How Nico Rosberg managed to hang on for the win, what now for Jenson Button, and could Fernando Alonso have caught Seb Vettel?
Tuesday 11 November 2014 16:23, UK
Nico keeps Lewis out of reach
After giving his world title bid the shot in the arm it needed in Brazil, Nico Rosberg was quick to highlight the work he’d done that week to try and avoid a repeat of his rather meek rollover at the U.S. GP.
“After the setback that I had in Austin – Austin was tough on race day, so I really worked at it, to try and understand what I need to do better,” he told Sky F1's Martin Brundle after the race.
“I was able to step up my game here and in Brazil, to not only qualify on pole but also in the race always make sure Lewis never comes within striking distance – that was the mistake in Austin: I let him come too close.
“Today, I always managed to keep the gap, so that worked out really well.”
Unlike in Austin, where Rosberg also started from pole, he kept the gap (at usually around 1.2s) in the first stint and so stayed out of DRS range.
Rosberg's advantage was about a second more in the second stint – the same phase of the previous week’s race when Hamilton had made his move. On that occasion, Rosberg struggled to get his medium tyres switched on (and also hit the wrong ERS button when attempting to defend) but in the heat of Interlagos, tyre blistering posed the opposite problem.
Rosberg coped this time, although Hamilton closed up slightly ahead of the second stops – a trend that accelerated when the race leader pitted but which, of course, also culminated in Hamilton’s spin.
Suddenly facing a 7.4s gap on lap 29, Hamilton lapped anything up to 0.6s quicker in their third stints – about the advantage he’d enjoyed before getting the job done in Austin. Unlike there, though, Rosberg wasn’t struggling with his tyres; more the case he was managing them (the gap narrowed to 1.9s on lap 49).
Rosberg made his final stop on lap 50 and with Hamilton’s ‘in’ lap about 0.3s quicker ahead of his final stop next time around, he rejoined just 0.5s behind as his team-mate dealt with traffic.
Hamilton was within DRS range for the first time but, as the 20-lap run to the chequered flag showed, it’s not necessarily an effective system when drivers in equal equipment are matching each other’s times and avoiding mistakes.
Neither was more than 0.2s quicker than the other (just 0.001s separated them on lap 61) but according to Brundle, “Rosberg, with track position, had him covered”.
He did, but with Hamilton’s ‘in’ lap that wasn’t - on lap 27 prior to his spin - almost a second faster than anything he’d set previously, not to mention the fact that he also set the race’s fastest lap of all (a 1:13.555 on lap 62), there’s a case to suggest the title leader had the marginally better race pace.
But for the error, then, might Lewis have taken the lead and pulled away?
What we can be sure of is that, unlike in Austin, Rosberg did indeed manage the gap – mere fractions of a second, but surely of far more substantial benefit in terms of his self-belief as Abu Dhabi looms.
JB’s timely reminder
Amidst all the speculation about his future, Jenson Button gave McLaren and the wider world a timely reminder of his virtues by finishing a fine fourth on Sunday.
At the scene of his 2009 title win and last race victory, Button gave a vintage display, driving a typically thoughtful race – particularly, on a day when track temperatures nudged 57 degrees C, where tyre management was concerned.
But it wasn’t strictly cerebral, as his battle with Kimi Raikkonen testified.
If the art of conserving rubber is all about knowing when to push, then Button’s second stint set the tone. In those early stages, the conditions caused blistering and yet, running fifth behind Valtteri Bottas’ Williams, the McLaren seemed to cope better than most.
Yet Button wasn’t, in fact, tip-toeing around. “I pushed really hard in the first stint on primes when I was up behind Bottas and I destroyed by rears trying to stay with him,” he said. “But I thought ‘If I can stay in DRS, we can gap the guys behind’.”
The gamble paid off: Button was about 3s ahead of his pursuers, Kevin Magnussen, Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel; by the time of his second stop on lap 27, the gap was out to 7s.
