Rosberg win sets up thrillerposted in F109 | 11 | 2014

    LEWIS HAMILTON HEADS to Abu Dhabi in a fortnight geared up for a nailbiting, thrilling finale to the Formula One season. Should his Mercedes GP team-mate Nico Rosberg — winner of today's Brazilian Grand Prix — win in Abu Dhabi and bank the controversial 'double points', Hamilton knows he has to finish in second place to clinch his second world championship.

    Hamilton was left kicking himself after a half-spin on the in-lap ahead of his pitstop cost him around seven-seconds, and ultimately victory.

    Rosberg's win, his fifth of the season, against Hamilton's 10 victories, ended the Englishman's five-race winning streak. Staring from pole position — his 10th of the year — Rosberg led from start-to-finish and now heads to Abu Dhabi just 17 points adrift of Hamilton.

    Hamilton had eased himself into position to take the lead at the first round of pitstops, but his half spin at the Descida do Lago on lap 28 of 71 essentially wrecked his race.

    Hamilton ran wide after correcting a snap of oversteer as he braked for the corner. He subsequently revealed over the radio that he had wound his brake bias too far to the rear.

    Related: Hamilton wins in Texas

    When he rejoined the track after his pitstop, Hamilton set about closing the near 7s gap and ultimately pit Rosberg under pressure by remaining within DRS range during a franctic final stint, in which both drivers exchanged fastest laps.

    Behind the two leading Mercedes drivers, Felipe Massa gave his home supporters much to cheer when he grabbed the final podium position for Williams.

    Massa even survived a five-second penalty for speeding i the pitlane, and embarrassingly driving through the McLaren pit on his way to his third and final pitstop.

    Team-mate Valtteri Bottas though should have been in the ideal position to capitalise on Massa's misfortunes, but the Finn — who ran fourth early on — lost barrowloads of time when the his crew had to test and re-tighten his seatbelts at a stop. He eventually finished a lap down in 10th.

    Instead it was a resurgent Jenson Button who brought his McLaren home in fourth place, after completing a brave pass around the outside of Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari at the Descida do Lago with 10 laps to run.

    And while four-times world champ Sebastian Vettel finished fifth — immediately ahead of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen in sixth and seventh respectively — his Red Bull team-mate Danial Ricciardo was forced to retire with broken front-left suspension.

    The result saw Mercedes finally overtake McLaren's record of 10 1-2 finishes, which had lasted since 1988. And if Mercedes or Red Bull win in Abu Dhabi, it will be the first time since 2007 that just two teams have won grands prix in a season.

    DRIVERS' QUOTES:

    Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes:

    “Naturally, you'll always be disappointed when you make a mistake and I did that today. But honestly, I felt great out there. The car was strong, my pace was good, I didn't give up, kept pushing and made up the time so that's what's most important to me.

    "Generally, when I'm told to push it means the team is bringing me in that lap, so that's what I did. In the end, they left me out for another lap which caught me by surprise. By the time I came round to do the second lap my rear tyres were gone from where I'd been pushing so hard. Even so, it was my mistake locking up the rears and ultimately that cost me the win.

    "Nico drove a great race — defending well and not making any mistakes. But it's clear I had the pace. It's not a big deal, though. That's motor racing. Obviously, I lost some points which is disappointing. But it's a great team result with a record-breaking one-two finish and I really enjoyed the race.

    "The car is just fantastic - the best I've ever driven - so a big thank you to the team for all their hard work. I'll be pushing just as hard in Abu Dhabi and hopefully we'll get to have another great race like we saw today.”

    Nico Rosberg, Mercedes:

    “That was a fantastic weekend and I felt very comfortable over the whole three days. I had to learn from Austin, which was a big disappointment, and I think I achieved that. I was able to control the pace a bit better and didn't let Lewis come too close. He drove really well and was always right there pushing me. When he spun I had a bit of time to relax and was able to save some life in the tyres for the end of the stint. That worked out perfectly and it was a great day with another one-two for the team.

    "I was also happy for Felipe to be on the podium with us at his home race. The Brazilian people have been so great to us throughout this the whole weekend so it was also a good day for them. Now we have a great finale to look forward to in Abu Dhabi. I'm still believing 100% that I can make it but, of course, I will need some help from Felipe or Valtteri or Lewis himself. ”

    Felipe Massa, Williams:

    “It was not an easy race but what a fantastic result for me, for my family, and for the team to finish on the podium in front of my home fans. The energy from the crowd was amazing and really pushed me forward.

    "The car had strong and consistent pace today and this allowed me to stay in third despite issues in my two pitstops. In the first stop I incurred a stop-and-go penalty after speeding in the pit lane after I hit the limiter twice by mistake, and in the second I stopped in the wrong box.

    "We’re not normally next to McLaren and in the light their overalls looked the same colour as ours so this caught me out. In the end these issues were not enough to take away my podium because we had a good aggressive strategy and a really good car.”

    Valtteri Bottas, Williams:

    “It was a race full of different problems for me and in the end it just wasn’t my day. I had an issue with my belts at the beginning that we resolved at the first pit stop, but this lost me a lot of time and I also lost time in the second stop.

    "The conditions were very challenging as tyre wear was high and all cars were experiencing graining. As a team we have managed to come away with some decent points and I’m happy for Felipe as the crowd reaction after he got out of the car was very special. These sort of days happen in Formula One and we need to regroup and make sure that Abu Dhabi is a problem free race for us.”

