Nico Rosberg held off F1 title rival Lewis Hamilton at the Brazilian Grand Prix to register his fifth win of the season and reduce the deficit to 17 points in the drivers standings.
Having started from pole position, Rosberg pulled away at the front and was out of Hamilton’s DRS zone when the overtaking aid was activated on lap 3. Whenever Hamilton tried to reduce the gap, Rosberg had the answer to the 2008 F1 champion's pace.
Later on, Hamilton spun after losing his rear axle at turn 4, falling seven seconds behind Rosberg in the process. Hamilton quickly followed in the pits on the same lap and reduced the gap to the race leader lap after lap to finish 1.4s behind.
It was important for Rosberg to end Hamilton’s run of five victories that had put him 24 points ahead in the F1 drivers championship, coming into the weekend. However, with just one race left in the season, albeit the double points Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, it might be a case of two little too late for the German.
Behind the Mercedes duo came the Williams of Felipe Massa who got his home crowd buzzing with his second podium finish of the season. This result came despite a five second stop/go penalty for speeding in the pitlane.
Massa was one the few drivers critical of Pirelli’s original decision to bring the medium and hard tyres for the Brazilian Grand Prix at the resurfaced Interlagos Circuit. After a meeting with F1’s tyre working group, Pirelli decided to bring softer tyres in the race which suffered from heavy graining. Drivers who started on softs came into the pits as early as lap 4 and were left to overtake a string of cars who had started on the primes.
Jenson Button took a strong fourth place at a track where he recorded his and McLaren’s last Grand Prix victory in 2012. The result confirms the progress McLaren have made on the MP4-29 in the second half of the season.
Sebastian Vettel finished fifth, after slipping to eighth at the start of the race. His teammate Daniel Ricciardo was right behind him and eager to find a way past, until being forced to retire with an issue on his left front suspension.
The Ferraris of former F1 world champions Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen battled their way and took sixth and seventh at the chequered flag respectively with the Finn preserving his tyre well enough to complete the 71 lap race on a two stop strategy.
Nico Hulkenberg returned to the points on a reverse hard/hard/hard/soft strategy to finish eighth, seven seconds ahead of the second McLaren of Kevin Magnussen.
Valtteri Bottas had two terribly slow pit stops including one in which mechanics tightened his selt beat, with the result that the Finn finished down in 10th place, a lap down on the leaders.
The final round of the 2014 Formula 1 world championship takes place at Abu Dhabi’s picturesque Yas Marina Circuit with double points on offer for the drivers and the constructors.
F1 BRAZILIAN GRAND PRIX - RESULTS(TOP 10)
1) Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:30.02.555
2) Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +1.400
3) Felipe Massa Williams +40.9
4) Jenson Button McLaren +48.5
5) Sebastian Vettel Red Bull +51.2
6) Fernando Alonso Ferrari +61.6
7) Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari +63.4
8) Nico Hulkenberg Force India +63.6
9) Kevin Magnussen McLaren +69.7
10) Valtteri Bottas Williams +1 lap
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