Through his twitter feed, 1996 Formula 1 world champion Damon Hill described the Brazilian Grand Prix at Sao Paulo as the "best and worst race of the season." It was not hard to work out why as Hill challenged those who saw the race to do so. Over-extended safety car periods and one red flag period - there were two of those along with five safety car periods - made the F1 racers, team principals, fans and the media wonder whether Grand Prix racing has become over-regulated.
But then Lewis Hamilton's supreme mastery of the torrential rain that had drivers spinning out and crashing left, right and centre and Max Verstappen's spectacular recovery from outside the top ten to claim third along with daring overtaking maneuvers throughout the field made left F1 followers awestruck. The skill and daring of those who dare to strap themselves into the current generation of cars that produce around 1,000 bhp and whose power units produce near instant torque due to the gasoline-electric hybrid power units was on full display.
The defending world champion took his 52nd career win to go clear of Alain Prost's win tally and become the second most successful driver in Grand Prix history. His Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg took what appeared to be a laboured second place finish that included being audaciously passed by Max Verstappen and a half-spin that led to the German driving to protect his championship points lead.
Mercedes' seventh 1-2 finish of the season saw Hamilton close to within 12 points of Rosberg in the race for the driver's championship, which will now be decided at the final round of the season in Abu Dhabi on November 27. A second or third place finish at the Yas Marina circuit for Rosberg will result in a championship triumph.
But before that, there were 71 laps around the 15-turn, 4.309km Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace. Although, it was hard to count them all as laps as five safety car periods ensured that the race was first started under the safety car and the total laps under caution amounted to close to half the race distance. Two red flag periods; first on account of Kimi Raikkonen crashing on the main straight and then what seemed to be entirely uncalled for after a safety car period pushed the race time to over three hours.
But miraculously, the full 71 laps were run - not for Romain Grosjean though who crashed out on his way to the starting grid - and even more miraculously, fans were treated to a thoroughly entertaining race despite Hamilton and Rosberg finishing first and second yet again.
With Hamilton getting the jump on Rosberg when the race finally went green for the first time, the German fell back towards the chasing pack, which was led very briefly by Ferrari's Raikkonen before he was unceremoniously passed by the Red Bull-Tag Heuer (Renault) drivers Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo as well as Force India-Mercedes' Sergio Perez.
The numerous stoppages did drivers no favours, however, with maintaining the temperature in their tyres, causing drivers to spin out. Although, despite that, many drivers braved a switch from extreme wet-weather tyres to intermediate tyres when the rain briefly let up only to return with a vengeance.
Sebastian Vettel and Verstappen were two of the highest profile drivers to try the intermediate tyres but neither had much success and crashes for Raikkonen and Felipe Massa made the FIA race control mandate that drivers have wet tyres on before the final time the race was stopped.
Verstappen's switch to intermediates cost him a shot at a race win but his recovery to go from outside the top ten to third by the end was one of the most epic finishes to an F1 race. His charge even included a muscular pass on Vettel who had been unable to pass Carlos Sainz for fourth place. Verstappen managed to get past both - leaving Vettel to yet again complain about his driving - and then even catch Perez.
Force India-Mercedes' Nico Hulkenberg, Red Bull's Ricciardo, Sauber's Felipe Nasr and McLaren-Honda's Fernando Alonso rounded out the top ten.
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