At the time of the lights out the conditions were dry. Among the top ten the Ferrari drivers were the only ones to start to the race on the soft rubber. Red Bull's Ricciardo, who had qualified 6th, had been dropped down to P11 due to a turbo charger change. Hamilton on pole took a confident start, holding on to his lead. Teammate Bottas took an amazing start as well, and the Finn made it ahead of Sebastian, who had started to the race alongside Hamilton. There was an extremely tight wheel-to-wheel battle between Kimi and Verstappen, who very often seem to "find each other" on track. Aggressive Max managed to make it ahead of the Iceman, but Kimi was stubborn to fight back. Kimi snatched his fourth place back in no time. However, Max was like a lion unleashed. He attacked again on lap 3, and passed Kimi again in Turn 1. Max was utterly on flames. A lap later he already attacked Sebastian. Another bold overtaking move made Max jump already third in the race. Sebastian made a small mistake, which offered Kimi, too a chance to move ahead of his teammate. Sebastian's pace wasn't too convincing...
Hamilton had only a 2-second lead to his teammate Bottas. And Verstappen was closing the gap to the Finn lap by lap. On lap 6 he was already within DRS distance from the Finnish Mercedes pilot. Meanwhile, Ricciardo had made his way through the field, and was in P6 already. And there was no stopping Verstappen! On lap 10 he made his move on Bottas, which proved successful. Max had just claimed P2 in the race.
Mercedes were clearly struggling with the out-worn super-soft tyres. Kimi had hunted down his compatriot, and was lurking for a chance to overtake. But it didn't turn out easy. Bottas was the first top driver to pit on lap 19. Like predicted, he opted for a fresh set of white-walled medium tyres. Teammate Hamilton pitted from the lead on the sequential lap, for a similar tyre choice. After his pit stop Hamilton was able to set competitive lap times, but only after a few laps the Briton complained on the team radio, that his tyres didn't feel very good. Sebastian pitted on lap 28, for medium rubber as well.
Verstappen in the lead didn't seem to have problems with tyre degradation. Max even reported on the team radio, that the performance of his tyres had improved, although there were over 30 laps on those super-softs! Kimi, on the other hand, pitted on lap 32, for mediums as well. Kimi re-joined the track in P7, which meant losing positions both to Bottas and teammate Sebastian. Sebastian, however, was seriously struggling with his pace. Kimi was clearly faster than his teammate. At that point we saw a rarely-seen call from the Red Team, as Sebastian was told to let Kimi past. After switching positions, Sebastian had no chance to match his teammate's pace.
Verstappen pitted not until at the halfway point of the race! Against the odds the flying Dutchman switched to the middle compound, re-joining the track in P2. Hamilton, however, was only a couple of seconds ahead. Max could already smell the world champion's blood. Teammate Ricciardo pitted on lap 40, for a similar tyre choice to his teammate. Meanwhile, Max had hunted down Hamilton and attacked the Briton at the end of the main straight. There was nothing Hamilton could do to prevent Max from taking the lead!
Lap 44 was the turning point in the race. Something very unexpected happened between race leader Verstappen and Force India's Ocon. The Frenchman had just exited the pits, and he was a lap down already. However, Ocon had decided to overtake Verstappen to reach the same lap with him... This led to a bizarre incident, Ocon crashing into Verstappen's RB14! Max span, and the floor of his Red Bull took significant damage. Hamilton saw his opportunity and took the lead. Max was able to continue, and luckily the floor damage had a surprisingly small effect on his performance. Meanwhile, Kimi was able to overtake Bottas, moving third.
Ricciardo, too was flying on his soft tyres. Sebastian was in serious trouble with his ex-teammate. Their wheels had already touched a few laps earlier, but on lap 46 the Australian managed to overtake Sebastian, claiming P5. Sebastian pitted on lap 54 for the second time, now switching to the super-softs. He re-joined the track in P7, in the middle of traffic. Meanwhile, Force India's Ocon was given a stop-and-go penalty, which I considered quite a mild penalty for robbing Verstappen of the race win.
Bottas was in trouble with his dying mediums, and Ricciardo finally managed to overtake the Finn on lap 59. After losing a position to the Australian, Bottas pitted for the second time. The Finn re-joined the track on the softs in P5. With five laps to go, Ricciardo was right at Kimi's tail, hungry to make it on the podium. But Kimi defended his third place in style and impeded all overtaking moves. Hamilton crossed the finish line as the race winner, and deeply disappointed Verstappen had to settle for being the runner-up. Kimi completed the podium; this was already the 12th podium finish for the Iceman this season! Ricciardo was left 4th, Bottas 5th and Sebastian 6th. Charles Leclerc was the impressive 7th, and Grosjean and Magnussen brought valuable points for Haas. Force India's Perez rounded out the top ten. So now it's official: Mercedes have clinched their fifth constructors' championship.
Max was extremely furious after the race. He showed his rage for Ocon right away. Max got so carried away with the fury caused by Ocon ruining his race, that Max even pushed Ocon multiple times during that "conversation". I don't accept Max's actions but I do understand him. Max would have won the race, had Ocon not crashed into him! And they weren't even running for positions at that point! And what a phenomenal race Max drove! Staggering overtaking moves without stupid mistakes. Max shone like a star at Interlagos yesterday. On track he was pure professional. The same can't be said about his behavior after the race... However, it's humane to get carried away by strong emotions.
One more round to go. The season finale will take place in Abu Dhabi in a fortnight. Hopefully the red-suited drivers will have a glamorous end to their season! It will be the very last race for Kimi in the red suit. One era is coming to an end.
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