Hamilton tops Brazil practice but has to serve grid penalty in GP

Munich, November 12 (BNA): World champion Lewis Hamilton topped the first training session of the Brazilian Formula 1 Grand Prix, ahead of title rival Max Verstappen, but faces a setback after starting Sunday’s race with a five-place penalty.

Mercedes’ Hamilton clocked one minute 9.050 seconds on the 4.309-kilometre Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace in Sao Paulo, putting him 367ths ahead of Red Bull’s Verstappen, German news agency DPA reported.

Sergio Perez finished third in the second Red Bull and Hamilton teammate Valtteri Bottas finished fourth.

The weekend in Brazil is the third and final of the season to feature a sprint which means qualifying will be later on Friday, second practice and a sprint on Saturday while the actual race is on Sunday as usual.

Qualifying is for a sprint and the result of that short half-hour race, where the winner gets three championship points, sets the grid for a proper Grand Prix on Sunday with a maximum of 26 points to grab.

Verstappen leads the championship by 19 points over Hamilton in the last four races and is getting an extra boost as Hamilton will lose five places on the grid on Sunday from the end of the race.

“Lewis took a new internal combustion engine for this event – his fifth of the season – and will receive a five-place penalty for Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix,” Mercedes wrote on Twitter.

The seven-time world champion served a 10-time grid penalty recently in Turkey to change engine components. Drivers are penalized if they use more than three units of power in a season.

NS