Lewis Hamilton benefitted from a moment of madness to inherit victory at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The Briton led away at the start but would be caught and passed by an inspired Max Verstappen, as the Red Bulls proved the fastest race car on Sunday.
Pulling away comfortably, the Dutchman would be spun around by Esteban Ocon when the Frenchman tried to unlap himself through Turn 2, dropping him back behind the Mercedes, who went on to take the win by 1.4 seconds.
Red Bull’s pace was apparent right from the start when Max got ahead of Kimi Raikkonen into the first corner, though the Finn hit straight back, two key moves on both Ferrari’s on the main straight surprised everyone as he moved behind the two Mercedes.
Teammate Daniel Ricciardo also made early moves as he made his way upto sixth from 11th on the grid.
Behind, Marcus Ericsson’s career-best start of sixth would be the only highlight in a difficult race as he was squeezed out by Romain Grosjean at the start with contact causing key aerodynamic pieces to fall off and making the Swede’s Sauber undrivable as he later spun out into retirement.
The race began to settle with only Verstappen’s move on Bottas for second of note as Mercedes’ pace began to slip on the Supersoft tyre.
Both Hamilton and Vettel would pit for the Medium compound just before the 20-lap mark but Ferrari, who started on Softs, and Red Bull, showing excellent tyre life, continued.
The gap between Lewis and Max would be pretty stable despite the tyres at different stages of their life but a little traffic and a slower stop would see Verstappen emerge two seconds behind the world champion when he later pitted at the halfway mark.
On fresh Soft tyres, he cruised to the back of the Mercedes and took the lead into Turn 1, immediately pulling out a comfortable margin.
It would be then that Ocon struck as he tried to pass on his faster Supersofts through the Senna ‘S’ but would hit the Red Bull in Turn 2 sending both into a spin and letting Hamilton back through.
The stewards gave the Force India a 10-second stop/go penalty, the harshest at their disposal, but the damage was done literally to Verstappen’s floor.
He would start closing back in on the Mercedes but it wouldn’t be enough as Hamilton had enough gap to take the checkered flag with Max a frustrating second.
Daniel Ricciardo would pass both Vettel and Bottas on his hunt for a podium but didn’t quite have enough top speed to pass Raikkonen as the Finn took third just 0.4s clear of the Australian.
Bottas and Vettel opted to pit for a second time as both floundered in fifth and sixth on a particularly difficult day for the German in the Ferrari.
Charles Leclerc benefitted from his teammate’s misfortune at the start to move upto seventh and it would be a lonely run as he finished ‘best of the rest’ though would only be 44 seconds off the win, highlighting his strong pace.
The two Haas’ also vindicated their strong weekend in eighth and ninth as Grosjean led Kevin Magnussen with Sergio Perez completing the top 10 for Force India.
Toro Rosso just missed out on points with Brendon Hartley 11th and Pierre Gasly 13th, Renault also failed to score with Carlos Sainz only 12th and Nico Hulkenberg retiring with a blocked radiator.
Stoffel Vandoorne enjoyed one of his better races in P14 as McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso found himself penalised for ignoring blue flags and only 17th.
Ocon’s controversy saw him 15th with Sergey Sirotkin 16th and Lance Stroll the last finisher in 18th in the two Williams.
A full look at the results can be seen below:
Back at the front though, and it was jubilation for Mercedes as their result confirms a fifth straight Constructors’ Championship with Ferrari now unable to catch them.
It also means there’s only one round left in the 2018 season, the finale in Abu Dhabi in two weeks time.
