Race Report - Down to the wire

The battle for the world championship will go down to the wire after Nico Rosberg fended off Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton to win the Brazilian Grand Prix. Heading into the last race of the season - in Abu Dhabi - Hamilton holds a 17 point lead over Rosberg.

The twist in the tail, of course, is that double points will be awarded for that event. Rosberg cannot win the championship merely by winning the race. He has to win with Hamilton finishing third of lower.

Rosberg arrived in Brazil still stinging from the way the Hamilton had defeated him in the United States Grand Prix just a few days earlier. Rosberg had qualified on pole in Austin but could not hold off Hamilton who went on to win.

In Brazil, however, Rosberg was quick from start to finish as he was fastest in all the practice sessions, took the pole, and then grabbed the lead at the start of the 71 lap race.

"That was a fantastic weekend and I felt very comfortable over the whole three days," Rosberg said after his fifth win of the season. "I had to learn from Austin, which was a big disappointment, and I think I achieved that. I was able to control the pace a bit better and didn't let Lewis come too close. He drove really well and was always right there pushing me."

Rosberg led the first six laps and then pitted to exchange his soft compound Pirelli slicks for the medium compound tires. Hamilton led two laps and then made his stop.

Nico Hulkenberg, who was on a different tire strategy in his Force India, led laps nine to 13 and then pitted. Back in front on lap 14, Rosberg had a two second lead over Hamilton. Lap 26 saw Hamilton back in the lead as Rosberg made his second stop.

This was the point of the race where Hamilton lost the race. He put in two fast laps before his stop, but his tires were shot and he went into a lurid slide at Turn 4. By the time he had pitted and rejoined the race, Hamilton was 7.4 seconds behind Rosberg.

"I think ultimately it cost me the win," Hamilton admitted. "I was much quicker up until that point and on that lap I'd gone a second quicker whilst Nico pitted and I thought I was going to pit at the end of that lap so I used everything of the tires. The next lap, I had nothing left.

"Either way, at the end of the day, I made a mistake; I locked the rears into Turn Four and with the under-rotation, just spun me around. Second time it's happened this weekend. So, no-one's fault but mine."

Hamilton proved that he was quicker by easily closing the gap and catching Rosberg. But catching and passing are two different things. Rosberg led laps 29 to 49 and then made his third and final stop. Hamilton led two laps and pitted. As Hamilton came out on the pit exit road, Rosberg swept by to take first place on lap 52. He held on to the spot until the checkered flag on lap 71.

"It was important for me to just improve," Rosberg said, "because I just didn't do a good enough job in the race in Austin. Today I managed to do that, so that I'm happy about. I learned from Austin and did better so that's a big step in the right direction. One race too late but there's still all to play for.

"Now I'm just hoping for (Abu Dhabi) and need to try and keep this going now. Really feeling good in the car and everything. And it was a great race with Lewis. He had a great race too, just behind me all the time. I always needed to make sure that the gap was always such that there was no chance for him to go for the overtake - unlike Austin. And managed to do that, so that was good."

As for the other drivers, the fans cheered loudly as hometown hero Felipe Massa finished third in his Williams. The Sao Paulo native had an eventful race which included a pit lane speeding penalty, stopping in the McLaren pit by mistake, and some great battles on track.

"It was not an easy race but what a fantastic result for me, for my family, and for the team to finish on the podium in front of my home fans," he said. "The energy from the crowd was amazing and really pushed me forward. The car had strong and consistent pace today and this allowed me to stay in third despite issues in my two pit stops. In the first stop I incurred a stop-and-go penalty after speeding in the pit lane after I hit the limiter twice by mistake, and in the second I stopped in the wrong box.

"We're not normally next to McLaren and in the light their overalls looked the same color as ours so this caught me out. In the end these issues were not enough to take away my podium because we had a good aggressive strategy and a really good car."

The McLaren crew was waiting for Button when Massa paid his visit. Button had a strong weekend, qualifying fifth and finishing fourth after fighting with the likes of Kimi Raikkonen.

