Brazilian-Grand-Prix-2015-Rosberg-vs-Hamilton
Determined Rosberg Fends of Determined Hamilton To Secure Brazil Victory
Formula One
Nico Rosberg secured his 5th pole position in a row at the Brazilian Grand Prix during qualifying yet again edging out his team mate Lewis Hamilton by as much as makes little difference. Hamilton has the main prize, a world championship in the bag, so the last two remaining races are for pride and Nico Rosberg has won that ‘championship’ for sure. Mercedes relentless domination in 2015 continued at Brazil with the front row of the grid claimed by the three pointed star. So this was a two horse battle between two equally matched teams mates. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was lined up third on the grid doing his best to remain relevant but on race day the Mercedes had the race wrapped up by the first corner of the opening lap. Brazilian-Grand-Prix-2015-Race-Start This is how it has been for all but three of the 18 races this year, Hamilton went after Rosberg in a quest to end his team mate’s recent string of race wins. Try as he might Hamilton just couldn’t find a way past Rosberg despite being slightly quicker. When two cars are evenly matched and two drivers are also equally quick one relies on the other to make a small error. And Hamilton has been able to rely on Rosberg to make the errors, as was the case in the US GP. But Rosberg has found form since the cap throwing disappointment of losing the championship title too his most fierce rival and is driving with suave determination. Brazilian-Grand-Prix-2015-Rosberg-Leads-Hamilton Hamilton tried to undercut Rosberg during the pitstops, both made three stops, but each time Rosberg had the pace to match Hamilton and would always get back into the lead. In the last 20 laps of the 71 lap race Hamilton was able to close up on Rosberg but was never able to get close enough to make a pass. So the battle for victory was in the end a tense stalemate, behind the Mercedes duo there was more interesting action, Sebastian Vettel put in a strong performance for Ferrari. But it was Max Verstappen who again underlined his world champion in the making status by making a couple of daring overtakes where other lesser drivers, experienced or otherwise, would have crashed. Brazilian-Grand-Prix-2015-Sebastian-Vettel-Leads-Raikkonen All this effort netted the Toro Rosso driver 9th place overall. The only challengers not to be lapped were the Ferrari’s, Vettel was the closest too the Mercedes at the end with Raikkonen a distant 4th making him the only other non-Mercedes driver not to be lapped. And so the end result meant Hamilton was defeated by the narrowest of margins, he made an effort to win but as the laps ran out so did the life of his tyres. Rosberg crossed the line to receive the chequered flag by now Hamilton’s challenge had faded some 5 laps earlier as the life of his tyres began to expire and he would cross the line 7.7 seconds behind the victor. Brazilian-Grand-Prix-2015-Rosbegr-Podium Hamilton suggested after the race that he was struggling to adapt to new changes made to the car which has shifted the driveability of the Mercedes to Rosberg. Hamilton will have a chance to see if he can regain the initiative at the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi in two weeks from now.  
Pos. Driver Country Team Time Points
1 Nico Rosberg GER Mercedes 1:31:09.090 25
2 Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes +7.756s 18
3 Sebastian Vettel GER Ferrari +14.244s 15
4 Kimi Räikkönen FIN Ferrari +47.543s 12
5 Valtteri Bottas FIN Williams +1 lap 10
6 Nico Hulkenberg GER Force India +1 lap 8
7 Daniil Kvyat RUS Red Bull Racing +1 lap 6
EX Felipe Massa BRA Williams +1 lap 0
8 Romain Grosjean FRA Lotus +1 lap 4
9 Max Verstappen NED Toro Rosso +1 lap 2
10 Pastor Maldonado VEN Lotus +1 lap 1
11 Daniel Ricciardo AUS Red Bull Racing +1 lap 0
12 Sergio Perez MEX Force India +1 lap 0
13 Felipe Nasr BRA Sauber +1 lap 0
14 Jenson Button GBR McLaren +1 lap 0
15 Fernando Alonso ESP McLaren +1 lap 0
16 Marcus Ericsson SWE Sauber +2 laps 0
17 Will Stevens GBR Marussia +4 laps 0
18 Alexander Rossi USA Marussia +4 laps 0
NC Carlos Sainz ESP Toro Rosso DNF 0
Note – Massa excluded from results after the stewards found that his right-rear tyre did not comply with the maximum permitted temperature ahead of the start of the race.
Brazilian-Grand-Prix-2015-Rosberg-vs-Hamilton
Share via
Copy link
Powered by Social Snap