Sebastian Vettel returns to success in Brazil

After seven unsuccessful races, Sebastian Vettel returned to victory in Brazil. The Ferrari driver is ahead of Mercedes de Valtteri Bottas and his teammate Maranello Kimi Raikkonen. A success built from the start.

As soon as the lights went out, Vettel got the better of Bottas at the first corner, but the race direction had to quickly interrupt the event after several incidents in the peloton.

Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) is thus involved in a clash with Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren) and Kevin Magnussen (Haas). If the Australian can continue his journey by returning to the pits to change tires, the Belgian and the Dane are forced to retire.

A few meters further, the two French Romain Grosjean (Haas) and Esteban Ocon (Force India) are hanging on. The driver of Vijay Mallya's team cannot bring back his car in the pits, suffered two punctures and had to retire. Grosjean will be penalized 10″ by being found responsible for the accident.

After five laps under safety car regime to clean the track, the race resumed with Vettel in the lead ahead of Bottas, Räikkönen, Max Verstappen (Redbull), Fernando Alonso (McLaren), Felipa Massa (Williams), Sergio Pérez (Force India), Renault de Nico Hulkenberg et Carlos Sainz et Pierre Gasly (Toro Rosso), major beneficiary of the departure.

From the ninth round, Lewis Hamilton, who started from the pits after his exit in qualifying, returned to the top 10 by taking the advantage over Pierre Gasly. The Briton is in seventh place on lap 15 after having taken over the Renault and the Force India of Sergio Pérez and is around fifteen seconds behind leader Vettel. The German remains in control of the race with around two seconds ahead of Bottas.

The first stops change nothing

Among the leaders, Bottas was the first to stop at the end of the 27th lap and put on the soft tires. A lap later, Vettel and Verstappen stopped and followed the same strategy. Vettel managed to emerge narrowly in front of Bottas' Mercedes.

Räikkönen pitted a lap later, leaving Lewis Hamilton to take first place. The world champion finally stopped at the end of the 43rd lap, just like Ricciardo for his second stop. Starting fifth again, Hamilton once again launched an attack on the drivers preceding him.

Vettel returns to success

Max Verstappen, struggling with his tires, will not be able to resist the #44 Mercedes on the 59th lap. The former McLaren driver keeps Kimi Räikkönen's Ferrari in his sights and if we think we see the Briton coming to interfere on the podium, he will not be able to attack the SF70H n°7 and fails at the foot of the podium behind Vettel, Bottas and Raikkonen.

Returning to the pits to put on a final set of new tires, Max Verstappen finished fifth and ahead of his Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo. Felipe Massa follows in seventh position ahead of Fernando Alonso, Sergio Pérez and Nico Hülkenberg who scores an important point for Renault in its Constructors' Championship fight against Toro Rosso.

Carlos Sainz takes 11th place ahead of Pierre Gasly, Pascal Wehrlein (Sauber), Marcus Ericsson (Sauber) and Romain Grosjean. Lance stroll is the last driver classified with his Williams, after seeing his front left tire delaminate following a wheel lock in the first corner. Brendon Hartley (Toro Rosso) joined the list of retirements in the second half of the event.

Discover the report and analysis of the Brazilian Grand Prix, produced by our special correspondents in Interlagos, in issue 2140 of AUTOhebdo, available tomorrow evening in digital version and this Wednesday on newsstands.