Right, that was good fun. Thanks a lot for your company. Giles Richards’s race report will follow here shortly in no time. Bye!
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Vettel speaks. “I’m really happy, especially for all the guys back home in Marinello who have been working really hard,” says the Ferrari driver, and race winner. As for Bottas, he says the outcome is “very disappointing” after losing the race at turn 1 on the first lap. “On to Abu Dhabi,” the Finn says. As for Kimi Raikkonen, he says he “was not too worried” about Lewis Hamilton, who finished just behind him in fourth.
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Sebastian Vettel stands tall, on top of the podium, as he’s serenaded by the German national anthem. It’s all smiles up there.
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Up onto the podium the drivers go. Bottas can still get second in the championship, but his task is now that much harder in two weeks’ time in Abu Dhabi. Bottas trails Vettel by 22 points in the drivers’ championship after today’s race. Meanwhile, Massa is on his way into the pits for the last time. “Thank you, I love you all so much,” the Brazilian says.
INITIAL CLASSIFICATION (LAP 71/71)
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 12, 2017
Here's how they finished at the #BrazilGP 🇧🇷#F1 pic.twitter.com/gr8MjyFWTq
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Sebastian Vettel wins Brazilian Grand Prix!
The Ferrari gets over the line, with Valtteri Bottas second. Kimi Raikkonen takes third. Lewis Hamilton, who started from the pit lane, takes a remarkable fourth. The world champion just didn’t have quite enough power in the end to have a go at third.
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Lap 71/71: Is the race Sebastian Vettel’s? He leads Bottas by 2.459secs. Raikkonen is third as it stands ...
Lap 70/71: Hamilton has gained a little on Raikkonen through turns 4 and 5. Has he got anything left in the tank to snatch third?
Lap 69/71: Three laps remain. Stroll has a problem with his front-left tyre. That looks like that could finish his race prematurely.
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Lap 68/71: The race leader Vettel is 2.096secs ahead of Bottas. It looks as though Hamilton is losing ground, and therefore his chances of landing a podium finish.
Lap 66/71: Hamilton gets to within DRS range of Raikkonen but he can’t quite get at the Finn at turn 1. Maybe next time?
Lap 65/71: Vettel leads Bottas by 2.474secs. And after pitting, Verstappen sets a new fastest lap of 1.1.044. That’s a race record here at Interlagos. He’ll get a sweet little bonus for that.
Lap 63/71: And just like that, Hamilton’s set another fastest lap. Crikey, he’s not hanging around out there.
Lap 62/71: “Can we make a pit stop because these tyres are horrible,” Verstappen says. “I am drifting all over the place.” Red Bull want him to stay out there but Verstappen’s adamant that they would hold onto fifth, even if they did stop.
Lap 61/71: Hamilton has just a set a blistering lap of 1.11.932. That’s the fastest lap ever at Interlagos. That new engine is paying dividends.
Lap 60/71: Can fourth-placed Hamilton nab a spot on the podium?
Lap 59/71: Hamilton is gaining on Verstappen. The Red Bull forces Hamilton wide but with a little help from DRS, the Mercedes gets ahead of Verstappen. He’s up into fourth place. “Nothing you could do about that, Max,” say Red Bull.
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Lap 57/71: Massa goes wide as he comes under pressure from Alonso, whose breathing down his neck in eighth. Will Alonso finish? He’s only seen the chequered flag six times this season. That’s just not enough.
Lap 56/71: Hamilton is 12secs off the lead. It’s going to be good ...
Lap 55/71: “The tyres are so stiff,” Verstappen moans down the team radio. He’s not enjoying Interlagos so far. He’s fourth, and has every chance of getting on the podium.
Lap 54/71: Lance Stroll is fuming down the team radio. There’s a few expletives etc, but it’s not clear as to why he’s in a huff. He’s 14th.
Lap 53/71: Hamilton’s on for a podium after starting from the pit lane. Ferrari are confident that Vettel’s high tyre pressures are under control, and that the safety car allowed them to eke out a little more fuel on those opening laps. Vettel’s controlling the pace out in front.
