Nico Rosberg achieved his second successive Formula 1 victory with a commanding drive at Interlagos.
The pole sitter came across his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton on the approach to the Senna S on the opening lap. Nico defended his track position and from there, controlled the pace and record win number 13.
Newly-crowned champion Hamilton asked his team if it could adapt his race strategy to give him an opportunity to beat Rosberg, but in the end, Lewis had to follow his team-mate on a three-stop and crossed the finishing line 7.7 seconds adrift.
During the second stint, the Silver Arrows ran very close but Hamilton dropped away due to heavy tyre wear.
Rosberg’s fifth victory of the season secured second in the drivers’ championship as his main rival Sebastian Vettel could only finish third for Ferrari.
The Brazilian Grand Prix was quite processional with some added action in the midfield. The small threat of rain in the closing stages never materialising and Rosberg lapping everyone up to fourth position.
Ferrari was unable to challenge Mercedes. Vettel tried something different by running a second stint on the softs as most chose mediums but could not get closer and finished comfortably clear of two-stopping team-mate Kimi Raikkonen in third.
Valtteri Bottas made a brilliant start from his penalised seventh on the grid to squeeze past Daniil Kvyat and Nico Hulkenberg for fifth.
But that was as good as it got for the Williams driver, who stayed in that position for the remainder of the race and ensured his Williams team clinched third in the constructors’ championship.
Hulkenberg took the flag in sixth place, ahead of Kvyat and Felipe Massa, whose Williams team was summoned to the stewards after the race in relation to a tyre pressure and temperature discrepancy on the grid.
Romain Grosjean was ninth ahead of Max Verstappen, who made a series of passes in the final stint after choosing to run the soft.
It was Verstappen’s sixth successive points-scoring finish, which is record run for a Toro Rosso driver.
His bold passes at Senna S was the highlight of the Brazilian Grand Prix. Max’s move on Sergio Perez was spectacular.
It was a complete contrast day for Carlos Sainz Jr, who had a problem on the grid and had to start from the pitlane before retiring on the opening lap.
Pastor Maldonado, who ended up P11, collided with Marcus Ericsson at the Senna S, tipping the Sauber into a spin and incurring a five-second penalty.
Daniel Ricciardo, running the updated Renault engine, was P12, ahead of Felipe Nasr and the McLaren duo Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso.
Ericsson, who lost five positions on the first lap when he ran wide at the Descida do Lago, continued after the contact with Maldonado but lost too much ground and finished P17.
The Manor-run Marussias of Will Stevens and Alexander Rossi, who will be replaced by Roberto Merhi for the final race in Abu Dhabi, completed the finishers in P18 and P19 respectively.
Brazilian Grand Prix, race results after 71 laps:
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1h31m09.090s
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 7.756s
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 14.244s
4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 47.543s
5 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1 Lap
6 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1 Lap
7 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull-Renault 1 Lap
8 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1 Lap
9 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Mercedes 1 Lap
10 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso-Renault 1 Lap
11 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1 Lap
12 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Mercedes 1 Lap
13 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1 Lap
14 Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari 1 Lap
15 Jenson Button McLaren-Honda 1 Lap
16 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 1 Lap
17 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 2 Laps
18 Will Stevens Marussia-Ferrari 4 Laps
19 Alexander Rossi Marussia-Ferrari 4 Laps
– Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso-Renault Retirement
Drivers’ championship:
1 Lewis Hamilton 363
2 Nico Rosberg 297
3 Sebastian Vettel 266
4 Valtteri Bottas 136
5 Kimi Raikkonen 135
6 Felipe Massa 121
7 Daniil Kvyat 94
8 Daniel Ricciardo 84
9 Sergio Perez 68
10 Nico Hulkenberg 52
11 Max Verstappen 48
12 Romain Grosjean 47
13 Felipe Nasr 27
14 Pastor Maldonado 26
15 Carlos Sainz 18
16 Jenson Button 16
17 Fernando Alonso 11
18 Marcus Ericsson 9
19 Roberto Merhi 0
20 Alexander Rossi 0
21 Will Stevens 0
Constructors’ championship:
1 Mercedes 660
2 Ferrari 401
3 Williams-Mercedes 257
4 Red Bull-Renault 178
5 Force India-Mercedes 120
6 Lotus-Mercedes 73
7 Toro Rosso-Renault 66
8 Sauber-Ferrari 36
9 McLaren-Honda 27
10 Marussia-Ferrari 0
Next race: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Yas Marina. November 27-29.
