Vettel wins Brazilian Grand Prix, Hamilton is fourth

Both Scuderia Ferrari drivers started the race on the Supersoft tyres, making a single pit stop to switch to the Softs. There were three key moments: the start with Seb managing to get ahead of Bottas; the pit stops, carried out perfectly by the team and Kimi’s defence of third place, when under attack from Hamilton in the closing stages.

In face Lewis Hamilton recovered from a from a pit-lane start to almost snatch the final podium spot from Kimi Raikkonen.

Unfortunately for Sahara Force India, it could only score two points in the Brazilian Grand Prix with Sergio Perez fighting hard to finish in ninth place, while teammate Esteban Ocon was taken out of the race on lap one.

“It was disappointing to see Esteban’s fantastic run of consecutive finishes come to an end on the opening lap. He was tapped into a spin as he was making a move on Grosjean into turn six: there was nothing he could really do to avoid the incident because he was simply the innocent victim of another driver’s mistake” said Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal, Sahara Force India.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was a distant fifth ahead of team mate Daniel Ricciardo, while Williams’ Felipe Massa narrowly won a race-long battle with McLaren’s Fernando Alonso to finish his final home Grand Prix in seventh. Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg completed the top ten.