Vettel dominates Brazilian Grand Prix
SAO PAULO — 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 teammate 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."