Nico Rosberg won the Brazilian Formula One Grand Prix for the second year in a row and denied Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton a first success in the homeland of his late hero Ayrton Senna.
Triple champion Hamilton, who has now failed in nine attempts to win in Brazil, finished 7.756 seconds behind for Mercedes’s 11th one-two in 18 races so far this season.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel finished third for his 79th podium finish. “Yeah guys, awesome,” whooped Rosberg after controlling the race from pole to chequered flag.
“It was a good challenge from Lewis but I was able to control the pace,” added the German, who refrained from too much exuberance on the podium out of respect for the victims of Friday’s Paris attacks.
“We saw Lewis dropping off a lot with degradation and that confirmed it was important to take care of the tyres.”
The victory in the season’s penultimate race was Rosberg’s fifth of the year, second in a row and 13th of his career, and secured the German second place in a championship already won by his British rival.
“I had good pace, it’s just you can’t overtake here,” said Hamilton, who started on the front row alongside Rosberg but could not find a way past his team-mate into the opening corner or at the subsequent three pitstops.
Source: Eurosport
World champion Lewis Hamilton commented that his team should allow more risky strategy. Autosport.com has the story.
The Mercedes Formula 1 team should let its drivers take more strategy risks reckons Lewis Hamilton, after being defeated by team-mate Nico Rosberg in the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Hamilton pleaded for a chance to try a divergent strategy as he closed on Rosberg in the second stint, but was only offered slight pit timing variations rather than the chance to two-stop or use different compounds.
He argued Mercedes’ policy was not giving its drivers chance to battle each other during races.
“I am here to race and when you have the same strategy it’s set from the beginning, so let’s take a risk,” said Hamilton.
“I had the pace but you can’t overtake here. I was behind Nico attacking for some time but I killed my tyres.
“It’s such a great track, but you can’t get close enough unless you have a huge advantage on the guy in front.
“The DRS zone may not be long enough – that could have been the thing to make the difference.
“So I just wanted to see if there were any other [strategy] options.
“It will be great to sometimes be able to do something different rather ‘you’re in on lap 15 and you’re in on lap 16’.
“Have some options and see how it plays out.”
Rosberg responded that the fight would not be as fair if Mercedes allowed strategy variance.
“It’s a discussion we’ve had many times,” he said.
“It wouldn’t be fair for the guy running second to go for another strategy and for it to turn out it was massively the better strategy.
“And you won the race just because of luck and the other strategy being so much quicker.
“That’s the big problem with it. That’s why it doesn’t make sense.
“It should be me against Lewis, that’s it and no luck, rather than one strategy being a bit better than the other.”
The Mercedes drivers also disagreed on their race pace, with Rosberg disputing Hamilton’s insistence that he was faster and being held up.
“I had the pace advantage over Lewis, so he wasn’t going to come past me,” said Rosberg.
“I was six seconds in front at the end. He’s not going to pass me with that pace.”
Hamilton countered: “Contrary to what Nico was saying, at one point I was all over him, but I just couldn’t get by.
“I had the pace today.”
The 2015 Brazilian Grand Prix was not a thrilling race and yet the two current champions have expressed their views to improve the spectacle by making overtaking changes. Autosport.com has the details.
Formula 1 chiefs are squandering opportunities to increase overtaking in grands prix, world champions Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton have argued.
After a Brazilian Grand Prix that featured little passing among the frontrunners – although the midfield provided substantially more action – the winners of the last six F1 titles between them insisted solutions existed that could increase action levels if bosses were willing to act.
