Posted on 13th November 2016
At the Brazilian GP this evening, Lewis Hamilton won the 52nd Grand Prix of his career, his first win at the Interlagos circuit with a controlled and measured drive ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg and Max Verstappen in order to keep the championship fight alive to the season finale in Abu Dhabi in two weeks' time.
Hamilton’s first win at the Interlagos circuit this evening means that he has narrowed Rosberg’s lead in the Championship to 12 points going into the final round, though a podium finish will be enough for the Rosberg's first title. In a breathless and action-packed race with three different red flag periods due to heavy rain and several crashes.
Verstappen was the driver of the day for everyone who watched the race and showed all the talent and promise that made Red Bull sign up to Toro Rosso first in F1 nearly two years ago.
Verstappen turned in a stunning performance that was worthy of a future world champion in the sport. What can only be described by myself as an incredible overtake on Rosberg which happened early in the race to then battling his way back from twelfth place at one stage to third place in the closing laps with a series of stunning overtakes in the wet shows just how talented and also mature the young Dutchman can be.
With rain hitting the track on Sunday afternoon, there was a pre-race discussion as to whether the race should start normally or under Safety Car conditions. This issue was decided shortly after as Haas driver Romain Grosjean crashed on the way to the formation grid, losing the rear of his car coming over the crest of the hill in Sector 3 on his reconassance lap. Grosjean was understandably distraught after qualifying P7 and he walked back to the pits unhurt but his incident resulted in a Safety Car start.
On Lap 7 of the race, the Safety Car withdrew and Lewis Hamilton led teammate Nico Rosberg around. There was a change of position for P3 as Max Verstappen audaciously dived past Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari – with Verstappen immediately setting about trying to catch both of the Mercedes drivers.
Despite the poor weather conditions at this stage of the race; several drivers quickly chose to switch to Intermediates. Haas' Esteban Gutierrez, McLaren's Jenson Button & Fernando Alonso, Renault's Kevin Magnussen & Jolyon Palmer, Sauber's Marcus Ericsson and the double stacking Williams drivers all stopped over the opening handful of racing lap and took the risk of running the Intermediate tyres.
However this then immediately backfired for Sauber, as Marcus Ericsson crashed leaving the final corner; with his stricken car came to a halt blocking the pitlane. This resulted in a temporary closing of the pitlane, which caught out the Red Bull team who brought in both of their drivers. While Max Verstappen made it in before the official announcement, Daniel Ricciardo was not as fortunate and came under investigation for pitting under the closure.
The Safety Car was also deployed by the FIA to allow for a proper clean-up, and it was Lap 19 when it withdrew and we got back to racing once again. Not long aftet this Kimi Raikkonen immediately crashed entering the main straight, having a wobble at the rear of his car that he couldn't catch. He ended up slamming into the pitwall, and was lucky to avoid being collected by another car in the poor visibility.
The race was then again red flagged to allow for a reset and a clean-up. The order at this point was Hamilton leading from Rosberg, with Verstappen in third, Hulkenberg in fourth place, Perez in fifth place, Sainz Jr in sixth place, Nasr in seventh place, Ricciardo in eighth place, Ocon in ninth place and Wehrlein in tenth place.
With the race stopped, Nico Hulkenberg was able to change his front wing which had some Ferrari debris stuck in it, while Mercedes set about changing suspension components on Rosberg's car to cope with the rain. Five second time penalties were also issued to Ricciardo for entering the pitlane, and Massa due to overtaking Esteban Gutierrez before the Safety Car line at the race start.
The race then restarted again after a delay but it was under Safety Car conditions and after a handful of laps, the race was red-flagged again. This met with a lot of booing as unhappy race spectators made their voices heard, backed up by the likes of Lewis Hamilton radioing in “What? The track is fine. This is wet weather, this is normal†and Bottas saying “Are we racing or what?â€
With the race requiring 53 racing laps to be completed for full points to be awarded, the advantage lay with Nico Rosberg while half points were a distinct possibility. But much to the fans delight, the race was yet again eventually restarted and Max Verstappen struck as he overtook Rosberg around the outside of Turn 3 with an simply unbelievable move (never seen anything like it!) and set about pressuring Hamilton for the lead of the race.
With Rosberg doing everything that he can to have a damage limitation race, he began falling back from Verstappen and Hamilton at the front. So poor was Rosberg's pace that when Verstappen made an error at the final corner and lost a lot of time, the order remained unchanged at the front.
Further back down the grid, Carlos Sainz Jr was passed by Daniel Ricciardo as the moved up to fifth place behind Sergio Perez. Sebastian Vettel was a man on the move and passed Valtteri Bottas, Pascal Wehrlein, Esteban Ocon, Felipe Nasr and Fernando Alonso to sixth place.