    Jenson Button, McLaren:

    “Judging the race was so tricky today. I pushed really hard on my first stint on the Prime tyres so as to maintain the gap to Valtteri. That meant I destroyed my rear tyres – but I reasoned that, if I could keep using DRS, I could establish a gap to the guys behind me. It was worth it, and it worked, but it meant I had to back off during the following stint to look after my tyres.

    "It all went pretty smoothly until my final pit-stop – there was a bit of miscommunication about stopping, which meant I ended up doing an extra lap. That could have cost us a chance of the podium. It’s a shame we couldn’t hang on to Felipe, but it was still a fantastic race. I really enjoyed it.

    "One of the best aspects of it was my great fight with Kimi (Raikkonen) – you always push to the limit with him, but you never go over it – so I enjoyed that very much.”

    Kevin Magnussen, McLaren:

    “That wasn’t a great race for me, which is disappointing. I had a lot of tyre degradation – I tried my best to take care of my tyres but it just didn’t seem possible today. I tried to keep people from getting past me, but guys like Fernando (Alonso) and Nico (Hulkenberg) just had more pace than I did, so it wasn’t possible.

    "We need to sit down and have a look at why it didn’t go right for me today – I’m sure we can find the answer. On the positive side, it’s really good that Jenson scored the points he did today. Fourth is very impressive. I’m really happy for him and for the team today.”

    Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull:

    “I had a good launch at the start and then into Turn 4... maybe I don’t have the best memories of Turn 4 here from two years ago, I didn’t know how aggressive Kevin (Magnussen) was going to be going into it and I left a bit too much space. I went a bit wide and lost two positions as I couldn’t get on the power out of the corner. Then I had to fight hard to get the positions back during the race which we did, especially with strategy. I hoped to get maybe one more position to finish fourth, but in the end it was a good result for us here.”

    Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull:

    “When I went into Turn One, the car went to the right and I knew there was a problem. I came into the pits and the team told me it was suspension failure and we retired. It had been a bit of a boring race, we were close to everyone but not close enough to have many fights; I would have liked to have had a bit more fun, but it didn’t really happen. It’s a shame, but I had a pretty good run until now, so I can’t be too greedy. It would be good to finish on the podium at the final race of the season.”

    Fernando Alonso, Ferrari:

    “After a far from easy weekend, I am reasonably pleased with the outcome of the race, because even if we weren’t very competitive, we managed to score a good number of points. Today, degradation was particularly high, especially in the first stint on the Softs, which lasted less time than expected because of graining.

    "When I passed Kimi, my tyres were newer than his, as he was on a two stop, but I was having to save fuel and after that overtaking move, there was nothing more I could do.

    :Now there’s just one race to go this season and in terms of the Constructors’ Championship, we hope to manage to keep McLaren behind us in the final race in Abu Dhabi. As for myself, I reckon I’m in the position I deserve, because others have done better.”

    Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari:

    “Overall, this has been a positive weekend and even today in the race, I felt very good in the car. During the second stint, we realised that if we went for a two stop strategy, we could make up ground, but then, at my second pit stop, I lost valuable time and that cost me some places.

    "In the final part of the race, I had to fight off Button for a few laps and when Fernando caught me, tyre degradation meant I couldn’t fend him off. We leave Interlagos with a good feeling and even if we still have a lot of work ahead of us, this continued progress makes me confident for the future.”

    F1 — Brazilian Grand Prix (Result):

    1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1h30m02.555s

    2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +1.457s

    3 Felipe Massa Williams/Mercedes +41.031s

    4 Jenson Button McLaren/Mercedes +48.658s

    5 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull/Renault +51.420s

    6 Fernando Alonso Ferrari +1m01.906s

    7 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari +1m03.730s

    8 Nico Hulkenberg Force India/Mercedes +1m03.934s

    9 Kevin Magnussen McLaren/Mercedes +1m10.085s

    10 Valtteri Bottas Williams/Mercedes +1 Lap

    11 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso/Renault +1 Lap

    12 Pastor Maldonado Lotus/Renault +1 Lap

    13 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso/Renault +1 Lap

    14 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber/Ferrari +1 Lap

    15 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes +1 Lap

    16 Adrian Sutil Sauber/Ferrari +1 Lap

    Retirements:

    Romain Grosjean Lotus/Renault Power Unit

    Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault Suspension

    Championship standings:

    Drivers':

    1 Lewis Hamilton 334

    2 Nico Rosberg 317

    3 Daniel Ricciardo 214

    4 Sebastian Vettel 159

    5 Fernando Alonso 157

    6 Valtteri Bottas 156

    7 Jenson Button 106

    8 Felipe Massa 98

    9 Nico Hulkenberg 80

    10 Kevin Magnussen 55

    11 Kimi Raikkonen 53

    12 Sergio Perez 47

    13 Jean-Eric Vergne 22

    14 Romain Grosjean 8

    15 Daniil Kvyat 8

    16 Pastor Maldonado 2

    17 Jules Bianchi 2

    18 Adrian Sutil 0

    19 Marcus Ericsson 0

    20 Esteban Gutierrez 0

    21 Max Chilton 0

    22 Kamui Kobayashi 0

    Constructors':

    1 Mercedes 651

    2 Red Bull/Renault 373

    3 Williams/Mercedes 254

    4 Ferrari 210

    5 McLaren/Mercedes 161

    6 Force India/Mercedes 127

    7 Toro Rosso/Renault 30

    8 Lotus/Renault 10

    9 Marussia/Ferrari 2

    10 Sauber/Ferrari 0

    11 Caterham/Renault 0

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    Jim McGill

     

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