Wheel Perfect Rosberg takes Brazil GP win, Hamilton Slips - Title duel down to wire

Nico Rosberg ratcheted up the tension ahead of the season finale in Abu Dhabi with a note-perfect performance in Interlagos to take his fifth vict...

Nico Rosberg ratcheted up the tension ahead of the season finale in Abu Dhabi with a note-perfect performance in Interlagos to take his fifth victory of the season and pile the pressure back onto Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

The title battle goes down to the wire in Abu Dhabi with Hamilton 17 points clear, needing only second place or higher on one of his favourite circuits to be champion for the second time.

Mercedes set a new record with the 11th 1-2 finish of the season and now has 651 Constructors' Championship points - the most ever scored in a single season - beating the total set by Red Bull in 2011, with one race remaining.

The time sheets say Rosberg was fastest in every track session this weekend; all three practice sessions, all three elements of qualifying before taking his eighth career win, but it was anything but straightforward for the German as Hamilton spent large chunks of the 71 laps trying to find a way past.

Hamilton felt he was faster in the race, but he lost his chance to jump Rosberg at the second stops when he spun on his second hot lap after Rosberg had pitted. The time clock between them was at zero at the point where he spun, so we will never know what might have happened had he completed that lap cleanly; Hamilton thinks he lost the win there, but it would have been close.

Motor Racing - Formula One World Championship - Brazilian Grand Prix - Race Day - Sao Paulo, Brazil

"I'm very happy with the whole weekend," said Rosberg on podium. "I've been feeling very comfortable in the car I've been able to attack and control the gap to Lewis in the race.
It worked out great and I'm very, very happy."

For Hamilton it was a case of what might have been after a mid race spin ultimately cost him the chance of a 11th win in Brazil. "It was an amazing race," the Englishman said. "I had a great time. Obviously I had big mistake in the mid part of the race but otherwise the car was fantastic.

"The team did an amazing job and it was a great race with Nico and it's great to see Felipe up here. We had a great crowd here today so I enjoyed it."

Felipe Massa gave the home fans something to cheer for as he steered his Williams to a lonely third but the biggest smile belonged to Rosberg as he reduced the points deficit to Hamilton to 17 points ahead of the decider.

"I'm so happy for the race," said Massa. "So many mistakes also in my race I have the drive through with the five second penalty for speeding and I also I stopped at the McLaren [garage] because it was a similar colour but the car was fantastic. It was so great the pace I'm so happy."

At the start Rosberg made a perfect getaway to maintain his advantage on the short run to the Senna Ess with the first four holding station through the first lap.

Behind them Vettel lost two places to end the first lap eighth with Kimi Raikkonen also dropping back two places from 10th on the grid.

The pit stop action began early with Maldonado kicking it off on lap four as many of the drivers elected to dispense with their soft tyres as soon as possible.

In contrast, Romain Grosjean, Adrian Sutil, Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Kvyat bucked the trend by starting on medium compound and ran out of sequence with the rest.

Up front the Rosberg controlled a two second gap to his first stop on lap seven with Hamilton unable to close the gap enough to take the lead after stopping one lap after his Mercedes team-mate.

His next stint was superb up until that dramatic error as Hamilton stalked Rosberg until the latter made his second stop on lap 26. Trying to overhaul a one second deficit by running two more laps to his stop, Hamilton looked likely to manage it until his dramatic spin at turn four.

Hamilton caught the spin beautifully but not before the car slid off circuit and the net result was a 7.9s deficit heading into a second session on the medium Pirellis.

The next 22 laps were fascinating as Hamilton chipped away at the advantage while Rosberg tried to manage the gap in a safe, reliable fashion.

By the time Rosberg pitted for the final time, he had just over two and half seconds in hand but that was less than a second after Hamilton stopped a lap later

From there until a few laps from the flag the issue was in doubt as Hamilton tried to harry and harass Rosberg into an error that never came. On a short lap traffic was a regular factor but Rosberg was wheel perfect.

Massa's podium finish was well received in front of home fans but pre-race hopes of challenging the Mercedes cars were soon dashed when he got a five second stop go penalty for speeding in the pits at his first stop but his pace was never enough to match the lead two.

Behind him, Jenson Button matched his 2013 fourth place finish at Interlagos courtesy of a brave late race pass on two-stopping Kimi Raikkonen, a battle which also brought Vettel into contention.

Button had enough in hand to hold off Vettel to the flag as last year's Brazil race winner had to make do with fifth.

Just over ten seconds behind, Fernando Alonso had to fight his way past Ferrari team-mate Raikkonen in the latter stages as Raikkonen desperately tried to coax the necessary lap time out of his tyres while Alonso, on a three stopper, was made to sweat by the Finn.

Nico Hulkenberg finished on Raikkonen's tail to produce a fine eighth for Force India over six seconds clear of a subdued Kevin Magnussen with the final point annexed by Valtteri Bottas whose hopes of a podium finished were dashed by a couple of slow pit stops, one to tighten his belts, the other to clear debris from his wings.

Daniel Kvyat's brave effort to make two stops work just failed as he finished on the tail of Bottas with Pastor Maldonado 12th in the only Lotus to finish.

Jean Eric Vergne ended a difficult weekend 13th with Esteban Guttierez not able to take advantage of his strong qualifying run for Sauber as he faded to 14th ahead of Sergio Perez in the second Force India with Adrian Sutil the final runner in 16th.

Romain Grosjean's attempt to garner something from a two-stop strategy came to nought when he stopped his smoking Lotus out on track just four laps from the flag.

Daniel Ricciardo's season record 15 race points winning streak ended when he retired the second Red Bull to the pits with a front left suspension failure.

Brazilian GP, Interlagos 2014

1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 71 Winner 1 25

2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 71 +1.4 secs 2 18

3 Felipe Massa Williams 71 +41.0 secs 3 15

4 Jenson Button McLaren 71 +48.6 secs 5 12

5 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 71 +51.4 secs 6 10

6 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 71 +61.9 secs 8 8

7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 71 +63.7 secs 10 6

8 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 71 +63.9 secs 12 4

9 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 71 +70.0 secs 7 2

10 Valtteri Bottas Williams 70 +1 Lap 4 1

11 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 70 +1 Lap 17