VETTELWINS BRAZILIAN GP
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 retirementbound 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 tenth for Renault.
It was Vettel’s first win in eight outings since the Hungarian GP 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.
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 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.
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.
In the chaos that ensued, Hamilton took advantage and rose to 14th before the Safety Car pulled off and racing resumed. The world champion made the most of his rebuilt car, following his crash in qualifying.
While Vettel pulled clear by 1.9s ahead of Bottas, it was Hamilton setting the fastest laps as he sliced through the field. By lap 21, of the 71, he was up to fifth before settling for fourth place.
“It was fun,” said Hamilton. Brazilian GP results [top ten]: 1 Vettel (1hr 31min 26.260sec), 2 Bottas (+2.762), 3 Räikkönen (+4.600), 4 Hamilton (+5.468), 5 Verstappen (+32.940), 6 Ricciardo (+48.691), 7 Massa (+1:08.882), 8 Alonso (+1:09.363), 9 Pérez (+1:09.500), 10 Hülkenberg (+1 lap).