Fernando Alonso bemoaned a top speed deficit of "40 or 50kph" to cars with DRS after failing to pass Felipe Massa during Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver once again extracted the absolute most from his machinery, moving up to fifth at the start, but the Mercedes-powered Williams would blast past on the main straight at the Safety Car restart.

Though the Spaniard would have the faster car, proven by his ability to stay close in the technical infield section, the inability to even use DRS to out-drag Massa down to Turn 1 meant regaining the position was impossible as he had to settle for eighth, just half a second behind over the line.

“Even with the entire deployment, with DRS and full revs they still go away from you on the straights, I think the gap today was 25kph,” the double world champion claimed, “with DRS that becomes 40 or 50kph so it’s really incredible that we managed to beat a few cars.

“It was a great fight, a great race from the start, we deserved the points it's a shame we’re lacking in straight line speed because the pace was really competitive today, faster than the cars we were battling with, who was much quicker down the straights.

“We tried to defend our position and, in the end, these points are to be cherished, after all the points we lost due to reliability issues so I’m very happy to get a couple of points.”

While he couldn't overtake Massa on the track, one positive from staying close to the car ahead was it helped him defend from a charging Sergio Perez in the closing laps, the two crossing the line less than a tenth of a second apart.

“For sure I had to defend more than to attack,” Alonso said of the fight with the Force India. “I was trying to pass Massa but it was the same as in Mexico.

"When Checo [Perez] was coming up I knew I could have a bit of a shield if I stayed close to Felipe to open the DRS, so we could defend the position but it’s a shame we have this incredible power deficit."

The only positive the 36-year-old did have is that now there is just the season finale in Abu Dhabi stands between him, McLaren and Renault starting their new partnership for 2018, which it is hoped will signal a major upturn in performance.

“One race to go, another season is coming to an end, a season that, for sure, was complicated and hopefully it will be the last race in which we’ll have to race in these conditions,” he said.

Sebastian Vettel claimed a fifth win of the 2017 Formula 1 season and first since Hungary in August after the German passed Valtteri Bottas into Turn 1 at the start and never looked back in the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The Ferrari driver was never more than three seconds ahead of the Finn in the Mercedes but was comfortable throughout the 71 laps as his ability to pull out a small but decent gap at key times was vital in the close fight at Interlagos.

On the run to the Senna 'S', it was a matter of greater momentum for Vettel, as Bottas had wheelspin, and that allowed the four-time world champion to slide up the inside and take the lead.

Further back, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa overhauled Sergio Perez through the Curva do Sol to slot in fifth and sixth ahead of the Force India but there would be contact towards the rear as Kevin Magnussen clipped Stoffel Vandoorne at Turn 2, who would hit the rear tyre of Daniel Ricciardo, who started 14th after engine penalties, sending the Red Bull into a spin.

The Australian continued but both the Belgian and the Dane would retire as a Safety Car was called to gather the stricken McLaren. Just as the race was neutralised, Esteban Ocon would see his 27-race finishing streak end after being tagged by Romain Grosjean, as the Frenchman looked to sweep around the Haas at Ferradura.

After his crash in qualifying, Mercedes put a fresh engine in the back of Lewis Hamilton's car, meaning he started from the pit-lane, but the world champion missed the early incidents and was already 14th when the Safety Car pulled in.

When the race resumed, Massa used the superior Mercedes power in his Williams to pass Alonso into Turn 1 for fifth place as the top four remained stable. Focus then switched to Hamilton and Ricciardo, who switched to the Soft compound tyres under the Safety Car, making their way through the field and soon both would be fifth and sixth, highlighting the huge performance difference between the top three teams and the rest.

Bottas' closest moment to challenging Vettel came in the pit-stop phase as the Finn would stop a lap earlier in a bid to perform the undercut, the race leader would have just enough in hand to stay ahead on the run to Descida de Lago, however, and then slowly pulled away to another safe two-second margin.

Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen had lonely races in third and fourth but would get company as Hamilton, now on the Supersoft rubber, began to close by over a second per lap to those in front lapping in the 1:11's.

The pace differential would be too much for the Dutchman, as he held the No. 44 car at bay into Turn 1 but couldn't on the back straight to Turn 4, resulting in a comfortable pass for Hamilton for fourth.

However, a lock-up as he approached Raikkonen left the world champion on the back foot and, as his tyres wore out, he couldn't find the traction to make a move on the Ferrari.

With the top four settled, Verstappen would pit in the closing laps such was his frustration for fresh tyres, setting a new race lap record of 1:11.044s in the process as he took fifth with Ricciardo completing all he could in sixth on a disappointing day for Red Bull.

