Rosberg withstands pressure to win Brazilian GP

F1 Grand Prix, GP Brazil, Autódromo José Carlos Pace, Interlagos

Nico Rosberg has won a thrilling Brazilian Grand Prix during which he faces considerable pressure from team mate Lewis Hamilton. Rosberg though kept his cool and remained faultless until the finish line. Home racer Felipe Massa completed the podium in third place.

Under sunny skies, the warmup lap started fine for everyone, except for Adrian Sutil. The latter was set to start from the pitlane after his team made a "small technical change" to his car. Everybody is on the soft tyres, except for Grosjean, Kvyat, Hulkenberg and Sutil.

Rosberg led a very slow formation lap as he attempted to kepe the field together, preventing he had to sit still for a long time before the start of the race.

The start was clean and fair, with Rosberg easily retaining his pole, ahead of Hamilton, Massa, Bottas and Button. Magnussen moved up into 6th and Alonso into 7th as Vettel went wide through turn 5, making it easy for the two to get ahead. Ricciardo attempted to pass Vettel soon after, but failed. Next up were Gutierrez, Raikkonen, Hulkenberg, Kvyat, Grosjean, Perez, Vergne, Maldonado and Sutil.

On lap 5, Maldonado is the first to pit, changing to mediums. One lap later, Massa and Perez follow suit. Another lap later, Bottas, Button and Vettel stop to change to medium tyres. At the end of lap 8, Rosberg pits from the lead, followed by Magnussen, Alonso and Ricciardo.

When Hamilton stopped another lap later, he rejoined right behind Rosberg. The latter was stuck behind Grosjean, but when the trio ended up at the pit straight, both managed to pass the Lotus, keeping their relative positions. With others not pitting yet due to having started on the medium tyres, the Mercedes drivers, and essentially all other early stoppers had a difficult task to move up through the field.

Hamilton's stop on lap 8 effectively put Hulkenberg in the lead.

A little further back, Alonso retained his position immediately ahead of the Red Bulls. The blue cars are clearly faster than the Ferrari, but both lacked the top speed to pass rapidly.

On lap 13, Rosberg passed Hulkenberg for the lead. Hamilton followed on lap 15 with the gap to his team mate increased to 2.3 seconds.

By lap 20, lots of drivers started to complain of blisters on the right front. Some were better off than others, but the right front is the critical tyre.

On lap 23, Magnussen gets past Grosjean while Alonso, the Red Bulls and Raikkonen closed in from behind. One lap later Alonso passes as well on the back straight with Vettel sneeking by Grosjean through turn 5.

At the front, Hamilton upped the pace, reducing the gap to Rosberg down to 1s, gaining 2s in three laps.

On lap 25 Massa is the first to stop a seocnd time. It was a long stop for him as he had to serve a 5 second stop and go penalty at the same time for speeding in the pitlane earlier. Bottas one lap later had an even longer stop as one of his crew members worked to rectify an issue inside the cockpit.

On lap 26 Rosberg pitted while Hamilton continued, recording two more fastest laps. The lap after that however, the Brit locked up the rears into turn 5 and sliding sideways into the tarmac run-off. Apart from losing 7 seconds, that also flat spotted his tyres, requiring an immediate pitstop, possibly contrary to his intentions. After his stop, on lap 30, the gap between the Mercedes drivers is 7.5 seconds.

Meanwhile, Vettel enjoyed a good second pitstop, jumping both Magnussen and Alonso.

On lap 33, positions are Rosberg, 5.8s ahead of Hamilton. Raikkonen is third after just a single stop, ahead of Hulkenberg, Massa, Button, Kvyat, Vettel, Magnussen, Alonso, Ricciardo, Bottas, Grosjean, Sutil, Gutierrez, Perez, Vergne and Maldonado.

On lap 36, Raikkonen pitted for his second stop. It lasted 7.6 seconds though as front jack dropped before the right front wheel was on the car. The still still did a good job raising the car manually to put the wheel in place. Following a long second stint, Raikkonen rejoined the track in 12th place.

4 laps later, Ricciardo has a braking problem in the entry of turn 1. After reporting the problem to his team, he slowly completed his lap to return to the pits, where he insisted there was nothing more to do but to retire from the race.

A few moments later, Bottas was in the pits for another slow stop. This time his team was working on the right hand side of his car's front wing.

On lap 46, Alonso managed to get ahead of Magnussen, having chased the McLaren for the entire race.

At the front, Hamilton continued to push to close the gap to Rosberg who continued to lead the race. On lap 51, with the gap approximately 2 seconds, Rosberg is the first of the Mercedes to pit.

Massa in third and Button in fourth positions pit in the same lap. Hamilton pits one lap later and rejoins the race 7 tenths behind his teammate thanks to a very solid in-lap. After that, the gap remains around 7 tenths. Both are pushing extremely hard with Rosberg posting ever faster laps and Hamilton not losing his team mate out of sight.

Behind them though, there's virtually nobody, with Massa down 30 seconds on the Mercedes duo. The Brazilian himself has 12 seconds in hand over Button, Vettel and Raikkonen, a trio running very close together. Alonso is 2 seconds further behind. Magnussen follows at 20s, ahead of Hulkenberg, Botats, KVyat, Maldonado, Vergne, Gutierrez, Perez, Grosjean and Sutil.

As Hamilton records the fastest lap, Grosjean parks his car alongside the track.

In the battle for fourth, Raikkonen has lost ground to Button and Vettel while Alonso started looking for a way past his teammate. An impressive battle unfolded between the two Ferrari drivers. Alonso repeatedly came alongside the Finn, but only after 5 laps of battling, Alonso got pat. Still, a rush of adrenalin for the Ferrari crew, even though they're not fighting at the front.

At the front, Rosberg held on, made no mistakes and secured the win at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Hamilton was close and threatening but never really managed to put a passing attempt. Home racer Felipe Massa could meanwhile please the crowd by finishing third in his home race.