Rosberg wins dull Brazilian GPposted in F115 | 11 | 2015
NICO ROSBERG DOMINATED what turned out to be a dull Brazilian Grand Prix, ahead of his Mercedes team-mate and three-times world champ Lewis Hamilton.
Polesitter Rosberg fended off Hamilton as the duo battled for supremacy at the opening two corners, but having held on to the lead was never seriously challenged.
At one stage though, Hamilton closed to within half-a-second of the leader asked his team if it could tweak his strategy to give him a chance to beat the German.
The answer, essentially, was an unreserved, 'no', only being offered slight pit timing variations rather than the chance to two-stop or use different compounds. The decision left Hamilton frustrated, arguing that 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," Hamilton said afterwards.
"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."
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Behind the leading Mercedes duo, Sebastian Vettel brought his Ferrari home in third, but Rosberg's fifth win of the season was enough to seal second place in the championship ahead of his countryman.
Williams's Valtteri Bottas capitalised on his brilliant start from his penalised seventh on the grid to squeeze past Daniil Kvyat and Nico Hulkenberg for fifth, a position he held to the end of the race. The result sealed third place for Williams in the Constructors' Championship.
And while Hulkenberg and Kvyat finished sixth and seventh respectively, there was disappointment and frustration for Bottas's Williams team-mate Felipe Massa.
The Brazilian, having crossed the finish line eight, was disqualified after stewards confirmed discrepancies in the tyre pressure and temperature of his race car before the start. Williams immediately appealed the decision.
The right-rear on Massa's car was measured at 137 degrees centigrade, 27 degrees above the maximum of 110 allowed by Pirelli.
The corresponding tyre pressure, with a temperature of 137, was measured at 20.6psi, 0.1psi above the minimum starting pressure.
"The notice of appeal that we will make is based around the fact we have three independent temperature readings and all of them say how we are within the limits set by Pirelli and the prescriptions for this event," Williams performance chief, Rob Smedley, said.
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"They explained to us that this is the reference measurement because it is the FIA measurement so this is the one that counts. The other three we have are of less consequence."
According to Smedley, the data from the team's independent sensors, one of which he says is exactly the same as the one the FIA uses, show the temperature to be significantly lower than the FIA's reading.
"If you read the document, the right rear tyre of car #19, Massa, on the FIA IR Gun read 137 degrees.
"We have two independent sensors, the first one is the PT1000 which sits inside the tyre blanket and tells us what the surface temperature is and that one was always in compliance with the regulations.
"The last time we could read it, when they took the set off to the grid, it was about 104 degrees.
"The next independent measure we have is from the car data, this is a completely independent measure and the right rear tyre of Massa's car was 105.7C.
"So we have two independent sensors which both say we were in compliance with the regulations and we have data to back that up.
"In addition, we have had independent correlation from our blanket temperature sensors and car temperature sensors to the FIA guns, which Pirelli did for us after all the fuss with Mercedes in Italy.
"We have also bought exactly the same sensor that the FIA uses and we do random checks throughout the weekend to make sure this does not happen.
"For us it's quite critical for us that we understand where his problem is.
"We have three independent temperature measures and none of them give anything like the measure the FIA took on the grid."
F1 Brazilian Grand Prix, Interlagos — Result:
1. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes 1:31:09.090
2. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes +00:07.756
3. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Ferrari 00:14.244
4. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 00:47.543
5. Valtteri Bottas (Finland) Williams-Mercedes 1 lap
6. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany) Force India - Mercedes 1 lap
7. Daniil Kvyat (Russia) RedBull - Renault 1 lap
8. Romain Grosjean (France) Lotus - Mercedes 1 lap
9. Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Toro Rosso - Renault 1 lap
10. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela) Lotus - Mercedes 1 lap
11. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) RedBull - Renault 1 lap
12. Sergio Perez (Mexico) Force India - Mercedes 1 lap
13. Felipe Nasr (Brazil) Sauber - Ferrari 1 lap
14. Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren 1 lap
15. Fernando Alonso (Spain) McLaren 1 lap
16. Marcus Ericsson (Sweden) Sauber - Ferrari 2 laps
17. Will Stevens (Britain) Marussia - Ferrari 4 laps
18. Alexander Rossi (U.S.) Marussia - Ferrari 4 laps
Retired:
Carlos Sainz Jr (Spain) Toro Rosso - Renault 71 laps
Disqualified:
Felipe Massa (Brazil) Williams-Mercedes
Fastest Lap:
Lewis Hamilton,1:14.832, lap 51.
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Jim McGill