Tag: Brazilian Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg took the victory in a dominant performance at Interlagos.

The driver of the No. 6 Mercedes AMG Petronas car started from the pole and led all but four laps en route to scoring his 13th career win in Formula 1, fifth of the season and second at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in São Paulo. “It was a great weekend for me. Of course everything is relative with what happened back in Paris, but it went perfectly. Lewis put on a great challenge but I was able to control it and I was really happy with that,” he said.

Teammate and reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton led four laps and finished runner-up. He said that he had good pace, but noted that it’s hard to make passes at this particular circuit. “I was behind Nico and in traffic for some time and I just killed my tires,” he added. “I don’t know if there was anyone else overtaking, unless you have a huge advantage you can’t get close.”

Sebastian Vettel rounded out the podium for the 79th time in his career in his No. 5 Scuderia Ferrari.

Kimi Räikkönen put the other Ferrari in fourth. Valtteri Bottas’s Williams Martini Racing Mercedes rounded out the top-five.

Nico Hülkenberg finished sixth in his No. 27 Sahara Force India Mercedes, followed by Daniil Kvyat finished seventh in his No. 26 Infiniti Red Bull Renault. Felipe Massa finished his home race in eighth. That however could change as he’s under investigation for his right-rear tire being 27 C – 80.6 F – over the maximum pre-race temperature limit.

Romain Grosjean finished ninth in his No. 8 Lotus-Mercedes while Max Verstappen rounded out the points in 10th in his No. 33 Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault.

American Alexander Rossi finished 19th in his last race of 2015. He’ll return to his GP2 Series ride with Racing Engineering for the next two weeks.

The only car to not finish the race was the other Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz Jr.

Formula 1 closes out the 2015 season in two weeks at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.

Nico Rosberg will start the field tomorrow in São Paulo.

The driver of the No. 6 Mercedes AMG Petronas car won his fifth straight pole with a time of 71.282 and a speed of 135.198 mph. He said afterwards that qualifying was “an area that I had to work on, so I have been working on it through the season. But I don’t have a direct explanation, a precise thing I’ve done different.”

Teammate Lewis Hamilton will start second with a time of 71.360 and a speed of 135.051 mph. Asked if not being on pole since Monza concerned the 2015 champion, he simply said “no” and that his “main job is done this year. I have the most poles of the year and I won the world championship, so there’s nothing really to read into this. You don’t always get it right. You can’t get it perfect every single time.”

It shouldn’t shock anyone that it was a Mercedes on pole. They’ve taken the top spot in qualifying in all but one race this season. Sebastian Vettel was the only other driver to be on pole this season when he took it in Singapore.

Speaking of Vettel, the four time world champion placed his No. 5 Scuderia Ferrari in third with a time of 71.804 and a speed of 134.215 mph. Valtteri Bottas finished his No. 77 Williams Martini Racing Mercedes in fourth with a time of 72.085 and a speed of 133.692 mph. He was handed a three-place grid penalty for overtaking Felipe Nasr under red-flag conditions in free practice 2. Kimi Räikönen rounded out the top-five in his No. 7 Scuderia Ferrari with a time of 72.144 and a speed of 133.583 mph.

Nico Hülkenberg qualified sixth. Daniil Kvyat qualified seventh. Felipe Massa qualified eighth. Daniel Ricciardo qualified ninth. He was handed a 10-place grid penalty for his team going over the five engine change limit for the season. Max Verstappen rounded out the top-10.