Vettel wins Brazilian GP, Hamilton fourth from pits

SÃO PAULO, Brazil -- Sebastian Vettel bounced back from his world championship disappointment in fine style on Sunday when he won a sunlit Brazilian Grand Prix for Ferrari.

The four-time champion took the lead at the start and, apart from a period after his pit-stop, controlled an incident-packed race to finish 2.8 seconds ahead of pole-sitter Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes.

Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 champion, resisted late challenges from newly-crowned four-time champion Lewis Hamilton to hang on to third ahead of the second Mercedes driver, who had started the race from the pit lane.

Dutchman Max Verstappen came home fifth ahead of his Red Bull team-mate Australian Daniel Ricciardo and retirement-bound local hero Felipe Massa, a rousing seventh for Williams in his final home city race.

The Brazilian emerged triumphant in his own private scrap to the line with two-time champion Fernando Alonso of McLaren Honda, who finished eighth.

Sergio Perez finished ninth for Force India and Nico Hulkenberg 10th for Renault.

It was Vettel’s first win in eight outings since the Hungarian Grand Prix in July and his fifth of the season. It was also Ferrari’s first win in Brazil since 2008.

“It’s been a tough couple of weeks for us, but it’s nice to get both cars on the podium here,” said Vettel.

“I had a good getaway and then I had wheelspin, so I thought I missed my chance but I think Valtteri had the same so I surprised him.

“I wanted to pull out a gap and then to control the race from there and it worked out.”

Bottas admitted: “My goal was to win so it was very disappointing. We lost it in the start. After that it was very close. I tried to put some pressure on Sebastian, but it didn’t happen. Lewis did a great comeback to score points.”

- Massa farewell -

Raikkonen admitted: “Lewis got close to me at the end, but it’s impossible to overtake here if you have close speed between the cars.”

Massa gave the home crowd something to cheer about as the Williams driver heads to retirement.

He won the race at Interlagos in 2008 when he was pipped to the title by Hamilton.

“I feel so emotional today,” admitted Massa. “All you guys, thank you very much for everything that we passed together and for all the support and energy.”

On a hot blue-skied day, with a track temperature of 60 degrees Celsius, the key action took place on the first lap when, following a multiple collision at the first corner, the Safety Car was deployed.

This incident saw Ricciardo spin on a kerb, hit luckless Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne’s McLaren and, in turn, Dane Kevin Kevin Magnussen’s Haas.

 The latter two were forced to retire as, in a separate incident, Frenchman Romain Grosjean lost control of his Haas and slid into compatriot Esteban Ocon’s Force India, taking the pair of them off into a gravel trap.

It was the first retirement of Ocon’s career after 27 races and Grosjean was handed a 10-seconds penalty.

In the chaos that ensued, Hamilton took advantage and rose to 14th before the Safety Car pulled off and racing resumed.

The world champion, who had clinched his fourth title two weeks earlier in Mexico, made the most of his rebuilt car, powered by a new engine, following his crash in qualifying on Saturday.

While Vettel pulled clear by 1.9 seconds ahead of Bottas, it was Hamilton setting the fastest laps as he sliced through the field. By lap 21, of the 71, following an immaculate demonstration of speed and passing moves, he was up to fifth before settling for fourth place.

“It was fun,” said Hamilton. “Just like my karting days when I started from the back. But I messed up yesterday and I know I was quick enough to win from pole to flag, but I made the job a lot harder.

“When I woke up this morning my goal was to do the team proud and score points. I tried, but ran out of tyres at the end.”

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Hamilton beats Rosberg to pole in Brazil

SAO PAULO - Lewis Hamilton stormed to pole position at the Brazilian Grand Prix on Saturday with Mercedes team mate and title rival Nico Rosberg joining the triple Formula One world champion on the front row.

On a damp and overcast Sao Paulo afternoon, it was the 60th pole of the Briton's career, eight short of Michael Schumacher's record, and his first in Brazil since 2012 when he was at McLaren.

With his title on the line, it was also one of Hamilton's most important in a roller-coaster season marked by mechanical setbacks.

Rosberg will take his first championship if he wins Sunday's penultimate race of the season but Hamilton, 19 points adrift, showed he will do all he can to take the fight down to the wire in Abu Dhabi with another dominant qualifying display.

"This is the best I could have hoped for really coming into Brazil," said Hamilton who has never won at the bowl-like anti-clockwise Interlagos circuit. "It's always a track that I struggled at."

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen qualified third with Red Bull's Max Verstappen joining the 2007 world champion on the second row of the grid.

