‘The race was over’ – Penalised Verstappen frustrated as late VSC prevents McLaren attack in Sao Paulo Sprint

Max Verstappen was left to rue a late-race Virtual Safety Car during the Sao Paulo Grand Prix Sprint, with his efforts to put pressure on the leading McLaren drivers being thwarted.

Verstappen spent most of the 24-lap encounter fighting with Ferrari rival Charles Leclerc over third, eventually making a DRS-assisted move on the Monegasque into Turn 4 on the 16th tour.

READ MORE: Norris takes victory in the Sao Paulo Sprint ahead of Piastri after McLaren driver switch

He then set about chasing the papaya cars of Piastri and Norris, who swapped positions to help the latter in the title race, but any hopes of catching them were undone when Haas racer Nico Hulkenberg pulled off the track.

Verstappen, meanwhile, was then handed a five-second penalty and one point on his licence for a VSC infringement, post-race, dropping him back behind Leclerc to P4 in the classification.

“I think the pace was quite strong,” said Verstappen, who could not make his way past Piastri when the VSC ended and was subsequently penalised for a minimum time infringement under the caution.

“We just had to be patient, because in the beginning, we were just stuck in a DRS train. We couldn’t really do much, we just had to wait for people to either drop off or make a mistake.

AS IT HAPPENED: Follow all the action from the F1 Sprint in Sao Paulo as Piastri helps Norris to victory

“We hung in there, eventually I could pass Charles and close the gap to the McLarens, but then of course unfortunately the VSC came out – and that was race over.”

Perez, meanwhile, added one more point to Red Bull’s tally after a battling race that saw him go wheel-to-wheel with RB driver Liam Lawson for the second successive weekend.

“It was the maximum we could do,” the Mexican admitted afterwards. “Unfortunately, with the VSC there in the end, we didn’t get [Pierre] Gasly.

“Overall, I think it’s a strong pace. I think we’ve been strong the whole weekend so we just have to put it together in qualifying and we’ll be strong.”

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The Sprint results mean Verstappen now leads Norris by a reduced margin of 44 points in the drivers’ championship, while McLaren are 35 clear of Ferrari in the constructors’ battle.