Nico Rosberg halted Lewis Hamilton’s recent wining surge by scoring a crucial victory at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Rosberg edged his team mate throughout the race weekend, the drivers championship will now be decided at the final race in Abu Dhabi.

The race weekend began as its finished with Nico Rosberg finding form from the beginning of practice through too qualifying. Rosberg has now scored more pole positions, 10 too Hamilton’s 7, and yet again Rosberg edged out his much favored team mate to take pole by the narrowest of margins.

But as always race day matters the most and yet again the two Mercedes were involved in thier own personal battle while the rest of the grid looked on in the faint hope of picking up scraps.

It was a clean start by all as the race got underway and Rosberg held onto the lead going into the first corner and led up to the first round of pitstops with Hamilton holding a steady second. With the second round of scheduled pitstops nearing Hamilton began chipping into Rosberg’s lead which forced the leader to pit for a new set of tyres to stop Hamilton’s rapid advance.

Hamilton opted to stay out for a lap longer believing he could extract more time out of his by now worn tyres and take the lead via a faster pitstop. But on lap 28 he half-spun as he prepared to brake for turn 4 and slid into the apex and came too rest on the escape section before making his way to pit, losing the advantage he gained.

When Hamilton emerged he was now 7 second’s behind and as the race approached its last chapter Hamilton began again to eat away at Rosberg’s lead in what was a final tension filled 10 laps. The race leader held his nerve as his faster team mate closed in and by the time Rosberg crossed the line to secure victory the two team mates were separated by less than one second.

Elsewhere, the 71 lap race was quite a lively affair, Raikkonen opted for a two stop race and in the closing stages he sat in 4th place. However his Ferrari was on tyres that had run 25 laps and were by now past thier peak performance and so Raikkonen began to yield his hard fought position. Jenson Button was the first to take on Raikkonen but the Ferrari driver fought valiantly for a lap or so, it was wheel to wheel action before Button and a close following Sebastian Vettel swept by.

Raikkonen’s team mate, Alonso, was also on a two stopper and seemed to have conserved his tyre’s better and was thus able to take Raikkonen as the Finn began to fade late on in the race with Nico Hulkenburg breathing down the Ferrari’s tailpipes before the chequered flag ended Raikkonen’s pains who finished two tenths ahead of the Sauber driver.

Kevin Magnussen finished a forlorn 9th in his McLaren and Valterri Bottas rounded off the top 10 in his William’s. The Brazilian fans were treated to Felipe Massa celebrating a well deserved 3rd place finish, despite the embarrassment of driving into the wrong pit during one of his stops and picking up a five second stop go penalty when his pit limiter failed.

Abu Dhabi will provide the backdrop to a double points showdown between the Mercedes team mates. Hamilton has the points advantage going into the deciding final race, all he has to do is finish in second place, should he wish too, to secure his second drivers title.

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