The battle for what became seventh raged between Massa and Alonso throughout the race but, even with DRS, the Honda engine couldn't produce enough top speed to pass the Williams.

Sergio Perez joined the party late on too, but couldn't quite pass the Spaniard as the three drivers were separated by just over six-tenths of a second over the finish line.

Nico Hulkenberg scored the final point for Renault in 10th, beating teammate Carlos Sainz and the Toro Rosso of Pierre Gasly after a tense weekend between the two teams.

Marcus Ericsson passed Pascal Wehrlein late on in the battle of the Sauber's in 13th and 14th beating Grosjean, who received a penalty for the incident with Ocon and Lance Stroll suffered a late tyre delamination caused by a flat spot, dropping the Canadian to the last finisher in 16th.

The other retiree joining the Lap 1 crashers was Brendon Hartley as the Kiwi suffered yet another engine problem in the Toro Rosso. 

Valtteri Bottas revealed too much wheelspin was the reason for his poor start which would ultimately prove decisive in his battle with Sebastian Vettel for the win at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The Finn didn't gather as much momentum as the Ferrari off the line and that allowed Vettel to slither up the inside at the Senna 'S' to take the lead away from the polesitter.

Though the gap between the pair never exceeded three seconds, track position proved crucial with the Mercedes driver's efforts to close in countered at every turn allowing the four-time world champion to claim his fifth win of 2017 and third at Interlagos.

“It was in the start that we lost the race, which is unfortunate,” he said. “The issue for me was the initial wheelspin, as soon as I started to release the clutch I broke the traction and got wheelspin, so that’s why I had a poor getaway.

“I was trying to cover the inside but, honestly, looking in the mirror I could only see Kimi behind, I couldn’t see Seb anywhere. I was kind of guessing he could be shooting from the inside and so he did it. There’s was nothing to do."

Such was the fine margin that decided the race, with the top four covered by just 5.4 seconds at the chequered flag, Bottas is sure he would have replicated Vettel's race if he had emerged from the first three corners ahead.

"It was very, very close and we tried to put a lot of pressure on Seb, trying to keep up, trying to get close, especially around the pit stop time,” the 28-year-old explained. “Being first out of Turn 1 would have made a very different race but if and if… he did a better start and that’s it.

“I’m definitively disappointed after the good day we had yesterday and it’s also not so good for me on the battle we have for second place in the championship.

"It looks quite ugly now and it will take a miracle in Abu Dhabi,” he added, with 22 points now the gap between them.

Formula 1 teams already well underway with their 2018 car development are facing yet another hurdle as McLaren blocked a motion that would see the retention of the 'shark fin' on the engine cover which returned this season.

The design had been outlawed in recent years but was not kept when the design rules changed for 2017. Initially, there were calls for the re-banning of the fin on aesthetic grounds but now the FIA wants to retain them so that teams can place either the driver's TLA (e.g RIC) or number on the side to aid spectators.

To achieve that, however, the governing body needed unanimous agreement from the teams which did not happen when McLaren vetoed the vote, meaning a compromise will be required to get the British team onboard.

Commenting on the team's position to not want the full fin to remain, Racing Director Eric Boullier admitted it was for competitive reasons but also promotional.

“Maybe we have found a way to use the engine cover that works better,” he was quoted by Motorsport.com. “The cars are complicated today so it is difficult for Zak [Brown, CEO] to find big stickers.

“We are not playing games, everyone is developing their own car so if you ask for something which is against our interests, I will not go for it.

“Some teams have tried to play something that was more suiting their car model, or whatever but we have a regulation in place for next year, so if there is no unanimity then there is no reason to change.”

The disagreement frustrated Force India COO Otmar Szafnauer as the Silverstone outfit already makes full use of the advertising space available on the engine cover thanks to their partnership with BWT and more.

“We have to release an engine cover soon, it would be nice to know the rules,” he said on Saturday. “I thought we had it all agreed.

“McLaren, I believe, wanted to expose the rear wing more, but the rear wing isn’t exposed only because it sits so low now. That is why you cannot see the sponsor. More so than because of the fin.

“The fin hides it from certain angles but not from head on – you can’t see the fin from head-on. You cannot see the rear wing because it is so low. For us, it removes a pretty big area for the sponsors.”

Despite recent strong performances, Max Verstappen believes Red Bull had "no chance" to challenge higher than fifth and sixth places during the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The Dutchman would endure a lonely race at Interlagos in fourth, with his only on-track battle coming with Lewis Hamilton as the recovering world champion made an easy move on faster tyres to demote Max to fifth.

So frustrated was Verstappen by the lack of pace, he would pit with eight laps to go before going on to set a new race lap record but that was no crumb of comfort for the 20-year-old.

