2017 F1 Round 19 Brazilian GP — Vettel beats Bottas to win, Hamilton fourth from the pit lane

The 2017 Brazilian Grand Prix took place over 71 laps at Interlagos. Sebastian Vettel took the lead at the start and beat Valtteri Bottas in 1:31:26.262, with a final margin of 2.762 seconds. Kimi Räikkönen finished third, while Lewis Hamilton recovered from a pit-lane start to fourth, less than a second away from the podium.

Starting second, Vettel passed pole-sitter Bottas before the first corner. The pair continued to contest tyre management and the pit-stop window, but Ferrari retained the crucial track position. Bottas was unable to make the overtake that would have decided the race.

Stoffel Vandoorne and Kevin Magnussen made contact on the opening lap, with Daniel Ricciardo also caught up and sent into a spin. The first two retired and the safety car was deployed. A separate collision eliminated Esteban Ocon, ending his run of 27 consecutive race finishes. Romain Grosjean received a ten-second penalty for causing that incident.

Hamilton used a different tyre strategy from the front-runners, starting on softs and extending his first stint before changing to supersofts on lap 43. He briefly led while the cars ahead stopped, then rejoined fifth after his own stop. He subsequently passed Max Verstappen and began chasing Räikkönen.

Hamilton closed on the Ferrari in the closing stages, but Räikkönen held third. Verstappen made a second stop for supersofts and set the fastest lap, finishing fifth. Ricciardo started fourteenth and suffered an opening-lap spin, yet recovered to sixth.

Felipe Massa finished seventh in his final home Brazilian Grand Prix. Fernando Alonso pressured him throughout the race and crossed the line just 0.481 seconds behind, with Sergio Pérez close behind as their contest continued to the finish. Nico Hülkenberg took tenth to score one point for Renault, followed by Carlos Sainz just outside the points.

Brendon Hartley retired with a mechanical problem, joining opening-lap retirements Ocon, Vandoorne and Magnussen as the race’s four non-finishers. Lance Stroll was affected by a left-front tyre problem and finished sixteenth. Pierre Gasly was twelfth, the Saubers thirteenth and fourteenth, and Grosjean fifteenth.

Vettel won through his move at the start and his subsequent defence, while Hamilton’s sequence of overtakes from the pit lane provided another central story. Massa scored six points in his home farewell and acknowledged the crowd afterwards, giving the race three distinct strands of victory, recovery and farewell.