VETTEL'S FIRST ENDS FERRARI'S DROUGHT

Victory in last weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix was Sebastian Vettel’s first since the Hungarian GP in July.

It’s a stark indication of how the fortunes of Ferrari have waned since the summer break. But the result virtually secures his runners-up spot in this year’s drivers’ championship.

The outcome of Sunday’s race was decided when the field descended towards Turn 1 on the opening lap. Pole position holder Valtteri Bottas wasn’t as clean away as Vettel and as the pair braked into the downhill left-hander, the Ferrari just found the smallest of gaps between the Mercedes and the pitwall to ease into the lead.

Over the next 71 laps, at a hot and cloudless Interlagos, Vettel managed to preserve his machinery, while maintaining a two-second margin to Bottas. That was enough to earn him his 47th F1 victory and his eighth for Ferrari.

They were joined on the podium by the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen, the Finn holding off a spirited comeback drive by Lewis Hamilton. The newly-crowned world champion was forced to start from the pitlane after a qualifying shunt, but quickly made progress through the pack. At one stage he was over 18 seconds off Vettel’s lead, but drove superbly to be just 5.4s shy of the winner at the flag.

In fifth and sixth places were the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Dan Ricciardo and they finished ahead of a terrific race-long scrap between Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso. The two-time champ just couldn’t find a way past the retiring home hero, who’s defensive performance gave his beloved fans something to cheer about.

Qualifying

There was drama just moments into the start of qualifying. Q1 is normally a relatively straightforward affair for the top teams, but Hamilton made a rare mistake on his first flying lap and shunted his Mercedes hard into the barriers.