“Yeah, I mean if the four drivers in front of me had a crash, then... No, it was definitely the best position we could do today,” he said, reflecting on the race. “We just lost out a lot on the straights, as you could see when Lewis passed me. We have no chance on this track. It's really hard.

“At the positive side, the first 10, 15 laps in the stint, we were competitive but then you try to compensate what you lose on the straights and you're asking maybe a bit too much from the tyres and the car balance, not like in Mexico for example, and you have more drop-off. Then it just gets a bit more difficult.”

Teammate Daniel Ricciardo had a more eventful race starting 14th after an engine grid penalty, the Australian would be an innocent party as he, Stoffel Vandoorne and Kevin Magnussen made contact going three-wide exiting Turn 2.

“I still don't really know what happened but I assume the cars kind of drifted up into me and caught me,” he said on what happened. "I tried to leave as much room as I could. I got hit, and then fortunately we didn't have damage. I think we just damaged the tyre.

"So I pitted for that, and we were able to come through the field - not as quickly as Lewis, but relatively for our pace."

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner would later reveal another reason for the team's inability to fight with the top two teams, as the Milton Keynes outfit was forced to turn down their engines to avoid a repeat of recent failures.

The Briton remains confident, however, engine supplier Renault will be in a stronger position next year, with the pressure on to perform.

“We're hearing that Renault is making gains. If they can do that over the winter and most importantly address reliability, I'm confident we can give the drivers the car next year to put a really good campaign together [next year],” he said.

Williams Technical Director Paddy Lowe admits much of Lance Stroll's race potential is being wasted by his ongoing problems extracting performance in qualifying.

The young Canadian, who stepped up as European F3 champion last year, has shown glimpses of his ability in his first season in Formula 1, keeping his nose clean in tricky races and impressing in wet conditions.

His most notable result remains his incredible third in Baku when he showed great composure under pressure from some of biggest names on the grid and was very unfortunate to lose second just on the finish line.

Consistency has begun to show in his results too, with four top eights in the last six races keeping him ahead of Williams teammate and soon-to-be-retired Felipe Massa in the Drivers' standings.

Stroll has only out-qualified the Brazilian on three occasions, however, and because he is starting several places down on what the car is capable of, that means his strength on a Sunday can mean very little.

"He races very much better than he qualifies and I think people look at qualifying as a reflection of a drivers’ speed because it is just very clear and easy to work it out from that," Lowe said on Thursday in Brazil.

“That doesn’t reflect on Lance as perhaps it should, as it is his weaker area. He races far better than he qualifies at the moment, but then you see glimpses of brilliance on that side with what he did in Monza, so I think he can unlock far better qualifying performances in due course.

"He is aware of that and it is something we are paying attention to.”

The former Mercedes boss admits much of the single-lap deficit can be put down to experience, with the preparation of tyres and brakes very important in an F1 car as is learning exactly where every tenth in lap-time can be found around the track.

“The trickiest thing which you will see in the numbers is getting going: that first/second run,” Lowe continued. “Once he gets going he tends to put in good laps.

“You need to remember he is only 19, so there is a lot of stuff to learn and get his head around and qualifying is in some ways a more difficult test than racing because it is so intense."

Felipe Massa claimed finishing best of the midfield cars "felt like a victory" in his final Brazilian Grand Prix, as he held off former teammate Fernando Alonso to cross the line seventh at Interlagos.

The Williams driver made an excellent start to sweep around the outside of Sergio Perez's Force India at the Curva do Sol before pouncing on the McLaren driver at the restart, following an early Safety Car to claim what at the time was fifth place.

The recoveries of Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo may have dropped the 37-year-old down two places, but achieving the best possible result on the day was exactly how Massa wanted to end his F1 career in his hometown.

“It's so difficult to explain my feelings today,” he said. “Amazing start, then managed to overtake a few cars after the Safety Car, managed to overtake Alonso. That was very important for me because I knew he would have a better pace than me. So I managed to keep him behind.

“I was so emotional when I finished the race. It was a very difficult race for me. For me, the race was like many victories that I took. I drove a perfect race from the beginning to the end, I managed the tyres, managed everything around the car with the pace I had. Today it was definitely like a victory.”

To commemorate his final appearance at Interlagos, Massa, a two-time winner of his home race, was allowed onto the podium to address his fans after the race. For him, the chance to put right the disappointment of crashing out in 2016 made staying in F1 an extra year totally worthwhile.

“It's so amazing to finish the race and feel the emotions of the people after such an amazing race,” he claimed. “I knew that maybe last year, I had so much love and emotion from the people but I didn't finish the race like I wanted.

"Today I finished the race like I wanted. That's why I did another year!” Felipe ended.

