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On this day: Hill wins Adelaide by two laps, Vettel takes Interlagos

On 12 November, Damon Hill won the last Adelaide Grand Prix in 1995, Sebastian Vettel won at Interlagos in 2017 and George Russell won his first sprint.

A blue and white Williams Formula 1 car with the number 5 braking into a corner, with spectators behind the fence
Damon Hill's Williams FW17 at Copse during the 1995 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, four months before his Adelaide win. Photo: Martin Lee, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A record winning margin in Adelaide and two Interlagos victories: here is what happened in F1 on 12 November.

1995: Hill wins the last Adelaide race by two laps

Damon Hill won the 1995 Australian Grand Prix for Williams-Renault from pole position, finishing two full laps ahead of everyone else.

Only eight cars were classified. Ligier's Olivier Panis was second and Footwork's Gianni Morbidelli third, both two laps down.

The weekend began badly. Mika Häkkinen crashed his McLaren at Brewery Bend after a puncture in Friday qualifying, fractured his skull and did not race.

In the race, David Coulthard crashed into the pit wall on his way into the pit lane, and Michael Schumacher and Jean Alesi collided and retired.

It was the last F1 race on the Adelaide streets. The Australian Grand Prix moved to Melbourne in 1996.

2017: Vettel wins at Interlagos as Hamilton storms through

Sebastian Vettel won the Brazilian Grand Prix for Ferrari, 2.762 seconds ahead of Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas, with Kimi Räikkönen third.

Vettel started second and passed polesitter Bottas into the first corner, then controlled the race from the front.

The drive of the day came from Lewis Hamilton, who had already won the title in Mexico two weeks earlier. He crashed in the first part of qualifying, started from the pit lane after his team changed his engine and gearbox, and finished fourth, 5.468 seconds behind Vettel.

2022: Russell wins his first sprint

George Russell won the sprint at Interlagos for Mercedes, starting third and finishing 3.995 seconds ahead of Ferrari's Carlos Sainz.

The win put him on pole for Sunday's São Paulo Grand Prix, where he took his first Grand Prix victory the next day, with Hamilton second for a Mercedes one-two.

Race it on Late Brake

Adelaide isn't in Late Brake, but Interlagos is one of its six real circuits. Try to make Vettel's first-corner move into the Senna S against AI rivals, or take on the daily challenge.

Sources: 1995 Australian Grand Prix, 2017 Brazilian Grand Prix, 2022 São Paulo Grand Prix

Researched and written with the help of AI, using the sources above. How we write posts