Lap 52/71: The gap between Verstappen in fourth and Hamilton in fourth is now down to five seconds.
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Lap 51/71: “We are not concerned about your wear, only Lewis’s wear,” Mercedes tell Bottas. In other words, get going.
Lap 50/71: Vettel leads Bottas by 3secs. Romain Grosjean has just served his 10-second penalty. He’s not really racing though, he’s last and the back marker out there.
Lap 49/71: “I lost another two seconds just there,” Hamilton says, after Stroll, down in 14th, takes an age to move over and get out of his way.
Lap 48/71: Daniel Ricciardo is having a whale of a time out there. That spat out of turn 1 on the first lap feels a lifetime ago. He’s up into sixth after zooming past Massa.
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Lap 47/71: Hamilton sets a new fastest lap of 1.12.423. Vettel leads Bottas. Then it’s Raikkonen, Verstappen and Hamilton, whose fifth. Massa trails the world champion.
Lap 46/71: Vettel, the new race leader, is quicker than Valtteri Bottas. Elsewhere, Gasly runs into the pits. And Stroll moves up into 16th.
Lap 44/71: Sainz zooms in ahead of Gasly to snatch 11th. Meanwhile, it’s time for Lewis Hamilton to pit. On go the supersoft tyres ... he’s in and out inside 23secs. Ricciardo also pits. Hamilton, previously the race leader, storms out to take fifth. Can he grab himself a podium finish?
Lap 43/71: Bottas is not really troubling Vettel at the moment. He’s made a little ground but not enough to worry the Mercedes. If Ferrari had pitted prior to Bottas, it could have been a different story.
Lap 41/71: Brendon Hartley’s told the retire his Toro Rosso. A second DNF in a row.
Lap 40/71: “Perez, I don’t care,” Alonso says. “I must catch Massa.” Let’s go get him then is the jist of the reply from Renault down the team radio. Grosjean, meanwhile, reclaims 15th from Lance Stroll. “Jesus, he has good traction,” Stroll says. Hamilton has a lot of traffic in front of him.
Lap 39/71: Hulkenberg is up into the points, after swerving around Gasly in the Toro Rosso. Hamilton has just set a new fastest first sector.
Lap 38/71: Hamilton leads Vettel by 3.647secs. “I think I can hold this,” Ricciardo, whose sixth, says of his current pace.
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Lap 37/71: Carlos Sainz has the eyes for Pascal Wehrlein’s Sauber. With the help of DRS, drag reduction system, he gets the job done to zoom up into 12th. “He passed me like a train,” Wehrlein says.
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Lap 36/71: Hamilton has recorded a couple of fastest sectors but Verstappen is the fastest man out there. Alonso, meanwhile, is told his tyres ought to last the distance.
Lap 34/71: Elsewhere, Carlos Sainz whizzes past Ericsson.
Lap 33/71: So, Lewis Hamilton leads the Brazil GP, with Vettel, who has just pitted, three seconds behind him. The Mercedes is yet to pit, other than starting the race from there 50-odd minutes ago.
Lap 32/71: “Max is on fresh, soft tyres,” Red Bull tell Ricciardo. “Don’t hold him up please.” The reply? “Understood,” says the Australian. Bottas triggers the pit stops. Vettel follows to go onto the soft tyres on the next lap. Vettel comes out back in front of the Mercedes, and all of sudden, Hamilton leads this race.
Lap 31/71: “This is quite a good pace,” Hamilton says. “But it doesn’t feel spectacular.” Ricciardo is up into fifth after bypassing Perez.
Lap 30/71: Ricciardo is flying out there. Meanwhile, Kimi Raikkonen pits too, and he comes out ahead of Verstappen.
Lap 29/71: Sebastian Vettel pits. As does Max Verstappen. Vettel zooms out of the pits, just a few car lengths ahead of the Mercedes. Ferrari have not lost their position but suddenly the gap has been closed.