"Judging the race was so tricky today," Button noted. "I pushed really hard on my first stint on the Prime (tires) so as to maintain the gap to Valtteri (Bottas). That meant I destroyed my rear tires - but I reasoned that, if I could keep using DRS, I could establish a gap to the guys behind me. It was worth it, and it worked, but it meant I had to back off during the following stint to look after my tires.

"It all went pretty smoothly until my final pit stop - there was a bit of miscommunication about stopping, which meant I ended up doing an extra lap. That could have cost us a chance of the podium. It's a shame we couldn't hang on to Felipe (Massa), but it was still a fantastic race."

Sebastian Vettel took fifth place in his Red Bull.

""I had a good launch at the start," he said, "and then into Turn 4...maybe I don't have the best memories of Turn 4 here from two years ago, I didn't know how aggressive Kevin (Magnussen) was going to be going into it and I left a bit too much space. I went a bit wide and lost two positions as I couldn't get on the power out of the corner.

"Then I had to fight hard to get the positions back during the race which we did, especially with strategy. I hoped to get maybe one more position to finish fourth, but in the end it was a good result for us here."

Raikkonen was the only driver to do a two-stop strategy. He finished seventh after dueling with Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso who ended up sixth.

"After a far from easy weekend," Alonso said, "I am reasonably pleased with the outcome of the race, because even if we weren't very competitive, we managed to score a good number of points. Today, degradation was particularly high, especially in the first stint on the Softs, which lasted less time than expected because of graining. When I passed Kimi, my tires were newer than his, as he was on a two stop, but I was having to save fuel and after that overtaking move, there was nothing more I could do.

"Now there's just one race to go this season and in terms of the Constructors' Championship, we hope to manage to keep McLaren behind us in the final race in Abu Dhabi. As for myself, I reckon I'm in the position I deserve, because others have done better."

Raikkonen had one of his best races of the season because he was finally comfortable with the way the car handled.

"Overall, this has been a positive weekend and even today in the race I felt very good in the car," he said. "During the second stint, we realized that if we went for a two stop strategy, we could make up ground, but then, at my second pit stop, I lost valuable time and that cost me some places.

"In the final part of the race, I had to fight off Button for a few laps and when Fernando caught me, tire degradation meant I couldn't fend him off. We leave Interlagos with a good feeling and even if we still have a lot of work ahead of us, this continued progress makes me confident for the future."

Hulkenberg wound up eighth.

"It was quite a cool race and very satisfying to finish in eighth," he said. "With a three-stop race you are always pushing, but my race was not too complicated and I was on my own for a large part of the afternoon. I also had a few nice battles and it was good fun. The car felt a bit better today compared to earlier in the weekend so I was more comfortable and really able to push.

"The team made the right calls on the strategy and we maximized our performance with the tires in these very hot conditions. I finished just behind the two Ferraris and maybe with one or two more laps I could have finished sixth instead of eighth, but that's racing."

Kevin Magnussen (McLaren) and Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top 10.

"That wasn't a great race for me, which is disappointing," Magnussen lamented. "I had a lot of tire degradation - I tried my best to take care of my tires but it just didn't seem possible today. I tried to keep people from getting past me, but guys like Fernando (Alonso) and Nico (Hulkenberg) just had more pace than I did, so it wasn't possible.

"We need to sit down and have a look at why it didn't go right for me today - I'm sure we can find the answer."

It was an unhappy race for Bottas who had a long pit stop to get his seat belts tightened.

"It was a race full of different problems for me and in the end it just wasn't my day," Bottas said. "I had an issue with my belts at the beginning that we resolved at the first pit stop but this lost me a lot of time and I also lost time in the second stop. The conditions were very challenging as tire wear was high and all cars were experiencing graining.

"As a team we have managed to come away with some decent points and I'm happy for Felipe as the crowd reaction after he got out of the car was very special. These sorts of days happen in Formula One and we need to regroup and make sure that Abu Dhabi is a problem free race for us."

Besides deciding who will be world champion, the double points Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will see a number of other important battles, including the fight for fourth place between Vettel, Alonso and Bottas who are separated by just three points.

It's all going to go down to the wire.