Scuderia Ferrari leaves Brazil with a sixth place courtesy of Carlos Sainz, but also with plenty to regret because of the reliability problem that took Charles Leclerc off the track on the formation lap and left him unable to start the race. The one positive to take away from the weekend is that the fight for second place in the Constructors’ championship is still open as, with points scored in yesterday’s Sprint and today’s race, the gap has come down by 2 points to 20. As mentioned, Charles was unable to race because of an issue on his SF-23 which cut the engine and sent him into the barriers. Carlos did not get the best of starts as a problem with the clutch saw him lose two places off the line to George Russell and Sergio Perez. The race was then red flagged on the second lap following a collision between Alex Albon and Kevin Magnussen and thirty minutes later, at the second start, Carlos therefore lined up eighth on the grid. This time he held his position off the line and then did very well to manage his tyres, lengthening his first stint on the Soft. Thereafter, he had good pace on new Mediums and soon closed on George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, passing them both with clearly stronger pace. From then on, Carlos’ race was about managing the Softs he had taken on at his second stop to ensure he took the chequered flag in sixth place. The World Championship now has a short break before the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the penultimate round of the season, takes place in two Sundays time.
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