Ferrari and Red Bull also shared the third row with Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo qualifying fifth and sixth ahead of a race that could well be wet, with showers threatened.

Hamilton, fastest in all three phases of qualifying, was already lapping quicker than Rosberg's 2015 pole position time of 1:11.282 in the second session and again lit up the timing screens in the final shootout with a best lap of 1:10.736.

The pole was a record 19th in 20 races this season for Mercedes.

Rosberg, winner from pole in Brazil for the past two seasons, was quicker than Hamilton at the first split on his final lap but then faded to finish with a best of 1:10.838.

"It was exciting qualifying, very close and Lewis was just marginally quicker in the end," said the German. "My lap was good as well, just not quick enough...missing that little bit out there.

"But it's OK. Pole isn't always the guy who then wins the race, I'm still optimistic for tomorrow."

Brazilian Felipe Massa, a double winner at Interlagos in his Ferrari days, qualified 13th for Williams in his final home race before leaving Formula One while Finnish team mate Valtteri Bottas starts 11th.

Jenson Button, who won the 2009 world championship at Interlagos for Brawn GP, qualified a disappointing 17th on the fourth anniversary of his and McLaren's last race win, also at the Sao Paulo circuit.

"We definitely sorted those problems out, didn't we?", the Briton said sarcastically over the team radio.

Button has one more race after Brazil before handing his seat to Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne.

Spanish team mate Fernando Alonso, whose two titles with Renault were won in Brazil, had a happier afternoon and will start 10th.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Tony Jimenez)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Rosberg wins in Brazil to cut Hamilton's lead

SAO PAULO - Germany's Nico Rosberg won the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday to end team mate Lewis Hamilton's run of five successive victories and cut the Briton's championship lead to 17 points with one race remaining.

Hamilton took the chequered flag 1.4 seconds behind after setting the fastest lap, with Mercedes breaking Formula One records with 11 one-two finishes and 30 podium placings in a season.

"It was a great weekend," said Rosberg, who started on pole position after lapping fastest in phase of qualifying at Interlagos.

"The whole weekend I've been feeling comfortable in the car, I was able to attack and control the gap to Lewis in the race so that worked out great.

"There's still all to play for. I just need to keep this going now," added the German, whose win made up for last weekend when he started on pole in Texas and lost out to Hamilton.

The final race at Abu Dhabi on Nov. 23 will offer double points for the first time, and 50 for the winner, but Hamilton needs only a second-place finish to wrap up his second title.

Hamilton has 334 points to Rosberg's 317.

The team's victory equalled the record of 15 in a season held jointly by Ferrari and McLaren, with Rosberg now on five to his British rival's 10.

BIG MISTAKE

The two Mercedes drivers were in a race of their own on a sunny Sao Paulo afternoon

Hamilton's only scare came on lap 28 as he pushed to gain an advantage when Rosberg pitted, spinning and skidding off at turn four. That cost him seven seconds and a chance to win.

"I was much quicker up until that point and on that lap I'd gone a second quicker while Nico pitted," the Briton told reporters. "I thought I was going to pit at the end of that lap so I used everything of the tyres.

"The next lap I had nothing left."

After he pitted, the 2008 champion steadily narrowed the gap until the 'Silver Arrows' were just half a second apart. But Rosberg never allowed him to get close enough to make a move.

"It was an amazing race," said Hamilton, who had hoped to become the first British driver to win six races in a row.

Brazilian Felipe Massa returned to the podium in front of a cheering crowd with third place for Williams, 41 seconds behind despite a stop/go penalty for speeding in the pitlane.

Massa had only himself to blame when he also pulled in to the McLaren pits instead of Williams.

"I'm so happy with the race, not happy with my mistakes today," he said.

"I stopped in McLaren (garage) because they changed our garage this race and we are a lot more in the middle and McLaren with the similar colour...I thought it was our garage."

Mercedes-engined cars filled the four top slots, with McLaren's Jenson Button fourth, and Red Bull's quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel fifth.

Ferrari duo Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen were sixth and seventh with Force India's Nico Hulkenberg eighth and McLaren's Kevin Magnussen ninth. Finland's Valtteri Bottas took the last point for Williams.

Australian Daniel Ricciardo, winner of three races this season, retired his Red Bull to end a run of 15 scoring races in a row. The outgoing champions at least ensured they finished runners-up in the standings.

Only nine teams and 18 cars started, with Marussia no longer in business and Caterham in administration.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Tony Jimenez/Gene Cherry)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com