Brazilian F1 Grand Prix 2014 Results: Winner, Standings, Highlights and Reaction

Nico Rosberg won a thrilling Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos, cutting Lewis Hamilton’s lead in the Formula 1 Drivers’ World Championship standings to 17 points. Felipe Massa finished in third, delighting the Brazilian crowd with a fine display in his Williams.   

The result was confirmed by Sky Sports F1:

Victory for the German gives his world title tilt a timely boost, but a repeat of this result in the 2014 finale would be good enough for the Brit to take the title. There’s just one race to go in the campaign, the double-point showdown in Abu Dhabi.

Pos	Pos.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	71	Winner	1	25
2	2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	71	+1.4 secs	2	18
3	3	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	71	+41.0 secs	3	15
4	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	71	+48.6 secs	5	12
5	5	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	71	+51.4 secs	6	10
6	6	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	71	+61.9 secs	8	8
7	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	71	+63.7 secs	10	6
8	8	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	71	+63.9 secs	12	4
9	9	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	71	+70.0 secs	7	2
10	10	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	70	+1 Lap	4	1
11	11	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	70	+1 Lap	17
12	12	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	70	+1 Lap	16
13	13	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	70	+1 Lap	15
14	14	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	70	+1 Lap	11
15	15	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	70	+1 Lap	18
16	16	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	70	+1 Lap	13
17	17	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	63	+8 Laps	14
Ret	18	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	39	Suspension	9	Ret

Pos	Driver	Nationality	Team	Points
1	Lewis Hamilton	British	Mercedes	334
2	Nico Rosberg	German	Mercedes	317
3	Daniel Ricciardo	Australian	Red Bull Racing-Renault	214
4	Sebastian Vettel	German	Red Bull Racing-Renault	159
5	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	Ferrari	157
6	Valtteri Bottas	Finnish	Williams-Mercedes	156
7	Jenson Button	British	McLaren-Mercedes	106
8	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Williams-Mercedes	98
9	Nico Hulkenberg	German	Force India-Mercedes	80
10	Kevin Magnussen	Danish	McLaren-Mercedes	55
11	Kimi Räikkönen	Finnish	Ferrari	53
12	Sergio Perez	Mexican	Force India-Mercedes	47
13	Jean-Eric Vergne	French	STR-Renault	22
14	Romain Grosjean	French	Lotus-Renault	8
15	Daniil Kvyat	Russian	STR-Renault	8
16	Pastor Maldonado	Venezuelan	Lotus-Renault	2
17	Jules Bianchi	French	Marussia-Ferrari	2
18	Adrian Sutil	German	Sauber-Ferrari	0
19	Marcus Ericsson	Swedish	Caterham-Renault	0
20	Esteban Gutierrez	Mexican	Sauber-Ferrari	0
21	Max Chilton	British	Marussia-Ferrari	0
22	Kamui Kobayashi	Japanese	Caterham-Renault	0
23	Andre Lotterer	German	Caterham-Renault	0

Clive Mason/Getty Images

With a healthy lead in the world championship standings, there were plenty who expected Hamilton to play things conservatively around the Interlagos circuit. But the Mercedes man insisted that despite starting in second place, he’d be doing his utmost to win the race, per Andrew Benson of BBC Sport:

"

It was great fun, Nico did a great lap. I lost bit of time in Turn 10 and perhaps a tiny bit in Turn One. But that's what qualifying should be about—just having to keep going out and finding more time.

It is a long race and it should be quite exciting. I'm here and I want to win. I hope we get to have a race.

"

Clive Mason/Getty Images

Hamilton’s best hope of edging in front of Rosberg was at the start, but the German got away superbly off the line, with the Brit clinging on in second place.

With the sun beating down in Brazil, there were concerns about tyre degradation of the soft compound on what was a searing track. So it was no surprise to see the drivers come in for a round of pit stops just a few laps into the race. Sky Sports F1’s thermal imaging camera shows just how hot the tyres were on Rosberg’s car:

Hamilton pitted the lap after his team-mate, and after a big push on his in-lap, the undercut very nearly worked for the Brit, who was inches away from overhauling the German. But any hopes of a head-to-head battle was initially called off by Hamilton’s engineer, who reminded his man of the importance of preserving his tyres for the latter stages.

Throughout this season it’s been plain sailing for the two Mercedes drivers, but the punishing heat was causing problems for the pair, as noted here by F1 Racing on NBC:

The blisters on the tyres looked pretty substantial too, as we can see here courtesy of Sky Sports F1:

The damage was causing a lot of problems for the German, and Hamilton cut the gap at the front substantially. Rosberg had no choice but to come into the pits, and when he did, the Brit put his foot down looking to make the undercut stick. Yet he pushed too hard, spun into Turn 1, and after pitting, he emerged back onto the track circa seven seconds behind his team-mate.

Here's a look at where Hamilton ended up:

Fake Charlie Whiting implored the Mercedes man to keep his cool, with a look ahead to the Abu Dhabi clash:

Williams were well in contention for a podium finish at this juncture, but a nightmare few minutes looked to have cost them. Massa had to serve a five-second stop-and-go penalty for speeding in the pit-lane, shunting the home-crowd favourite back down the field. Valtteri Bottas also suffered some problems, and was left static in the pit box as engineers tried to resolve an issue with his seat belt.

As the race ticked past the halfway mark, remarkably, there were no retirements from the race. But there was to be a first, as Daniel Ricciardo, who has finished every race since the Malaysian Grand Prix, was forced to retire after his front-left brake failed, as noted here by F1plus: 

Meanwhile, Hamilton was pushing like crazy at the front and was chiselling away at the gap Rosberg had built up. With the lead at circa two seconds, the German pitted for the third time from the front, followed by Hamilton a lap later, and in the final stint the two drivers were left to battle it out for the remainder of the race:

Elsewhere, Massa's afternoon took a peculiar turn, as he pitted in the McLaren box in error. But undeterred, the Brazilian was still on course for a podium finish, as he overtook Nico Hulkenberg to snaffle third place, much to the delight of the spectators in attendance at the Interlagos circuit.

Even with the Brazilian up at the front, though, all eyes were on the two silver arrows at the sharp end of the field, in what was set to be a critical clash in determining the destination of the 2014 world title. Hamilton was keeping Rosberg honest at the front, but as the laps ticked down the leader continued to defend with diligence.

Eventually, Rosberg did enough to hold off the late rally from his team-mate and will be delighted to halt the staggering momentum accrued by Hamilton in the last five races. Cutting the gap to his team-mate with one race to go should give him a lot of confidence, as should his domination of the championship leader over the course of the weekend.

Nonetheless, a second world title is there for the taking for Hamilton, and a second-placed finish will guarantee him the 2014 championship. But with the double points ruling in force for the first ever time in the season finale, you sense there may a twist in the tail of this engrossing Formula 1 season.