Fernando Alonso admits McLaren face a tough task to get into the top 10 in Qualifying should it be dry after separate niggles hampered running in Practice on Friday at Interlagos.

The double world champion was P10 in both sessions in Brazil but faces a steep challenge to maintain it with the likes of Renault, Williams and Force India all in a close group for the final four places behind the top three teams.

Following just his third points result of the season in Mexico, the Spaniard had believed points would be "guaranteed" in Brazil if the British team had a trouble-free weekend, but that would not be the case.

“This Friday was more difficult than what we wanted,” he said. “In FP1 we had some issues with the car’s suspension, in FP2 we also had problems with the oil or fuel pressure on the engine, so we lost important minutes while they rectified the issue.

“In general we adapted our program, prioritised some items of the program for today so we’re prepared for tomorrow.”

One ally Alonso would like to call on is the weather, which would negate much of the Honda power deficit in Sector 1 and Sector 3 but, as was proven on Friday, that help isn't guaranteed.

“Today there was rain on the forecast and it didn’t rain; tomorrow the forecast is again for rain, so let’s see if it rains and then on Sunday the race will be in the dry,” the 36-year-old said playing the weatherman.

“If tomorrow is dry like today, it will be tough to get into Q3, there’s a good number of candidates fighting to get there and we are among them. It will be hard, but if we get there, then there’s a possibility to fight for something better with the cars that are around us.”

Lewis Hamilton hopes his recovery from the pit-lane to finish fourth at the Brazilian Grand Prix was proof of the "fire in my heart" to continue succeeding in Formula 1.

The Briton had it all to do after what he admitted was an "unusual" mistake from him in qualifying, when he crashed out in Q1, but with Mercedes installing a fresh engine into his car, the four-time world champion eased back through the field.

So rapid was Hamilton's fight back, which was also helped by incidents on the first lap, that he would take the lead when the front-runners pitted before stopping himself later and the enjoyment of being able to make some moves made up for the disappointment on Saturday.

“That was fun it felt like very reminiscent of my karting days when I would always start at the back, particularly in my first year or two,” he said afterwards.

“I think on one side for sure I messed up yesterday and put myself in the worst position, I was quick enough to win the race from pole to the flag but I didn't do that, so it made the job a lot harder today.

“But I think waking up this morning, my goal was really to try and redeem myself from yesterday's mistake and really do the team proud and try and get the points back.”

Using the alternate tyre strategy, Hamilton's pace on the Supersoft in the final 25 laps or so was remarkable as he closed in on the leaders by over a second per lap.

The 32-year-old would dispatch Max Verstappen in that run to the finish but would just lose the grip when he needed it in the closing laps, struggling for traction when trying to pass Kimi Raikkonen for the final place on the podium.

“I tried to get back to third but I just ran out of tyres at the end,” he said. “But I enjoyed the race. I enjoyed the battle and hopefully, that continues to show me but hopefully everyone that I still have a lot of fire in my heart still. Still young at heart and have got many, many more races to go.”

Lewis Hamilton was left in awe of the performance of his 2017 Mercedes at Interlagos after completing the fastest ever lap of the fabled Brazilian Grand Prix venue on Friday.

The newly crowned four-time world champion would set the benchmark of a 1:09.202s in the morning which even he couldn't surpass in the warmer temperatures of the afternoon as the Silver Arrows looked in imperious form in Sao Paulo.

Indeed, the pace across the board in all situations had Mercedes' rivals worried they could be fighting for third on Sunday. Though Hamilton wasn't quite as sure of his team's advantage, that didn't really matter as he enjoyed the thrill ride around Interlagos.

“It's been a good day. It was pretty exciting to come to the track with the cars being so much faster this year. It's physically more demanding than before which is great and it's obviously quite warm out there today,” he said.

“We got through the long runs and the short runs; unfortunately, the tyres don't really last very long, so you only get one or two laps on the short runs. Overall, we got through what we needed to do. We're in a decent position but I think it could be quite close.”

Across the garage, Valtteri Bottas also showed his improvement in recent races by keeping up with his teammate, only a tenth off the fastest time in the morning.

With the battle for second in the Drivers’ title still very much alive with Sebastian Vettel, with the gap currently at 15 points in the Ferrari driver's favour, the Finn was pleased with the foundation put down.

“I think it was a positive day for us,” he said. “Initially in practice one we did some aero tests, looking at some things we can improve for next year and we now have some data to analyse from that.

“Otherwise, I think both the short runs and the long runs in both sessions looked positive for us as a team, so we have a good starting point for the weekend.

“Still, we were a little bit struggling to get the set-up right for each corner of the circuit. However, I was really enjoying this track and I'm looking forward to the weekend.”