[arunphilip]

Race Result - Hamilton wins, Rosberg second, Verstappen third

• Hamilton won the Brazilian GP, with Rosberg in second, and Verstappen rounding out the final podium step.
• This extended the battle for the driver's title onto Abu Dhabhi, with Rosberg still maintaining a lead of 12 points.
• This race has also broken Hamilton's winless streak at Interlagos with his first victory ever.
• Verstappen drove a stellar race with a late change from inters to wet followed by a charge through most of the field. His teammate Ricciardo finished in eighth.
• This race was extremely wet and incident strewn, with multiple retirements due to cars spinning off and crashing, with many others having many near misses. The race start was delayed, and was also red flagged due to incidents and rain. While it appeared at one point that the race might be called off, race control were able to allow the drivers to participate in some hard racing towards the end, although the race ran extremely close to the two hour racing limit.
• With the Force Indias of both Pérez and Hülkenberg, and with Williams having scored none due to Bottas being out of the points and Massa retiring due to an accident, Force India have opened up their lead over Williams to 27 points.
• Vettel brought home his Ferrari in fifth after having suffered a spin, and some close racing with Verstappen.
• Alonso rounded out the top 10, thereby also earning McLaren one further point.
• Undoubtedly, the other highlight of the race was when Nasr scored Sauber's first points - finishing in ninth he earned Sauber two points, which finally pulls them ahead of Manor.
• Retirements were Gutiérrez (electronics), Massa (accident), Palmer (accident), Räikkönen (accident), Ericsson (accident), Grosjean (accident).

Championship Standings - Top 10 Drivers

Noteworthy Events

Prior to the race start, Grosjean hit standing water and crashed on his sighting lap.

Massa retired due to a spin and crash near the pit entry. While the safety car was brought to clear the debris, he walked back to the Williams garage to rousing applause from fans, and the other teams.

Red Bull prove they have among the best chassis and aero package by topping the speed trap in the wet

[ecenandu]

Max, what a drive boy. He had a tyre advantage so did Ric, but today's drive from Max was supreme. .

[tharian]

What a way for Massa to finish his last home race.

Good thing being, he ended crashing on the beginning of the start finish straight which gave him the chance to walk past the grandstand and also with the pit lane closed, it was like the race was paused for his farewell.

Overall, reminded me of an older Brazilian wet race in which many cars crashed into the barrier at the exit of turn 3,including Schumacher.

[RWD]

Stellar drive by Max. Wonder if it was the case of betting it all out on the extreme wet weather setup on his car, combined with excellent driving, and comparatively fresher tyres. His car did appear to me, much higher than any other on the track, including Ricciardo's. Having said that, his move on Vettel was questionable.
Drivers championship has heated further between Rosberg and Hamilton. Can't wait for the season finale.
P.S. ended up watching the race with Spanish commentary, of which I understood nada.

[GTO]

Lots of delays & safety car phases, but the final stint was worth the wait. Serious driving by Max - reminded me of how the greats used to be on a wet track. Even after his flawed pitstop strategy which dropped him to 11th, he not only overtook his team-mate, but ended up 3rd! What a drive. He was passing others as if they were standing still.

Flawless drive by Hamilton too...not a wheel put wrong. With a 12 point deficit going into the final race though, the money's still on Rosberg.

[Makin Rulesz]

If not for the adventures and bravery of Verstappen, it was one more boring race which took more than 3 hours to finally finish. I never liked Verstappen before this race, for all his on track tactics, but this is the best I have seen anyone drive in a full wet conditions for long. 14th to 3rd in the span of 12 laps takes some driving and the way he used different lines to overtake made the drivers in front of him clueless on how to defend, only minor resistance came from Vettel.

In the end Rosberg was lucky to have finished second, which was mostly helped by multiple pit stops from Redbull drivers, both of them looked much faster than him.

It seemed race direction was directionless with their decisions to stop or continue the race on few occasions.

[sgiitk]

The rain gods played havoc, and made it interesting at the end. Verstappen in the rain was a revelation. Let us see who grabs him. He is hot property.

Sad to see Massa retiring, and Raikonnen's crash.

[Desmosedici]

After multiple crashes and the red flag, i had switched off and gone out. When i came back i saw the race had restarted. Initial view was that the race should be stopped. So many cars crashing.