With the rain seemingly abating, Red Bull decided to pit both of their drivers for Intermediate tyres with Ricciardo being the first to pit, with Verstappen following suit as Ricciardo set the fastest lap on those tyres. With Hamilton and Rosberg running at the front of the field as a result of Verstappen pitting, the gap grew to almost 20 seconds as Rosberg made an error leaving the final corner and had to back off considerably to recover.
The Safety Car reappeared on Lap 51 due to a crash on Lap 48. In his final home race, Felipe Massa lost the rear of his car and ended up running wide and hit the wall. As a result of this, Massa blocked the entrance to the pitlane and therefore the race was neutralized while his car and debris were cleared.
As this was happening; Massa walked down the closed pitlane to cheers and applause from his home crowd. Draped in a Brazilian flag, he cried as he was greeted by a guard of honour in the pitlane from several of the other teams, including Mercedes & Ferrari. It is a sure sign that Felipe will be truly missed by the fans and the paddock starting next season and I did have tears in my eyes watching that as well!
The race resumed with Hamilton just ahead of Rosberg, with Perez now in third place. Red Bull then decided to back out of their Intermediate strategy (due to the worsening track conditions) and this dropped both of their drivers back down the order. Ricciardo who was now ahead of Verstappen was passed by the young Dutchman on Lap 59 as they ran just outside the points. Verstappen then passed Kvyat and moved up to ninth, with Ricciardo still in eleventh place.
In the closing laps of the race, there was a flurry of overtaking as Verstappen rose past Hulkenberg and wrong footing the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel, while Ricciardo took Nasr and Ocon to run P8. Verstappen was quickly up to fourth place as he caught and passed Sainz in the Toro Rosso, but had a gap of three seconds to close in three laps to catch the Force India of Sergio Perez and the final podium place which he did.
But it was Lewis Hamilton won the Brazilian GP, his 52nd win of his career and keeps the title battle going into the finale in Abu Dhabi. He finished ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg who was second 11.455 seconds behind him. Rosberg then finished ahead of Max Verstappen in third place who finished 21.481 seconds behind Hamilton.
Sergio Perez ended the race in a brilliant fourth place ahead of Sebastian Vettel in fifth place, Carlos Sainz Jr in sixth place, Nico Hulkenberg in seventh place, Daniel Ricciardo in eighth place, Felipe Nasr in ninth place and Fernando Alonso who rounded off the top ten finishers of the race.
Valtteri Bottas ended the race just out of the points in eleventh place. But he did finish ahead of Esteban Ocon in twelfth place, Daniil Kvyat in thirteenth place, Kevin Magnussen in fourteenth place, Pascal Wehrlein in fifteenth place and Jenson Button in sixteenth place.
Esteban Gutierrez, Felipe Massa, Jolyon Palmer, Kimi Raikkonen, Marcus Ericsson and Romain Grosjean did not finish the race.
The classification for the Brazilian GP is as follows:-
1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 3.01.335s
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 11.455s
3. Max Verstappen, Red-Bull-TAG Heuer, 21.481s
4. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 25.346s
5. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 26.344s
6. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 29.160s
7. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 29.827s
8. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-TAG Heuer, 30.486s
9. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 42.260s
10. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 44.432s
11. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 45.292s
12. Esteban Ocon, MRT Racing, 45.809s
13. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 51.192s
14. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 51.555s
15. Pascal Wehrlein, MRT Racing, 1.00.498s
16. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 1.21.994s
17. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas Ferrari, Not Classified
18. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, Not Classified
19. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, Not Classified
20. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, Not Classified
21. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, Not Classified
22. Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, Not Classified
Nico Rosberg still leads the Driver's Championship with 367 points, Lewis Hamilton is in second place with 355 points, Daniel Ricciardo is in third place with 246 points, Sebastian Vettel is in fourth place with 197 points, Max Verstappen is in fifth place with 192 points,
Kimi Raikkonen is in sixth place with 178 points, Sergio Perez is in seventh place with 97 points, Valtteri Bottas is in eighth place with 85 points, Nico Hulkenberg is in ninth place with 66 points and Fernando Alonso is in tenth place with 53 points.
Mercedes are Constructors Championship with 722 points, Red Bull is in second place with 446 points, Ferrari is in third place with 375 points, Force India is in fourth place with 163 points, Williams is in fifth place with 136 points, McLaren is in sixth place with 75 points, Toro Rosso is in seventh place with 63 points, Haas is in eighth place with 29 points, Renault is in ninth place with 8 points, Sauber is I tenth with 2 points and Manor are eleventh with 1 point.
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
