Both the World Drivers’ Championship and World Constructors’ Championship may have already been wrapped up, but there are still two more rounds of racing left in this 2017 Formula One season. The teams and drivers made their way to the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in São Paulo for the penultimate round of the season. It was the FORMULA 1 GRANDE PRÊMIO HEINEKEN DO BRASIL 2017.
Mercedes dominated the first practice session of the weekend, with Lewis Hamilton leading Valtteri Bottas. Kimi Räikkönen set the third quickest lap time, although he was unable to get without half of a second to the leading pace and was narrowly ahead of Max Verstappen. Both four-time World Champions had offs, with Hamilton running wide and being forced wide by Nico Hülkenberg, while Sebastian Vettel suffered a spin early in the session. Toro Rosso had the worst session out of all the teams, with birthday boy Brendon Hartley suffering an engine failure before even setting a time and Pierre Gasly running only five laps before parking in the garage with an unrelated issue.
Hamilton’s domination remained unthwarted in the second free practice session, with Bottas setting a lap just 0.05 seconds slower than his teammate. Daniel Ricciardo was third fastest in the session, with Vettel not far off his pace. Max Verstappen was the only other driver to be within half a second from Hamilton’s pace. There were some tense moments between Vettel and Romain Grosjean, as well as Esteban Ocon and Nico Hülkenberg over blocking. Felipe Massa’s emotions ran high, as the Brazilian made a detour through the pits to discard a tissue. This is the final time he will race in his home grand prix, revealing his plans to retire again from Formula One at the end of the season.
There was early drama in the final free practice session on Saturday morning, as Lance Stroll’s Williams crawled to a halt after just 10 minutes. The session was red flagged and the car was returned to the garage for last minute repairs in time for qualifying. Mercedes and Ferrari showed just how close their drivers were, with 0.058 seconds separating all four drivers. Bottas led the session by just 0.003 seconds to his teammate. Ricciardo was the next closest car to the top four, but still nearly a second off of the pace.
The extremely close lap times in the morning’s session set the stage for a tight qualifying battle for the pole position in the penultimate round of the season. However, the battle between for drivers quickly became a battle between three, with Hamilton losing the rear of the car in turn six on his first flying lap and sliding into the tyre barriers. Hamilton found himself sidelined in Q1 and starting the race from the rear of the grid on Sunday. With Hamilton out of the way, Räikkönen was able to lead Q1. Vettel took the lead of Q2 away from Bottas on his final lap of the session. Vettel took the provisional pole early in Q3, but Bottas snatched the pole position at the very end of the session by 0.038 seconds.
The race started with Vettel taking the early lead from Bottas on the inside of the first corner. It was Vettel’s race to win from that point forward. A trio of drivers got tangled up in the first sequence of corners. Daniel Ricciardo was hit by Stoffel Vandoorne who was hit by Kevin Magnussen. The Red Bull driver was the only one to continue the race. Later in the lap, Romain Grosjean oversteered into Esteban Ocon, earning himself a ten second time penalty and knocking Ocon out of the race. The safety car was deployed for the first incident, helping Hamilton to advance through the field.
Mercedes tried to undercut Vettel with Bottas, but Vettel responded the following lap. He exited the pit lane just a few car lengths ahead of the upcoming Mercedes, maintaining his lead. Meanwhile, Hamilton pitted and was in a position to challenge Kimi Raikkonen for the podium. He was within DRS range, but his tyres didn’t have the life let in them to mount any serious challenge. Vettel Took the race victory with Bottas and Raikkonen concluding the podium.
There are now just two more weeks until the season finale in the United Arab Emirates. We will say goodbye to our teams and drivers for the winter after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on the weekend of November 26.