“It was worth it,” he said, “and it worked. But it meant I had to back off during the following stint to look after my tyres.”
An obstacle had been removed by this point – namely Bottas, who dropped back after loose seatbelts delayed his second stop – however, Button, who was now chasing the other Williams of Felipe Massa, lost about 7s to the Brazilian between laps 28 and 50.
Yet there were two ‘what might have beens’ that could, perhaps, have placed him on the podium: rewinding to the second stops, not only was Button within DRS range of Bottas, he was only 3.5s behind Massa when he pitted on lap 25.
That was the stop where Massa had to serve a 5s penalty for speeding in the pitlane. Yet rather than instruct Button to follow him in, McLaren had already given priority to Magnussen, who was one place behind him but being chased by Alonso. Yet Ferrari kept him out, so there was no threat of the ‘undercut’.
The second chance came when Massa made his second stop on lap 50 – initially in McLaren’s pit. It was an error that cost him about 3s, but according to Button their response was also muddled. “There was a bit of miscommunication about stopping, which meant I ended up doing an extra lap,” he said. “That could have cost us a chance of the podium.”
Button then came up on the two-stopping Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen, with the pair going-wheel-to-wheel before the McLaren (and Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull) eventually found a way past on lap 61 at Turn 5.
By then Massa was 12s up the road and the local fans were ready to party. For Button, though, it was more a case of quiet satisfaction. “All I can shed light on is I feel I’m doing a pretty good job at the moment,” he added. “I’ve got nothing to prove – this is what I do; this is what I’ve done for 15 years – I’ll always give my best.
“Sometimes it isn’t enough, but today it definitely was.”
How much time did Fernando Alonso lose behind Kimi Raikkonen? Could he have caught Sebastian Vettel?
A clear sign that Fernando Alonso was leaving Ferrari at the end of the season came in Brazil as the Scuderia opted not to impose team-orders to let the quicker Spaniard past Kimi Raikkonen.
The pair were running on opposing strategies at the time with two-stopping Raikkonen nursing his tyres to the end of the race with a mammoth 36 lap stint, whilst having made three-stops Alonso had tyres 17 laps fresher.
Alonso was lapping around a second per lap faster than the Finn as he closed in and on lap 61 was actually two seconds quicker. At that point Alonso was also lapping faster than Sebastian Vettel and was just three seconds behind the German, with Jenson Button a further second up the road.
By lap 63 there was only three tenths between the two Ferrari team-mates whilst the gap to Sebastian Vettel hadn’t grown. Alonso’s pace immediately fell away by eight tenths of a second though and by lap 66 he was 1.5 seconds slower than he had been on lap 63.
When Alonso finally got past Raikkonen on lap 67 the gap to Vettel had stretched to 6.6 seconds and with four laps remaining the Spaniard seemingly gave up on closing that deficit and let his pace drop off further as he slipped into the 1.16s, almost two seconds slower than he had been lapping before catching Raikkonen.
How much time did Felipe Massa lose in the pits?
Felipe Massa’s initial stop on lap five took a total of 23.220 seconds, 0.074 faster than team-mate Valtteri Bottas’ stop next time around.
Unfortunately for the Brazilian he picked up a five-second stop/go penalty for speeding in the pitlane. However, even adding this onto his second stop his total pit time of 30.084 would suggest he dropped around 1.8-2 seconds.
Things wouldn’t go smoothly for the Brazilian at his third stop either as he pitted at McLaren after mistaking their white overalls for those of Williams. The Grove team’s garage had been moved higher up the pitlane at Interlagos compared to their usual position between Toro Rosso and Caterham, which perhaps can partly explain the error.
Massa thus had to slow at the McLaren garage before driving straight through to the Williams pits. A total pitlane time of 26.918 seconds suggests a loss of around 3.6 seconds.
In total then Massa lost around 5.5 seconds through his stops and if his time penalty is added in over ten seconds. However, he was never close enough to the two Mercedes cars for this to have improved his position. On another day, though, it may well have cost him a podium place.
