re kidding”, along with several expletives – similar to the reaction you would imagine from Gunther Steiner.

The Dane was on pole, and the scenes in the garage from Magnussen, who thought he was out of F1 in 2021, were something to behold.

In the Saturday Sprint, the Haas fairytale faded, but the magic of the Brazilian weekend had not ended.

This season, we have been used to the sight of Verstappen taking the lead by lap four, but when that happened in the Saturday Sprint in 2022, it was the Dutchman who then struggled.

Russell passed the Haas of Magnussen and swarmed around the back of Verstappen’s Red Bull like an angry wasp.

He was determined too – Verstappen put up a fight almost as firm as the one he had had with Hamilton a year previously – but Russell slipped through, crossing the line fine to start the Grand Prix from the front.

The Mercedes both looked quick, but it was Russell who snatched the Silver Arrows’ only opportunity to taste victory in 2022.

It was a mature drive, too – it would have been easy for the younger Brit to make a mistake with Hamilton breathing down his neck with just a handful of laps to go at a Grand Prix, which feels like and is technically Hamilton’s second home race.

It has been a year since Mercedes’ last win in F1.

It now appears to be Russell on the backfoot compared to Hamilton.

Mercedes and Russell hope they can use the positivity of last year to do their talking on the track to answer what will be many questions regarding the departure of Mike Elliott as chief technical officer.

Hamilton will also enter the weekend with victory the target – he is returning home following an excellent performance in Mexico, which his engineer Peter Bonnington referred to as feeling “like the old days”.

The immense support and the Sao Paulo magic will also help him and his team dream.

Find out what surprises are in store at this weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix, live on Sky Sports F1.