Rosberg weathers Hamilton onslaught for Brazil win

2014 Brazilian Grand Prix summary

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Nico Rosberg brought Lewis Hamilton’s run of victories to an end by winning the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The Mercedes pair were nose-to-tail for much of the final stint as Hamilton tried unsuccessfully to find a way past his team mate. Rosberg had led from the start but Hamilton threatened to use superior race pace to jump ahead of him – until he had a costly spin at Subido do Lago.

Felipe Massa claimed third place for Williams despite picking up a five-second penalty for speeding in the pits. Team mate Valtteri Bottas had problems of his own in the pit box and slipped from fourth to finish tenth.

Jenson Button therefore took fourth place ahead of Sebastian Vettel, while the second Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo was the race’s sole retirement. Fernando Alonso battled past Kimi Raikkonen for sixth in the closing stages – seventh-placed Raikkonen was the highest-placed driver to make two pit stops.

Nico Hulkenberg led early on and finished eighth after passing Kevin Magnussen at the end.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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30 comments on “Rosberg weathers Hamilton onslaught for Brazil win”

  1. If only Brazil was the last race of the season and we could get a repeat of the 2012 race + conditions…

  2. As a Ham fan iam very content his race pace his unreal slower all weeked yet today was the fastest.

  3. I’d say that was probably Nico’s finest performance, and not a moment too soon. Good job.

    1. I wouldn’t because if Hamilton didn’t lose it he would have gotten in frond of him after the pits. That means he was slow enough to allow Hamilton to take advantage of pit-stops by being faster that him. He was lucky he won it.
      The fact that it wasn’t Hamilton’s finest weekend since he spin it doesn’t make the fact that Rosberg left himself vulnerable to Hamilton any less real.

  4. Good drive from Nico and from Felipe as well to overcome that penalty and still get a podium finish.

  5. Did anyone else catch what Nico said as he left the podium! It looked awfully like “f*ahem*ing Brazilians”…

    He has reason to be unhappy, because even though the Sky commentators spent most of the race saying what a great weekend Rosberg was having, he was so much slower than Lewis today.

    1. That was cringeworthy lol.

    2. Don’t think it was Brazilians! Think it was a well known swearword beginning with B. Also think it was aimed at Piquet for his nonsense set of questions and not coming back to the winner for the final question

  6. ‘while the second Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo was the race’s sole retirement.’

    Grosjean retired too, but he was still classified in the results.

    1. Also, Button finished 4th, not 5th.

  7. Jenson took fifth.

    1. no he didn’t….

  8. Ros still has race pace problems

  9. Did anyone else notice reduced coverage of Force India, Sauber, and Lotus this race, or is it just me?

  10. Is it me, or did Rosberg say something bad just after they left the podium??
    https://www.facebook.com/DieHardF1Fan/photos/a.105786456155074.8165.102855529781500/767293233337723/?type=1&theater

    Check this out..

    1. Yep. Think it was because Piquet went back to Hamilton for the final question instead of the race winner Rosberg. Don’t think Piquet will be invited to do the podium interviews again somehow!

      1. I don’t think ROS cares about having the last question. Piquet interview ‘questions’ were just awful. After such a great race asking after who Hamilton is dating or not daing was childish and stupid.

      2. I though he came back to Hamilton because he didn’t ask him anything the first time.

        The worst podium interview ever

        1. I thought it was because he didn’t get Nicole’s number the first time.

  11. Piquet’s conduct on the podium was rather inappropriate to say the least…

    Wouldn’t expect any less from the man, though.

  12. How can you say that Rosberg survived Hamilton’s onslaught? I think that we have different definitions of that word. To me an onslaught would indicate that Hamilton was actually attacking and trying pass for multiple corners on multiple laps, but that is not at all what happened. Not once did Hamilton make a move on Rosberg, and why would he take that risk when all he has to do is follow Rosberg to the line?
    I cannot stand how people are making this seem so much more “exciting” than it really was. I actually felt embarrassed watching qualifying when the commentator was getting all excited at the end. The media keeps building up the battle between these two but it just seems so fake. If there were two or three other drivers finishing between Rosberg and Hamilton on a regular basis then maybe that would make it more exciting. But going into Abu Dhabi the only driver facing any pressure is Rosberg…
    Maybe it is because I have never really cared for or cheered for either of these drivers, maybe it is because I don’t care for Mercedes as a vehicle, I don’t really know. I just know that this season has felt very artificial to me all year.
    Other than Montreal, this year has been a bit of a waste.

    1. Don’t waste your time then when Abu Dhabi hosts the grand prix in 2 weeks time :)

    2. The onslaught was Hamilton’s 5 win streak, not his moves to overtake, which really didn’t happened not even once.

      The straights are too short to overtake an equal car which equal traction.

      Boring.

      Interlagos is a nice track, but for F1 it got short enough already. There’s space there, they should add some half a mile to the course. It would make it more interesting.

    3. Martin Horrocks
      9th November 2014, 21:38

      Agree with Irejag that this has been one of the least involving and artificial F1 seasons I can remember. 2 dominant cars with virtual driver parity and excellent reliability don´t normally make a battle.

      Even the mid-field fighting seems conditioned by managing poor tyre performance. Given that, why the race to the death for teams to spend into oblivion?

  13. Agreed. There was no onslaught. Not even a single chance Hamilton got due to the course layout.

    1. I’m not so sure. I mean closing down a 7-8 second gap and then keeping the pressure on being less than a second behind for the rest of the race could be classed as an onslaught.

    2. @david-beau
      There’s nothing wrong with the circuit layout. Interlagos is great for overtaking.

  14. I agree that the media, including my commentary team (US viewer), hammed up the importance of this win. Not to rain on Rosberg’s parade, but he merely eliminated a position cushion for Abu Double that Hamilton was unlikely to utilize since he and the W05 in tandem are better than a mid-10 finish. Little beyond a Hamilton retirement is going to save Rosberg’s title prospects; he needed a V at least a race ago put pressure on Hamilton. The driver’s championship may still be in contention, yet in hindsight and contrary to his pre-race comments, Rosberg was relieved of his ability to influence the outcome in Austin.

    1. The funny thing is that literally this race had no significance for Hamilton in terms of Championship. Whether he came first or second Abu Dhabi will be what matters. With the car he has and his ability Hamilton can’t come anything than first or second in Abu Dhabi. To not be at least second means that he had a DNF. And if that happened, while Rosberg won because he was out then he will have lost the championship anyway whether he won at Brazil or not.

  15. Ham had more pace than Ros, but it was almost impossible to overtake in equal machines.
    Just look the time took Alonso to overtake Raikkonen with newer tyres.

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