2018 brazilian grand prix full race

Valve failure and then catastrophic mechanical mayhem were just a breath away.So the power was turned way down, the mixture richened to allow the fuel to help cool things, and then fingers were crossed. Verstappen had taken advantage of Räikkönen’s less grippy tyre to claim fourth around the outside of Turn One, but the relative straight-line speeds of the two cars made it a matter of routine for Räikkönen to slipstream back ahead on the approach to Turn Four.On the grid, much of Ericsson’s diffuser had to be glued back on after coming adrift on a reconnaissance lap. Neither Vettel nor Bottas ever really looked at the races on Sunday, Bottas not seeming to have the pace of his team mate as he finished fifth, 22 seconds down the road, while Ferrari pitted Vettel late in the race for supersoft rubber to see if they could roll the dice strategically, the German ultimately not able to make in-roads enough into Bottas’ advantage and ending up P6.Leclerc capitalised on Sauber’s impressing looking race pace from Friday, claiming ‘best of the rest’ ahead of the similarly Ferrari-powered Haas duo of Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen – good news for them, given that their rivals for fourth place in the constructors’ standings, Renault, failed to score. “Well, this tyre doesn’t feel good,” he said of the medium just half-a-dozen laps into his stint on it.With Räikkönen under no undercut threat but around 8sec behind Verstappen, Ferrari chose to bring Vettel in first to guard against a Ricciardo undercut. Nico Hülkenberg (who had crashed heavily on Friday afternoon) made it into Q2 and qualified 14Sirotkin, after starring in getting the Williams into Q2, didn’t do a representative lap there and would line up 16The McLarens were the slowest cars in the place, with Fernando Alonso barely any faster than Stroll’s Williams. But on this difficult tyre day, Red Bull’s usage advantage was magnified.They hoped they could just survive and second place would be a bonus.The fastest way to run the race was, as usual, a one-stop with some early tyre management. The race as it happened .

HIGHLIGHTS: 2018 Brazilian Grand Prix He qualified two hundredths slower than his team-mate, sixth-fastest.All the Ferrari-powered cars were going well, but the Saubers in particular, which had a small but consistent edge, over the usually-faster Haas. Räikkönen stayed out for a further four laps and this had the effect of undercutting Vettel back ahead.

Ricciardo came into the weekend knowing he’d be taking a five-place grid penalty for a new turbocharger to replace the one damaged by fire extinguishant in Mexico. Räikkönen meanwhile was now all over Bottas while Ricciardo was all over Vettel.Bottas now had blistering on the rears as well as the fronts and before Ferrari got a chance to undercut Räikkönen past him, Mercedes brought Valtteri in for his new mediums at the end of lap 18.The timing was also determined by Verstappen’s continued chase of Hamilton, for as soon as the Red Bull would get 22sec clear of Magnussen’s Haas, it would have a gap to drop into – and would surely go for the undercut on Hamilton.To head that Red Bull undercut off, Hamilton was brought in at the end of the 19“We were expecting to get to about lap 20/21 with the [supersoft],” said Christian Horner, “but it just kept getting better for us.”Verstappen’s gap over Hamilton hovered at around 19/20sec, as Hamilton did enough to not let the Red Bull get the extra couple of seconds. It would turn out it – but only it – could go way longer than that.Mercedes, just as it expected, was struggling with the supersoft and would have preferred the soft, but had missed that opportunity in Q2 the day before.

“I had to lock a lot of tools on the steering wheel but that was still not enough. Magnussen would run very long on his harder tyres and emerge within 8sec of team-mate Grosjean, chasing him down on faster tyres for the last 30 laps.Verstappen was 2.7sec ahead of Hamilton as they swooshed by on the 43The lapped Ocon, having done a long first stint on the softs, had just made his first pitstop – and been fitted with a set of supersofts.

The fastest…Pierre Gasly, Charles Leclerc and Jack Aitken were among the drivers who spoke of the affection and respect they have for Anthoine Hubert, as they return to Spa Francorchamps — a year after the F2 driver lost his life at the circuit.For a better experience, keep your browser up to date. +4.764