The drivers where in Brazil for the penultimate race of the 2018 Formula One season; the FORMULA 1 GRANDE PRÊMIO HEINEKEN DO BRASIL 2018. Clouds loomed overhead, threatening to rain on the race. Although the World Drivers’ Championship has already been secured by Lewis Hamilton, the World Constructors’ Championship was still very much up for grabs between Ferrari and Mercedes.
After struggling to get away from the grid for the start of the formation lap, Sebastian Vettel bogged down at the start of the race as well. This allowed Valtteri Bottas to overtake the leading Ferrari, as Vettel locked up into the first corner. Looking further back on the grid, Marcus Ericsson also struggled at the race start, falling back from his P6 start position.
The Red Bull drivers quickly made their way up the field from their subpar starting positions. Daniel Ricciardo easily got by Charles Leclerc into the first corner. Max Verstappen breezed by Vettel in the same corner a couple of laps later, moving into P3. Vettel was clearly struggling, as he locked up and ran wide into turn four, allowing Kimi Räikkönen to take advantage and gain a position.
On lap 10, Verstappen was able to dive up the inside of Bottas in the first corner, releasing him to chase down the race leader. Bottas began to struggle with his pace, allowing Räikkönen to have a look around the outside of turn four, but the move didn’t stick. Bottas began to slow the cars behind him, creating a battle of the Finns. Räikkönen made a daring overtake attempt around the outside of the uphill turn six but had to back out of the move.
Looking at the lead of the race, Verstappen was making up ground on the race leader Lewis Hamilton on lap 20. Mercedes reacted to this, calling their driver into the pits for new medium tyres. Bottas also followed the lap later. Vettel was the first of the Ferrari drivers to make his pit stop eight laps later.
The circuit began to get gloomy, as rain looked imminent. But the teams couldn’t wait for the rain to show up to make their pit stop. Kimi Räikkönen pitted on lap 33, coming out behind his teammate. However, a few laps later, team overs called for Vettel to swap positions with his teammate.
With Hamilton slowly eating away at Verstappen’s pit window and the young Red Bull driver coming up on backmarkers, Red Bull called Verstappen into the pits for a set of soft tyres. However, some minor issues on the front-left tyre made a slightly slow pitstop, meaning that Verstappen not only lost the lead to Hamilton, but came out behind backmarker Stoffel Vandoorne.
On lap 40, Verstappen continued to show extremely strong performance, cruising by the race leader with DRS assistance down the main straight and quickly racing outside of the DRS range. But it wouldn’t last for long, as Esteban Ocon and Max Verstappen collided in the Senna Esses. The lapped Ocon made a big run into the first corner to unlap himself. He went around the outside of Verstappen, but the duo collided into T2. Verstappen was able to continue the race, but it cost him the lead of the race. Ocon was later given a 10 second stop and go penalty, although it didn’t benefit Verstappen at all.
Further back in the field, Ricciardo and Vettel were starting to get a little bit punchy, battling of P5 in the race. Ricciardo launched an overtake into the Senna Esses, but the Vettel kept his elbows out, muscling with Ricciardo. However, the following lap, Ricciardo made the same move again around the outside of the first corner, making it stick and getting by Vettel.
The battle of the Finns was decided, as Räikkönen made it past, climbing into a podium position. Bottas quickly dropped back into the clutches of Ricciardo. Although he was very close to his Mercedes competitor, Ricciardo’s Red Bull lacked the straight-line speed that the Mercedes power unit has, making an overtaking maneuver tough. Nevertheless, after a lot of laps running close to Bottas, Ricciardo was able to get by him into the first corner. Bottas pitted the following lap for new tyres.
Verstappen closed the gap to Hamilton at the lead of the race, as the laps ticked down in the race. But he was unable to get close enough to make an overtaking attempt. Further back, his teammate got close to the Ferrari of Kimi Räikkönen. However, there were enough laps for him to take the podium scoring position from the Finn.
The 2018 season will be coming to a close in two weeks time, wrapping up in Abu Dhabi on the weekend of November 25.
Above results table does not include any post-race penalties
