BRAZILIAN GP - RACE - RE-CAP & RESULTS
Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen joined the five-time champion on the podium, though Verstappen made an early exit to confront Esteban Ocon, who cost him the victory.
Hamilton had maintained his pole position advantage in the first half of the race while Verstappen quickly recovered from a relatively poor qualifying to move up to P3, behind Valtteri Bottas.
He snatched second from the Mercedes on lap 10, passing Bottas at turn one, the same place he’d made moves on both Ferraris earlier in the race.
Verstappen inherited the lead when Hamilton came in for fresh tyres nine laps. At first, it looked like he may be able to build enough of a gap to the Mercedes to earn a free pit stop, but Hamilton began to reel Verstappen in towards the end of the Red Bull’s 36-lap opening stint.
Hamilton reclaimed the lead when Verstappen came in for fresh tyres but it wouldn’t stay that way for long. On much younger, softer tyres, Verstappen was able to blast past the Mercedes on the start-finish straight 31 laps before the chequered flag.
Cautious of engine problems, Hamilton opted not to fight back, and it looked like a clear run for Verstappen to take his first back-to-back victory.
The hard work was undone on lap 44, however, when Force India’s Esteban Ocon tried to unlap himself. Ocon made a move up the inside of Verstappen and collided with the Red Bull, sending both cars into a spin and allowing Hamilton to come back through to take P1.
Verstappen was able to recover and managed to close the gap to Hamilton but ran out of laps before he could make a move.
Hamilton’s victory sealed the constructors’ championship for Mercedes, who are now 87 points ahead of Ferrari.
The Ferrari duo were running fourth and fifth, behind Bottas, when Sebastian Vettel was ordered to let his faster team-mate past. Raikkonen came through and quickly made the move on Bottas in the closing stages of the race, taking his third consecutive podium.
The recovering Daniel Ricciardo took fourth, ahead of Bottas and Vettel.
Charles Leclerc was best of the rest in P7, ahead of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen. Sergio Perez rounded out the top 10.
Brendon Hartley took 11th after his team-mate was ordered to let him past. He and Pierre Gasly were running nose to tail, with Renault’s Carlos Sainz close behind. Gasly held up his team-mate for a number of laps the engineers tried to reverse the order, but eventually let Hartley through. Unfortunately for the Red Bull-bound Toro Rosso driver, Sainz also managed to gain a position and Gasly dropped back to P13.
After his spin, Ocon came home P14, ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne, and Sergey Sirotkin.
Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were the final finishers, with Nico Hulkenberg ordered to stop with overheating issues, and Marcus Ericsson retiring early after losing bodywork throughout the first part of the race.
RESULTS:
1. Lewis Hamilton / Mercedes-Mercedes / Great Britain / + 25 Points
2. Max Verstappen / Red Bull Racing-TAG-Heuer / Netherlands / + 18 Points
3. Kimi Raikkonen / Ferrari-Ferrari / Finland / + 15 Points
4. Daniel Ricciardo / Red Bull Racing-TAG-Heuer / Australia / + 12 Points
5. Valtteri Bottas / Mercedes-Mercedes / Finland / + 10 Points
6. Sebastian Vettel / Ferrari-Ferrari / Germany / + 8 Points
7. Charles Leclerc / Sauber-Ferrari / Monaco / + 6 Points
8. Romain Grosjean / Haas-Ferrari / France / + 4 Points
9. Kevin Magnussen / Haas-Ferrari / Denmark / + 2 Points
10. Sergio Perez / Racing Point Force India-Mercedes / + 1 Point
11. Brendon Hartley / Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda / New Zealand
12. Carlos Sainz / Renault-Renault / Spain
13. Pierre Gasly / Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda / France
14. Esteban Ocon / Racing Point Force India-Mercedes / France
15. Stoffel Vandoorne / McLaren-Renault / Belgium
16. Sergey Sirotkin / Williams-Mercedes / Russia
17. Fernando Alonso / McLaren-Renault / Spain
18. Lance Stroll / Williams-Mercedes / Canada
RETIRED - Nico Hulkenberg / Renault-Renault / Germany / Overheated
RETIRED - Marcus Ericsson / Sauber-Ferrari / Sweden / Collision Damage
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Article Written By: Bethonie Waring
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