Brazilian Grand Prix live: Sebastian Vettel wins ahead of Valtteri Bottas as Lewis Hamilton recovers from last to fourth
Follow the latest from the penultimate race of the season at Interlagos
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Your support makes all the difference.Lewis Hamilton will start the Brazilian Grand Prix from the pit lane after crashing out of Saturday qualifying, with his Mercedes teammate Valterri Bottas starting from pole position alongside the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel. Follow the latest here.
- Bottas on pole position with Vettel second
- Other Ferrari of Raikkonen third with Verstappen in fourth
- Perez and Alonso fifth and sixth
- Ricciardo down in 14th after engine penalty and Hamilton starting from pit lane
Follow the live action below...
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Starting grid:
1. Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Mercedes GP 1min 08.322secs
2. Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Ferrari 1:08.360
3. Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1:08.538
4. Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 1:08.925
5. Sergio Perez (Mex) Force India 1:09.598
6. Fernando Alonso (Spa) McLaren 1:09.617
7. Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Renault 1:09.703
8. Carlos Sainz (Spa) Renault 1:09.805
9. Felipe Massa (Bra) Williams 1:09.841
10. Esteban Ocon (Fra) Force India 1:09.830
11. Romain Grosjean (Fra) Haas F1 1:09.879
12. Stoffel Vandoorne (Bel) McLaren 1:10.116
13. Kevin Magnussen (Den) Haas F1 1:10.154
14. Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Red Bull 1:09.330 + 10 places
15. Pascal Wehrlein (Ger) Sauber-Ferrari 1:10.678
16. Lance Stroll (Can) Williams 1:10.776
17. Marcus Ericsson (Swe) Sauber-Ferrari 1:10.875
18. Brendon Hartley (Nzl) Scuderia Toro Rosso No Time
19. Pierre Gasly (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:10.686
20. Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP No Time
Lap 21: This could get tasty now as Massa is struggling with his tyres, but he has the pace to keep Hamilton behind. That could bring Alonso back into play, but this time Hamilton gets by Massa at turn four and Alonso is too far back to follow him through.
Lap 23: Grosjean is given a 10-second time penalty for causing the collision with Ocon that took the Force India out of the race.
Lap 25: We think it's lap 25, but the FOM graphis have crashed so no one is actually quite sure how far we are right now.
The big question though is how far can Hamilton go? He's got a big gap to bridge to Verstappen, but is going much faster on the soft tyres and will have the super-soft tyres for his second stint. Could he challenge Vettel yet?
Lap 27: Verstappen reports that he's really struggling with the rear tyres now, and Hamilton took a full 1.5s out of the Dutchman on that previous lap. Verstappen is begging to come in and change tyres, and he might get his wish...
Lap 28: Nope, instead it's Bottas who pits and he's trying the undercut on Vettel. Will Ferrari take the bait?
Mass also pits from sixth.
Lap 29: Vettel does pit! Where will he come out? He's out ahead of Bottad but the Mercedes is right on his gearbox and has a lap of warmth in his tyres. Can he find a way to challenge?
Verstappen also pits, and that puts Hamilton up to second.
Lap 30: Vettel does a great job to pull away from Bottas and the Mercedes has no chance of challenging on the straight. Raikkonen pits from the lead, and that promotes Hamilton into the lead of the race! He has Vettel about six seconds behind but is yet to pit.
Lap 37: Hamilton still hasn't pitted, but the gap is down to around four seconds to Vettel with Bottas also in close company. It suggests that unless Vettel's tyres completely drop off - which is unlikely - Hamilton's hopes of a memorable victory are unlikely to materialise.
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