Brazil – Race: Rosberg at the End of the Suspense, Massa on the Podium

The sky is blue above the Interlagos circuit, which is contrary to various forecasts. The track is at 48°C, which should not help the soft tires fitted by many drivers.

At the start, all the drivers take off cleanly, but Lewis Hamilton immediately shows up in Nico Rosberg’s mirrors. In the pack, Sebastian Vettel makes a mistake on a kerb and is overtaken by Kevin Magnussen and Fernando Alonso. Just behind, Esteban Gutierrez takes tenth position from Kimi Räikkönen.

In the 5th lap, the gap between the two Mercedes drivers stabilizes at 1.2 seconds, while Pastor Maldonado is the first driver to pit. The tires are suffering greatly, and there are many slides. Felipe Massa, in 3rd, also pits to switch to medium tires. He is followed by Valtteri Bottas, Jenson Button, and Sebastian Vettel: the soft tires are not holding up. The race leader also stops to cover an extremely fast Felipe Massa, but is under investigation for speeding in the pit lane: the Brazilian is penalized by 5 seconds.

Many drivers are changing their tires to switch to the hardest compounds. During his pit stop, Lewis Hamilton reemerges just behind Nico Rosberg, who remains the virtual leader by a narrow margin, just behind Romain Grosjean. The two Mercedes drivers overtake the Frenchman at the first corner, and their fierce battle continues. At the front, Nico Hülkenberg and Daniil Kvyat continue on their worn soft tires and are inevitably being caught by the Silver Arrows. However, the gap between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton is widening: the Englishman has overheated his rear tires and must slow down. In the midfield, Jenson Button manages to overtake Adrian Sutil, who is still on worn tires.

On the 15th lap, Romain Grosjean, who hasn’t stopped, is overtaken by Valtteri Bottas, while Nico Rosberg, and then Lewis Hamilton, overtake Nico Hülkenberg for the top two positions. After his overtake on Daniil Kvyat, Felipe Massa is third but will have to serve a 5-second penalty, a gap he does not have over his teammate. Most drivers are suffering from blistering: bubbles form on the tires due to overheating, making driving difficult. This phenomenon is becoming more noticeable and more drivers are falling victim to it. In 7th place, Kevin Magnussen manages to overtake Romain Grosjean with the help of DRS: the Frenchman is now under threat from Fernando Alonso.

At the 24th lap, Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel quickly overtake the Frenchman, who eventually pits. The Red Bull driver dives into the pits, followed by Felipe Massa, who serves his penalty. Nico Rosberg, who saw his tires deteriorating more and more, also pits. Valtteri Bottas stops as well, and sees his mechanic working on his harness: both Williams drivers will have lost a lot of time during this second stop.

Huge mistake by Lewis Hamilton while he was on the attack: the Englishman spun at the end of the first sector and subsequently pitted. Nico Rosberg takes the lead again, extending his advantage to 7.5 seconds. Sergio Perez is also penalized with 5 seconds for speeding in the pit lane, while Kevin Magnussen attacks Sebastian Vettel. Jenson Button, meanwhile, is battling with Daniil Kvyat, the Russian being on a different strategy.

At the 34th lap, Kimi Räikkönen is third thanks to his strategy, ahead of Nico Hülkenberg. In the fight for the smaller points, Sebastian Vettel has taken the advantage over Fernando Alonso and Daniel Ricciardo. After a few laps, Kimi Räikkönen heads to the pits, but the jack drops while the front-right wheel is not tightened: a huge loss of time for the Finn. Nico Hülkenberg imitates him, while Sebastian Vettel overtakes Daniil Kvyat for the 5th place. The Russian quickly finds himself under threat from Kevin Magnussen and Fernando Alonso: the Toro Rosso driver stops. The gap at the front is closing: Lewis Hamilton is 4 seconds behind Nico Rosberg.

The first retirement from this race will be that of Daniel Ricciardo, his front-left suspension having bent at the end of the straight.

On the 43rd lap, Valtteri Bottas is overtaken by Nico Hülkenberg at the first corner and has to cut the corner after the Force India driver slightly misses, and the Finn is overtaken by his compatriot Kimi Räikkönen at the next corner: the Williams driver heads to the pits. Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso manages to overtake Kevin Magnussen after a small mistake by the latter, as he had been holding off the Spaniard for a few laps. The Dane heads to the pits in the following laps.

At the 49th lap, the third wave of tire changes is well underway, as Sebastian Vettel dives into the pits. These drivers will have to do more than 20 laps on medium tires: they don’t have any left. Nico Rosberg is also going to put on his last set of medium tires, leaving Lewis Hamilton in the lead. However, the German had a 4-second lead before his stop, so he should regain his position quickly. Felipe Massa also goes into the pits, followed by Lewis Hamilton. And the Englishman comes out behind his teammate, but the gap is small! The final battle begins between the two drivers, less than a second separates them.

On the 57th lap, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton are engaged in an intense battle for first place, even though no attack has actually been made: both drivers must also deal with traffic to lap the backmarkers. With an offset strategy, Kimi Räikkönen is in fifth place, having made one less pit stop. The Finn is battling with Jenson Button, and the Englishman eventually overtakes, as does Sebastian Vettel. In 3rd position, Felipe Massa is quite alone, 30 seconds behind the Mercedes but maintaining the same pace.

On the 63rd lap, Lewis Hamilton gets extremely close to Nico Rosberg but doesn’t manage to clock a good enough second sector to truly threaten his teammate. After a race that saw him do a very long stint on medium tires, Romain Grosjean is forced to retire on the sidelines, requiring intervention from marshals with a fire extinguisher. In the pack, the two Ferraris battle, with the Finn ahead of his teammate, but he is eventually overtaken.

At the 69th lap, Lewis Hamilton is still behind Nico Rosberg by a few tenths, but he is unable to launch a real attack, while Felipe Massa is getting ready for a podium finish at home.

It is therefore Nico Rosberg who wins this penultimate round of the 2014 World Championship. The German finishes ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa, who steps onto the podium at his home race.