Sad to see Massa go out with a crash. He was the 2008 Champion if not for Timo Glock.

Max - Just brilliant. Too good. This boy has got the grits and guts.

The 12 point difference makes the last race pretty heated.

[SilentEngine]

I wasn't a fan of Verstappen's driving till now, mainly because of Stewards' reluctance to punish him in multiple cases, but after this race he surely has gained a lot of new fans.

Originally Posted by Desmosedici

Initial view was that the race should be stopped. So many cars crashing.

There was indeed a possibility of cancelling the race after Raikkonen's crash if rain had worsened and light had faded, which would have meant seeing Kimi in podium after crashing!

[RWD]

Originally Posted by SilentEngine

There was indeed a possibility of cancelling the race after Raikkonen's crash, which would have meant seeing Kimi in podium after crashing!

Just like in 2003, when Alonso finished on the podium after a massive shunt, which was initiated by Webber's Jaguar collecting the wall on the last turn, and Alonso piling into the wreckage from behind. The race was red flagged, and Fisichella driving a Jordan lucked into winning the race, to everybody's great amusement.

[gtonsing]

I was all rooting for a podium for SFI but that Max Verstappen came from way back in the last section of the laps and killed the race. Disappointed Perez did not get on the podium but happy to concede that the place was given to a stellar driver who seemed to be least bothered about the wet conditions. What a drive. Given a few more laps, I think he would have challenged Nico for 2nd place.
So, final race of the year is going to be the decider for the Championships. Great stuff, great way of ending the year. Hope somethings get changed and F1 becomes a little more exciting next year!

[Fullrevs]

Interlagos has never failed to impress. I seem to have forgotten what a dull season it has been. Max Verstappen - Take a bow! What a guy! It seemed like god gave him a dry line all through the race. Add to that some luck (the fabulous save from banging the guard rail closer to the pit entry), it was simply his day.

I'm a bit skeptical about Max getting the 'driver of the day' though. Unless it is just a consolation to give someone who hasn't won the race. In my books Lewis Hamilton deserves driver of the day. Not once did he put a foot wrong and was immensely quick on every lap.

I will definitely miss Massa. Was quite emotional watching him take that long walk down pit-lane all the way to his teams garage. A fabulous gesture from Mercedes and Ferrari to have the entire team stand in formation to thank him. For those 5 laps or more, the race was forgotten and every camera was locked in on his emotional goodbye. I don't think that has happened for anyone before.

Final race at Abu Dhabi. Way too difficult an equation for Lewis to outscore Rosberg and clinch the title. My gut tells me that Nico will just play defense and aim to finish in the top 5. Its all he needs and there aren't any opponents who can throw a spanner in the works.

[deetjohn]

Well done Max and Lewis! Both of them were a class apart at Brazil.

Nico has both hands on the trophy now, all he needs to do is dig his teeth into it.

Its difficult to see Nico finish outside the podium at Abu Dhabi, it is kind of the best track to bring home the points from a position on the starting grid.

[Hatari]

What a great race! Outstanding feel in the wet from Max. And a flawless race from Lewis.

The extreme wets need a bit of a rethink, definitely more tread depth required.
Cant have a situation where the entire field does 10 laps behind the safety car and then few laps later, drivers start pitting for Inters. Silverstone a prime example.

Kimi's incident was a wake up call, very dangerous and he was extremely lucky to not get hit by another car.

Was very amusing to see Vettel cry away to stop the race after the first safety car, and Lewis/Bottas shocked at why it was then red flagged!

Happy to see Nasr take the crucial 2 points for Sauber, great drive from him, and well deserved after a tough season. An extra $15 million will be very useful.

Lastly, a mention for Alonso, given where Jenson finished, top notch as usual.

[jfxavier]

Rain always spices things up. Even if that means the race is held in few parcels instead of one.
Max has become the new gold standard as far as the F1 drivers are concerned.
Have to remember that Hamilton was as fast or faster than Verstappen throughout the race. He obviously had a clear track ahead.
Also, when Lewis was 2 sec ahead of Max, Vers was struggling to keep up with him and eventually made a mistake.
Alonso was 2.5 sec a lap faster than his teammate in the last 15 laps which is phenomenal. Looks like the old man still has some fire left in him.