1st. Nico Rosberg
Rosberg continued his impressive end of season form, denying Hamilton the chance to win his first Grand Prix at Interlagos in impressive style. He rarely looked in trouble and managed to keep Lewis behind him once again heading into the first corner. If he can keep this kind of form up heading into 2016 then we may have a real fight for next year’s Championship.
Rating out of ten: 9.5
2nd. Lewis Hamilton
Lewis and Interlagos have never really gelled, and once more he was second best to his teammate in Brazil. Other than a challenge going into turn one midway through the race, the World Champion never looked like he was going to win the Grand Prix. He found it difficult managing his tyres behind Nico and ended up 7.7 seconds off the lead, not the best day for Lewis.
Rating: 7.5
3rd. Sebastian Vettel
Vettel put in another great drive, but would’ve had to pull something special off if he was going to challenge the Mercedes. He was more than pit stop ahead of his teammate as the Finn continued to find it difficult to challenge the four-time world champion.
Rating: 8.5
4th. Kimi Raikkonen
He might be the fans favourite but Kimi produced yet another below par performance. Credit to him for trying a different strategy to the others by going for a two-stop strategy, but it just didn’t work out for the Finn.
Rating: 6.5
5th. Valtteri Bottas
Another quiet race for the Williams driver, he made a great start to the race, finding himself alongside Raikkonen but there was no incident between the compatriots that some expected. The car looked horrid to drive early in the weekend and I was worried we’d see the Williams pair fighting for the back end of some points. 5th was the best Bottas could’ve expected.
Rating: 8
6th. Nico Hulkenberg
Hulkenberg hasn’t had the best of seasons so far, but this performance reiterates why he’s considered one of the best drivers on the grid. He secured the team fifth place in the constructors championship and moved into tenth in the drivers’ standings. A good day for the German but whether he’ll ever get a chance in a race winning car is still not known.
Rating: 8.5
7th. Daniil Kvyat
He looked comfortable all race and has demonstrated why he should be in the team next year. He got the beating of his teammate in qualifying and even if Ricciardo had started where he qualified, I don’t think he would have had the matching of his 21-year-old teammate.
Rating: 7.5
8th. Romain Grosjean
A good race for the Frenchman, he ran much of the race alongside Verstappen and will be pleased that he kept the Lotus’ ahead of the Toro Rosso’s in the championship. Although he was in amongst a lot of the action he often found things going his way, breezing past Perez with ease using the DRS and finishing a solid 9th (promoted to 8th following Massa’s penalty).
Rating: 7
9th. Max Verstappen
Eddie Jordan compared him to Schumacher and Senna, and it’s easy to see why. The 18-year-old has brought excitement to the sport, pulling off fantastic overtakes against Sergio Perez and Felipe Nasr, around the outside of turn one. Achieving ninth was crucial for the team to keep their hopes of beating Lotus this season alive, but I think he deserved even better today.
Rating: 9
10. Pastor Maldonado
The Venezuelan will be disappointed with his performance today. I felt he could’ve defended better from Verstappen at the end, especially considering it was originally for world championship points (before Massa’s DNF). His collision earlier in the race with Ericsson certainly didn’t help in trying to prove his critics wrong, not a great day for the Lotus driver.
Rating: 5
Non-points finishers
Daniel Ricciardo was unable to pull off any heroics from the back of the grid, and will be disappointed to be leaving with no points. Rating: 5.5
Sergio Perez was nowhere compared to his teammate and just went backwards after seeing his tyres fall off the cliff late on. Rating: 4.5
Neither Felipe Nasr (13th) and Marcus Ericsson (16th) were able to challenge for points and neither were the struggling McLaren’s who finished 14th (Jenson Button) and 15th (Fernando Alonso) respectively.
In the Manor Marussia battle, it was Will Stevens who finally beat Alexander Rossi for the first time, which may prove important as the pair continue to push for a 2016 race seat.
Felipe Massa should feel like he could have done more in his Williams and even without the penalty it wasn’t a great day for the Brazilian. Rating: 4.5
