Report: Close to points after an unfortunate São Paulo GP

Logan Sargeant finished P11 after a São Paulo GP that saw Alex Albon’s race end just after it had started.

Our Thai racer enjoyed a strong start and was immediately alongside the two Haas cars that had started immediately ahead of him.

With Albono pinned to the outside going into Turn 1, contact between the three of them saw Alex and Kevin Magnussen come off worse, both hitting the barriers – thankfully, both were OK.

The safety car was deployed and Logan pulled in to switch off the mediums onto the softs. Soon after he rejoined the track, the red flag was flown.

After a 25-minute delay we were back racing again, with Logan P15 after the first full lap of racing conditions.

By Lap 14, he was making his first move of the afternoon, sending one past Nico Hulkenberg on the run into Turn 1.

Four tours later, Logan was back in. He fitted some fresh softs and returned to the action in P15, setting his sights on both Alfa Romeos.

Zhou Guanyu was forced to retire on Lap 23 and Sarge soon found himself in P11 as those ahead boxed.

By Lap 39, he was within DRS range of Valtteri Bottas, but the Williams alumnus peeled into the pits to retire.

On Lap 44, Sarge made his final stop, fitting soft tyres once again and returning to the race in the hunt for P10.

Esteban Ocon pitted shortly after and had come out behind Logan, but after a purple lap, he passed our driver on the main straight.

George Russell was forced to retire, elavating our 22-year-old to the fringes of the points in P11, but this was where he remained until the chequered flag as he managed tyre wear.

“A tricky one,” Logan started post-race, continuing: “We just missed pace today and didn’t have what we needed to fight with AlphaTauri.

“We really wanted to capitalise on a lot of cars going out, but we struggled with tyre degradation and were not quick enough.

“Other than that, I’m happy to have kept it clean and get 71 laps in.

"Another well-rounded Sunday and, especially on low fuel I’ve had the pace I needed this weekend, so we need to have a bit of a regroup and carry that forward to Vegas.

“Another home race for me coming up next, so I’m excited.”

Alex was able to offer his reaction much sooner than we would have liked, and he reflected on his afternoon by commenting: “I had a great start; I think it was one of the strongest starts on the grid but after looking at the external cameras, the driver on the inside was a bit blindsided by the two cars on the right, so there wasn’t much I could do.

“With all the retired cars throughout the race and many out of place with damage from the crash, we really could’ve been on for points, so it’s disappointing when the championship fight is so tight.

“Today obviously wasn’t our day so we’ll look ahead to Vegas and try maximise where we can.”

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance wrapped up our Interlagos reaction by sharing: “A very unfortunate race for us. Alex got a very strong start and was immediately pressurising both Haas cars.

“Unfortunately, he was left with nowhere to go in the incident at T1 and retired before his race had really started.

“Having started ahead of the AlphaTauris and the Alpines, it would’ve been interesting to see where he would’ve finished.

“Logan had a cleaner race and used the safety car and red flag period to effectively run the entire race on Soft compound tyres.

“He raced well with the Alfa Romeos before they both retired and with further retirements was able to finish in P11 whilst controlling his pace to stay ahead of Hulkenberg.

“AlphaTauri were able to take a further 2 points out of our margin over them in the Championship.

“Whilst this is concerning, we were fortunate that they were unable to score more points today as their pace was very strong.

“We have a brief break now before we go to Las Vegas for the first part of the final double-header.

“We still have a lead over our direct rivals and plenty of opportunity to defend that to the end of the season.”