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Lewis Hamilton has won the Brazilian Grand Prix despite having a pace disadvantage to Red Bull's Max Verstappen for much of the race. Mercedes has also picked up its fifth consecutive constructor's championship after a tough day for Ferrari.
Verstappen was leading comfortably after perfecting his strategy, staying out on the super soft tyres for 35 laps. He then pitted for the soft tyres and emerged behind Hamilton after he had made his way past the two Ferrari's and Valtteri Bottas in the opening sequence of laps.
The Dutchman stayed out 16 laps longer than Hamilton and was easily able to overtake him on the soft tyres, as Hamilton was running on the mediums. As he was extending his gap to the five-time champion, Verstappen found himself spun around by Esteban Ocon.
Ocon was attempting to un-lap himself and go around the outside of the Red Bull at Turn 1. As Verstappen turned in, there was no room for both of them, causing the duo to spin and allow Hamilton to follow through retake the lead.
Verstappen fell five seconds behind Hamilton and tried to close in on the Briton despite sustaining heavy bodywork damage in the incident. He managed to pull the gap down to 1.5 seconds, but couldn't do enough to regain the position from Hamilton.
Ferrari saw its last hopes at some glory in 2018 vanish as Mercedes wrapped up the constructor's title. It did get one car onto the podium, as Kimi Raikkonen crossed the line in third holding off Daniel Ricciardo, who recovered after taking a five-place grid penalty after qualifying.
Ricciardo also stayed out on his super soft tyres and had a distinct pace advantage to his rivals when he re-joined the track. The Australian had to fight hard to get past Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas, but managed to do so on laps 46 and 59 respectively.
Bottas, who was aiming to win his first race of the season, struggled in the early stages of the race. The Finn managed to jump Vettel off the line for second place, but couldn't challenge Hamilton and soon found himself behind Verstappen.
Ferrari also took time to get their soft tyres working at the start of the race. Vettel pitted on lap 28 for the medium tyres but couldn't keep up with the cars ahead. He pitted towards the end to fit super soft tyre in an attempt to do something different, but to no avail.
Charles Leclerc had a lonely race and was untroubled for most of the Grand Prix. The Monegasque driver picked up another six points for himself and Sauber while his teammate, who started in seventh place, retired after his car lost aerodynamic performance with bodywork issues.
Haas, who has looked strong all weekend, wrapped up the event with both cars inside the top ten. The American squad came home in eighth and ninth, with Romain Grosjean heading teammate Kevin Magnussen. Sergio Perez took the final point for Force India.
Interlagos - 11 November 2018
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ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
The astonishing level of absurdity of some people that believe that Mercedes asked Ocon to crash into Max... It's the same crowd that made Donald Trump president in the U.S., eager to believe bullshit that coddles their prejudices regardless or lack of evidence.
Imagine that... Mercedes which al... [Read more]