Verstappen’s dominant display highlight of Brazil Grand prix

What you need to know:

  • The Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos panned out as few had expected.
  • Hamilton had edged out Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel for pole by less than a tenth of a second.

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton achieved yet another milestone of his glistering career, winning a race for the first time after securing the championship but more importantly, together with teammate Valterri Bottas, helping Mercedes clinch the constructors' championship for the fifth time in a row.

The Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos panned out as few had expected. Hamilton had edged out Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel for pole by less than a tenth of a second.

His teammate, Valterri Bottas was third and had his fellow Finn, Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen in fourth place. Red Bull's Max Verstappen was fifth while the other Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo would start eleventh. With that line-up, it seemed that the battle would be between the Silver Arrows and the red Scuderia pair.

At the start of the 71-lap race, Vettel lost position to Bottas, the Mercedes sweeping on the outside of Turn One making it clear to the Ferraris that the battle was well and truly on. DRS was enabled on the third lap. On that same lap, Verstappen passed Raikkonen, and in the subsequent lap, overtook Vettel to begin putting pressure on the Mercedes pair.

Ferrari could do nothing to prevent Verstappen getting through since they were on a different tyre strategy which meant that their tyre choice was the soft compound which took longer to warm up compared to the supersofts that the Red Bulls and the Mercedes had. A slight and uncharacteristic blunder by Vettel on the fourth lap saw Raikkonen snatch fourth place from his teammate. By the seventh lap, Ricciardo had risen to sixth position.

'MADE A MOVE'

Soon after, Verstappen was within DRS range of Bottas and made a move on the tenth lap, getting through the inside into Turn One. Bottas then had Raikkonen next to contend with. Raikkonen did not get a way through until Bottas went in for a pit stop on the 18th lap. In the subsequent lap, Hamilton also took in a fresh set of tyres. Mercedes opted for the mediums to last till the end of the race. That was asking for at least fifty laps from those tyres. Would their strategy work or was the call too early?

On the 31st lap, Raikkonen pitted and came out behind Vettel. The German had taken on fresh tyres four laps earlier. With the pace that Raikkonen had and with the constructors' championship at stake, Vettel was ordered to let his teammate through, which he did. Verstappen nursed the supersofts till the halfway point of the race and took a new set of softs. Soon afterwards and by virtue of having not pitted, Ricciardo got into the race lead even though he started eleventh. A charging Verstappen caught up with Hamilton on the 39th lap and passed the race leader on the next lap, the Merc, just a sitting duck against the fierce pace of the Red Bull. Five laps later, disaster struck for Verstappen when he collided with the Force India of Esteban Ocon at Turn Two.

Ocon, with fresh supersofts that could take him to the end of the race, was attempting to un-lap himself and stayed on the outside of Turn One. Verstappen, as is characteristic of him, did not leave room for Ocon going into Turn Two. Verstappen's spin gave Hamilton the lead. For his role in the collision, Ocon was handed a ten-second stop-go penalty. Opinion is divided on whether the French driver is fully to blame given that he did ask if he should seek to un-lap himself (for which he received an affirmative response) and also for the fact that the race leader turned right into him and was clearly not a full car's length ahead when he did so.

Having pitted, Ricciardo also got in on the action, chasing down Vettel and eventually passing the German. He also had his way with Bottas later on. Despite having a damaged car, Verstappen was still able to chip away at Hamilton's lead. From more than 5 seconds, it had been slashed down to 1.6 seconds getting into the final lap. Hamilton was however able to hold on for a memorable win. Ricciardo was keen to get a podium slot but fourth was the best he could do as Raikkonen was able to keep him at bay. Hamilton's victory, which seemed to be the result of a broad smile from lady luck, was his 50th of Formula One's turbo-hybrid era. It means that the Brit has won half the races of the current era.