Formula 1 - Brazilian Grand Prix 2014

Pure drama on this race Sunday!
After a long and bitter duel with his stablemate Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg was crowned winner of the Brazilian Grand Prix for the first time. This means that the drivers' world championship will remain exciting until the final race in Abu Dhabi.

by Bruno Fleckenstein

The Silver Arrows on the front row of the grid followed by the Williams, Mclaren, Red Bull and Ferrari as the chasers, that was the starting grid for this race. At the start, Nico Rosberg was able to defend his pole and the race was rather unspectacular in the first laps. But with track temperatures of 50° Celsius, the tires on this circuit are put under a lot of strain, which called for a clever strategy and optimal tire management. The first pit stops were therefore initiated early on. On lap 5 with Maldonado, on lap 6 with Massa, followed by the others like Bottas, Button, Vettel, etc. Rosberg and Hamilton changed on laps 8 and 9, and Mercedes was then keen to run a long stint.

The teams' different strategies mixed up the field, with Nico Hülkenberg temporarily leading the race ahead of Daniil Kvyat, followed by Rosberg and Hamilton close behind. On lap 16, Felipe Massa overtook Daniil Kvyat on the start-finish straight. Kvyat was running at 306 km/h, whereas Massa accelerated his Williams to 336 km/h. This difference in performance was impressive and made it clear that the Williams is currently the fastest.

Breakdowns of the pit crews, driver errors and strokes of fate of individual drivers had an impact on the final standings.
The second tire change began on lap 26. Massa suffered a 5-second penalty as well as a tire change that was too long. Rosberg, Magnussen and Bottas followed. Bottas's mechanics tampered with his steering wheel, resulting in downtime of over 11 seconds. He lost many places as a result. Lewis Hamilton wanted to put out a good lap in his usual manner to be able to overtake Rosberg after the pit stop, but the rear of his Silver Arrow broke away in turn 4. Lewis was able to recover the Mercedes in the run-off zone, but instead of getting ahead of Rosberg, he rejoined the track a whopping 7.5 seconds behind his stablemate after changing tires on lap 29.

Kimi Räikkönen was on the move with a different 2-stop strategy. But it was like a jinx on this day. His pit crew also made a mistake. The right front wheel simply wouldn't fix. Downtime 7.6 seconds.
On lap 40, Daniel Ricciardo was hit. He slowed down and it looked like a tire problem. But when he arrived in the pits, something seemed to be wrong with the suspension, so he had to retire from the race.

In the last third it became exciting again
By lap 50, Hamilton had reduced the gap to his teammate Rosberg from 7.5 to 2 seconds.
The question was, will Nico Rosberg let victory slip away like he did in Austin or Suzuka, or can he hold his own against his rival Lewis Hamilton. Rosberg changed tires on lap 51 and Massa did the same, only he went to the Mclaren crew first until he realized it wasn't his pit. Fernando Alonso's Ferrari crew delivered an excellent time with a standing time of 2.4 seconds. For him, that meant 8th place in the meantime.
One lap later, Hamilton came into the pits and then sat in Rosberg's shadow with a gap of 0.7 seconds. Now tension was building. Still 18 laps to go! When would Lewis overtake Nico? But Rosberg countered with one of the fastest laps on lap 53 with 1:13:961 min. and kept Lewis at bay in this way also in the following laps.

Meanwhile, Kimi Räikkönen was battling for fifth place with his closest pursuers Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel. But his old tires could not withstand the attacks of his pursuers for long. Then it was stablemate Alonso who caught up with Raikkonen on the 65th lap. It was a gripping duel and Alonso had to be patient. His tires were just 11 laps old, while Raikkonen's were already 28. Three laps later, he managed to pass Kimi in the DRS zone. Nico Rosberg managed to keep Lewis Hamilton at bay until the end and won the Brazilian Grand Prix after an impressive duel with his colleague Lewis. The decision on who will be world champion will be made in Abu Dhabi.

Ranking GP of Brazil
1st Nico Rosberg Mercedes
2nd Lewis Hamilton Mercedes + 1.457 sec.
3rd Felipe Massa Williams + 41.031 sec.
4th Jenson Button McLaren + 48.658 sec.
5th Sebastian Vettel Red + 51.420 sec.
6th Fernando Alonso Ferrari + 1:01.906 min.
7th Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari + 1:03.730 min.
8th Nico Hülkenberg Force India + 1:03.934 min.
9th Kevin Magnussen McLaren + 1:10.085 min.
10th Valteri Bottas Williams + 1 lap
11th Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso + 1 lap
12th Pastor Maldonado Lotus + 1 lap
13th Jean-Eric Vergne + 1 lap
14th Esteban Gutierrez Sauber + 1 lap
15th Sergio Perez Force India + 1 lap
16th Adrian Sutil Sauber + 1 lap
17th Romain Grosjean Lotus + 8 laps
18th Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull + 31 laps