Hamilton wins the Brazilian Grand Prix in the rain
Lewis Hamilton has won a very lively, very wet 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix to keep his title hopes alive by winning the final race in Abu Dhabi.
That, once again, is what happened in a chaotic Brazilian Grand Prix which saw Hamilton in control and winning a race with lots of rain, the inevitable accidents, stoppages and safety cars that causes, and some brilliant driving, not all from Hamilton.
But it was Hamilton who shone on a miserable weather day, taking every restart in his stride and cruising away from Rosberg in the wet, only to have his hard-earned lead cut to nothing from another stoppage.
But it wasn’t only Hamilton who was masterful in the wet, Verstappen drove way beyond his years and should have had second place from Mercedes had Red Bull not gone the wrong tyre route, despite which – and a drop to 13th place after an extra stop for wets, he drove back in to a third place finish, including the most spectacular save on the straight.
In amongst all this, Sauber’s Ericsson crashed after five laps bringing the safety car, which had started the race, back out, only for Raikkonen to have a heavy crash on the straight prompting the stopping of the race, the restarting half an hour later and the subsequent re-stopping. When the race restarted there were 19 laps before Massa crashed out followed by a safety car for seven laps then a race to the end.
Behind the front three it was Perez in fourth just ahead of Vettel’s Ferrari, Sainz in the Toro Rosso, Hulkenberg in the Force India and the second Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo in eighth followed by Nasr (for Sauber’s first points of the season) and Alonso. The race was also Massa’s farewell to his home crowd, and his crashing out was a real shame.
So it’s all down to the wire in Abu Dhabi with just 12 points between Hamilton and Rosberg for the driver’s title.
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