Vettel said F1 cars simply needed to generate more mechanical grip from better tyres, rather than being so reliant on aerodynamics, to make overtaking more possible among evenly-matched teams.
“In general to follow cars closer, we need more mechanical grip,” he said.
“How to do that: we need better tyres and to able to go quicker.
“The drivers want to be quicker. The solution is simple.
“Unfortunately, the situation is political, there are different interests from different people.
“It’s fair enough to give Pirelli the chance to improve the tyres but we need to run [test].
“But if we can’t agree, it is difficult to make progress.
“Unfortunately, the people who are paying for it are sitting in the grandstands.”
Hamilton, who was adamant he had the pace to beat Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg to victory at Interlagos if overtaking had been easier, insisted “something has got to change” but doubted his complaints would be heeded.
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter what we say because it won’t happen,” he said.
“The big bosses make the decisions and whether or not they are the right ones is another thing.
“For the fans, it’s not exciting to watch.
“It is always nice to be at the front, but to be able to race – not just down the field – is what we want to see.”
Winner Rosberg was less critical, but agreed changes were necessary.
“We have to improve the sport, though I don’t know how the battles were at the back,” he said.
“It’s always difficult to pass in F1.
“DRS has come on board and that has made progress, but we still have to work.”
Vettel added that while he was frustrated, the problem was not unique to F1’s current era.
“The bottom line is it wasn’t like there was an awful lot more overtaking 10 years ago,” he said.
“So it’s also not a disaster what we are seeing.”
Mercedes’s Nico Rosberg thought he reaped the rewards for taking care of his tyres as he claimed back-to-backs wins in Brazil.
Nico Rosberg was at a loss to explain his upturn in fortunes after winning the Brazilian Grand Prix for a second successive year on Sunday.
The German secured second place in the drivers’ standings by seeing off the challenge of McLaren team-mate and world champion Lewis Hamilton in Interlagos.
Rosberg and Hamilton looked set for an enthralling duel when the pair almost made contact as the world champion attempted to pass on the outside at Turn One after the German had started on pole for a fifth race in a row.
Hamilton was unable to come as close as that again despite pushing hard and was left frustrated with the lack of opportunity to overtake on the famous circuit.
Rosberg had not won since June before his triumph in Mexico a fortnight ago and the German was not able to put his finger on why he has been able to return to the top of the podium.
“It was a good challenge from Lewis, but I was able to control the pace. We saw Lewis dropping off a lot with degradation and that confirmed it was important to take care of the tyres,” he said.
“I am pushing now and I was pushing earlier in the season. I don’t have an explanation for why now but just want to keep on going.”
Rosberg then set his sights on ending the season on a high note in Abu Dhabi.
“I have been working hard all year. Lewis had the upper hand the whole season so I needed to turn it around. Two weeks in Abu Dhabi – I want to go for the win again,” he added.
Source: Yahoo Sport
Williams’ Felipe Massa has been excluded from the results of the Formula 1 Grande Premio Petrobras do Brasil 2015 after the stewards found that his right-rear tyre did not comply with the maximum permitted temperature ahead of the start of the race.
Williams have, however, served notice of an appeal following the verdict.
Checks made on the grid by the FIA after the five-minute signal had been given revealed that Massa’s right-rear tyre was 137 degrees Celsius, which is 27 degrees above the maximum temperature of 110 allowed by Pirelli.
The corresponding tyre pressure at 137 degrees was 20.6 psi, 0.1 psi above the minimum starting pressure.
The matter was referred to the stewards who, after hearing from a Williams representative, determined that the team had breached article 12.5.1 of the Technical Regulations, Article 3.2 of Sporting Regulations and Article 12.1.1.i of the FIA International Sporting Code.
Massa was thus excluded from his eighth-place finish, lifting Lotus’s Romain Grosjean and Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen into eighth and ninth respectively, and Lotus’s Pastor Maldonado into the final points-paying position of 10th.
Source: Formula1.com