Brazilian Grand Prix: Rosberg BEATS Hamilton

Hamilton had a sniff at passing Rosberg when the German missed the apex at Turn One midway through this penultimate race of the season – but that was largely as good as it got for the world champion, whose build-up to Sunday’s race had been disrupted following his early morning vehicle crash in Monaco on Tuesday.

It is all too late for the title, with Hamilton wrapping up his third crown in Texas last month, but Rosberg has started the last five races on pole and is unbeaten since Austin.

Race leader Rosberg stopped for tyres after 13 laps, returning to the track in second place on another set of Primes. Hamilton has not won here in eight attempts and would dearly love to do so as an act of homage to his idol, Ayrton Senna, who won the Brazilian Grand Prix on two occasions.

Sebastian Vettel, now consigned to finishing third in the standings, completed the podium places with his Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen crossing the line in fourth.

“A sensational lap from Lewis and an unbelievably vast lap from Nico at the very end, similar to his performance in Mexico. I don’t know if there was anyone else overtaking, unless you have a huge advantage you can’t get close”.

“It was a great weekend for me here, but of course everything is relative because of what happened in Paris”, the German said.

“Thanks, but I could have worked that out for myself”, said Rosberg, when it was suggested.

Wolff responded to Hamilton’s accusations the team had been “warm” towards Rosberg lately: “Not at all, Nico didn’t need help as you saw today. I just didn’t do the job in qualifying”. The way things work at Mercedes is they keep the drivers on essentially identical strategies in order to be fair to both and not disadvantage one or the other, so as usual they mirrored what the other did.

Nico Rosberg put his success into perspective on Sunday after he sealed his place as runner-up in this year’s world championship by winning the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Felipe Massa, Romain Grosjean and Max Verstappen claimed the final points positions in eighth, ninth and tenth respectively.

“For me, I think we have to try to have a few options and then see how it plays out”. Williams driver Valtteri Bottas was fourth fastest followed by Kim Raikkonen of Ferrari and Nico Hulkenberg of Force India.

Meanwhile, FIA president Jean Todt has courted criticism for comparing Friday night’s terror attacks in his native France in which 127 people were murdered to road traffic accidents. That didn’t stop Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso enjoying a little joke when they were knocked out in the first part of qualifying.

It certainly would have made for a better show had Mercedes allowed their drivers to make their own calls but the team was determined to make it another one-two result – their 11th of the season.