Lap 28/71: Bottas pits, so Raikkonen moves into second – for now at least. Bottas’s stop is swift and he’s back out into third. Felipe Massa also flies down the pit lane.
Lap 27/71: “I am struggling a lot now,” says the Red Bull, Max Verstappen. Are his tyres giving up the ghost? “It’s almost undriveable now.”
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Lap 25/71: “Yes, yes he could,” tweets Austin Baird, of whether Hamilton could do the business and clean up in Brazil this afternoon. As it stands, Vettel leads Bottas. Then it’s Raikkonen, Verstappen and Hamilton in fifth.
Lap 23/71: Romain Grosjean has been slapped with a 10-second penalty for that clash with Sebastian Ocon after turn 1 of the first lap.
Lap 22/71: “Aaaah, the rear tyres, they’re getting warm,” a panicked Verstappen booms down the team radio. It’s a sizzler out there in Interlagos.
Lap 21/71: Hamilton is just flying. He’s up to fifth, with Massa dropping to sixth. Hamilton’s only 17secs off the lead. He couldn’t, could he?
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Lap 20/71: Hamilton slides in past Perez. Alonso is next up for the Mercedes, who started this one from the pits after a disaster in qualifying.
Lap 19/71: “Radio is back, radio is back,” Brendon Hartley says, after a few early communication problems. He’s down in 14th at the moment. Meanwhile, Ricciardo is up into ninth, after flying past Hulkenberg.
Lap 17/71: Raikkonen’s tyres are heating up. “They’ll come down,” he’s told. But the track temperature of 58 degrees is unlikely to help but rather enhance that particular situation. Out in front, Vettel continues to lead Bottas.
Lap 16/71: “I see Vettel’s pulling away,” says a worried Hamilton. But Mercedes say the current Ferrari pace is a little too ambitious. Interesting ... let’s wait and see.
Lap 14/71: As expected, Ricciardo zooms in ahead of Sainz. Meanwhile, the stewards have said they want a chinwag with Vandoorne, Ricciardo and Magnussen about that incident at turn 2 on the first lap. “We are faster but I am stuck,” Verstappen tells Red Bull of Raikkonen, whose in front of him in third.
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Lap 13/71: Hamilton has his eyes on Perez. He uses the slipstream to jink inside and then out before eventually bypassing the Force India.
Lap 12/71: Christian Horner speaks, and says the Red Bulls and the Toro Rossos are “free to race”. And just as he finishes his sentence, Ricciardo zooms in past Gasly. Next up? Carlos Sainz.
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Lap 11/71: Ricciardo locks up going into turn one but gets the better of Lance Stroll and then eats up Ericsson to move up into 12th. Now he has Gasly in his sights. Hamilton’s soaring through the grid too. Vettel leads Bottas by 1.8secs.
Lap 10/71: And, within a few seconds, Hamilton leaps in front of Sainz Jr. That was all far too simple.
Lap 9/71: Hulkenberg’s warned that his right-hand side supersoft tyres are running into trouble. He’s eighth, but that’s not great news. The two Renaults are going to be vulnerable as the race moves on.
Lap 8/71: Carlos Sainz Jr has a moan down the team radio. He’s down in ninth at present. Three drivers are out, so it could be worse. Hamilton goes around the outside of Gasly to move up into the points, to move up to 10th. Easy work.
Lap 7/71: Vettel sets a new fastest lap, with Bottas in hot pursuit.
Lap 6/71: “How are the track conditions, Max?” ask Red Bull. “Sunny,” he replies, before adding there’s no debris left out there on track. Lovely stuff. And just like that, the safety car has vanished and we’re back racing.
Lap 5/72: Incident between Vandoorne, Ricciardo and Magnussen has been noted. Surely that won’t lead to an investigation, though. That scuffle between Ocon and Grosjean has also been noted. The safety car remains out on track while Ricciardo has pitted.
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Lap 4/72: Vandoorne says he got “squeezed”. A reminder that he, Magnussen and Ocon are all out. Vandoorne hurries his way back to the pits, head in hands.
Lap 3/72: And Kevin Magnussen’s out as well. He’s finished this afternoon. Perhaps he got caught up in that clash between Vandoorne and Ricciardo.
Lap 2/72: Vandoorne sent Ricciardo packing off the first corner, but the Red Bull survives. Now the safety car is leading everyone through the pit lane, presumably there’s some debris out on track. This is good news for Hamilton, whose up into 14th – already.
Lap 1/71: Ricciardo spins off out of the first corner, after starting from P14. He looks as though he can get back started with little damage. And then, by which point the safety car was already out, Ocon and Grosjean collide, Ocon has a puncture and he will not finish in Brazil. As for up front, Vettel whizzed in past Bottas to snatch an early lead.
Lights out!
An uphill start for those on the front of the grid, with Vettel flying out of the blocks, getting past Bottas. Meanwhile, Hamilton trudges out of the pits.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas in action at the start of the Brazilian Grand Prix 2017 Photograph: Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters
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They’re off on the formation lap ... “It’s an amazing feeling to be out here on pole in Brazil,” Massa say. “I love you, and all I can say is thank you for everything you have done for me.” There will inevitably be tears either way today.
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Raikkonen’s got his helmet on and it looks as though Ferarri have got him sorted. The Finn starts down in third on the grid this afternoon.
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A few problems for Ferrari on the grid – again. Kimi Raikkonen’s car is receiving attention, with a flurry of engineers circling. They don’t look too hopeful.
Here comes the breezy Brazilian national anthem. Lights out is almost upon us.
Bernie Ecclestone’s asked if the Brazilian circuit is his, after talk of him buying Interlagos earlier this year. “It’s nothing to do with me, I’m a spectator,” he says. “I’ve bought a ticket and that’s it.” Yeah yeah, all right.
Two F1 legends, three-times world champion Sir Jackie Stewart and two-times world champion Emerson Fittipaldi, are both in attendance at Interlagos, where it’s absolutely heaving and pretty hot too. It’s sizzling in Brazil, around 28 degrees.
Christian Horner, insists he wants Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, out of contract in 2018, to be in it for the long haul – together at Red Bull. Verstappen signed a whopping new deal last month and Horner anticipates talks with the Australian driver will commence once the season has climaxed in Abu Dhabi. “My objective is to make sure that this pairing, which is such a fantastic pairing, we keep together for the next few years,” he says.
The ever impressive and fearless Max Verstappen, who starts fourth on the grid this afternoon, has been having a chinwag before the race. “At the moment Lewis is the world champion, I am not in that position, but I hope I can be next year,” he says. “We will have to see.”
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The grid!
1. Bottas 2. Vettel
3. Raikkonen 4. Verstappen
5. Perez 6. Alonso
7. Hulkenberg 8. Sainz Jr
9. Massa 10. Ocon
11. Grosjean 12. Vandoorne
13. Magnussen 14. Ricciardo
15. Wehrlein 16. Stroll
17. Ericsson 18. Hartley
19. Gasly 20. Hamilton*
*Hamilton will start from the pit lane
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Preamble
After spending most of this season in the shadow of his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton, the affable Valtteri Bottas stepped up to the fore at Interlagos on Saturday. He finished qualifying on pole, pipping Sebastian Vettel to top spot by 0.038secs. “I got a good lap in the end and it was a shame Lewis was out in the beginning,” Bottas said.
Bottas dedicated his pole to Mercedes, who all in all, had a pretty miserable weekend. A minibus full of team personnel was robbed at gunpoint in São Paulo on Friday night (no one was injured) while Hamilton crashed out in style, thumping into the tyre barrier at a brisk 160mph at turn six. “It was very unusual of me,” Hamilton said. As for Bottas, who still has hopes of overhauling Vettel in the drivers’ championship with two races to run, he tooted that his pole would “cheer everyone up” at Mercedes.
Lights out: 4pm GMT
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