Rosberg won in Sao Paulo while Hamilton complained about team strategy, and the race is remembered as much for the Massa disqualification as the winner.
The 2015 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held in Sao Paulo on 15 November 2015. Nico Rosberg won for Mercedes from pole, 7.7 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton, with Sebastian Vettel third for Ferrari. It was the eighteenth round of the season.
Nico Rosberg won the 2015 Brazilian Grand Prix on 15 November at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace in Sao Paulo, finishing 7.7 seconds ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton. Sebastian Vettel completed the podium for Ferrari. The result is remembered as much for the disqualification of Felipe Massa and the criticism that followed as for the win itself.
What was at stake in Sao Paulo?
Hamilton had already won the drivers' championship and Mercedes had clinched the constructors' title at the Russian Grand Prix. The race therefore decided places rather than titles, with Rosberg second in the drivers' table, 21 points ahead of Vettel. Ferrari sat second in the constructors' standings on 374 points, with Williams third on 243.
Further down the order, Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen were three points apart, with Felipe Massa six points further back. Those gaps mattered to the teams even though the championship itself was settled.
The weekend opened under the shadow of tragedy. Formula One chose to honour the victims of the Paris attacks, which came on the Friday night of the race weekend. On race day the drivers wore black armbands on their parade lap, and a French tricolore flew on the truck that carried them round the circuit.
On Saturday, Grosjean had already worn an armband bearing the French flag during the sessions. The race kept a minute of silence for road traffic victims, which had been planned long before the attacks, but the salute was not dedicated to Paris.
Lap times were a talking point too. The 2014 race had been held on a resurfaced circuit, and speculation grew about whether drivers could beat the eleven-year-old lap record set by Rubens Barrichello in 2004. Practice showed lap times had slowed after changes to the kerbs, which kept the drivers away from the insides of the corners.
Red Bull fitted Daniel Ricciardo's car with a new Renault power unit specification, and that earned him a ten-place grid penalty. He said afterwards that the upgrade had not given any lap time, and that the penalty was simply the cost of a little bit of knowledge. Mercedes tried an S-duct in the first practice session, a vent channelling air through the nose, but it did not run the device for the rest of the weekend.
Rosberg won in Sao Paulo, but the Massa disqualification and a race critics called dull kept the talk on tyres and strategy.
How did practice shape the weekend?
Hamilton set the fastest time in the first session on Friday morning, at 1:13.543, and Rosberg was more than half a second behind him. Rosberg set the pace in the second session with 1:12.385, before Hamilton reclaimed the top spot in the third with 1:12.070, a margin of only a tenth over his teammate.
The first session was dry and went smoothly for Hamilton until a few laps in. He locked up and ran wide at the Senna S, and later he complained that his clutch felt weird. Kimi Raikkonen spun about ten minutes before the end, and Max Verstappen spun earlier at turn three. Jolyon Palmer took Grosjean's place at Lotus and finished twelfth.
The second session was slightly wet, but the track never became wet enough for intermediate tyres. Alonso spun at turn four and pulled over with smoke coming from his car, which brought out a red flag, and Bottas was sixth fastest after a spin at turn nine. Vettel was almost half a second behind Rosberg, and Raikkonen was about a second adrift.
Hamilton's third session was disrupted by a gear-selection fault that sent him back to the pit lane. He later spun at turn eleven, but still set the fastest time. Vettel finished the session third, over six-tenths off Hamilton, and Raikkonen, Bottas and Hulkenberg were each more than a second back.
Who took pole, and how did Rosberg beat Hamilton?
Rosberg took pole position by 0.078 seconds, his fifth pole in a row, with Hamilton second on the grid. Vettel was third, but Bottas was later demoted three places by a penalty, and Raikkonen started fifth ahead of Hulkenberg in sixth.
Qualifying ran in three parts of 18, 15 and 12 minutes, with five drivers eliminated after each of the first two. In the first part all drivers used the softer compound for at least a second run, including the Mercedes pair. Massa needed a quick last lap to make it through, after being held up earlier by his compatriot Felipe Nasr. Alonso's McLaren broke down before he could set a time, and both Manor drivers failed to advance.
Mercedes set only one run on timed laps in the second part, because the team wanted to save tyres for the race. In the middle part Hamilton was quickest, half a second up on Rosberg, with Vettel sandwiched between the two. Grosjean spun at turn six and was eliminated, along with both Saubers, Carlos Sainz Jr and Sergio Perez.
In the final part Rosberg beat his teammate to pole, with his time 0.078 seconds quicker. Ricciardo qualified slower than his teammate Daniil Kvyat and then started from 19th after his power unit penalty, which left him well down the grid.
How did the race unfold?
Rosberg controlled the race from pole and finished 7.7 seconds clear of Hamilton. The race had a gentle opening, a long mid-section with little overtaking, and a closing phase in which Hamilton's tyres wore out. Critics later said there was very little overtaking.
Both Mercedes cars got away well from the start. Hamilton went for the outside line at the first corner in an attempt to pass Rosberg, but the move fell short. Carlos Sainz Jr stopped on his way to the grid, was pushed back to the pit lane and retired after a few hundred metres. Button climbed from 16th to 13th off the line, whereas Ericsson dropped from 13th into 18th.
Ricciardo was the first to pit, on lap four, and a lap later Grosjean used DRS to pass Felipe Nasr for eleventh. Ricciardo then overtook the two Manor cars around lap nine. Regular pit stops began on lap eleven, when Massa, Kvyat, Perez and Grosjean came in first. Raikkonen complained of a lack of front grip and pitted on lap 13, while Rosberg and Vettel stopped together on lap fourteen, and Hamilton stayed out for one more lap.
Hulkenberg overtook Maldonado for sixth on lap 18. Around lap 20 Hamilton was in DRS range for several laps, but he then reported that his tyres would not last and eased off. Kvyat passed Maldonado for seventh on lap 22, Massa went past him on lap 24, and Nasr overtook Button for 14th on the same lap.
Ricciardo made a second stop on lap 30. A three-way fight for ninth followed between Perez, Grosjean and Verstappen, and Verstappen passed Grosjean on lap 32 before taking another place from Perez. Vettel stopped for a second time on lap 33, and Rosberg answered one lap later. Hamilton briefly led, pitted, and set the fastest lap of the race while emerging behind both Ferraris.
On lap 36 Maldonado collided with Marcus Ericsson, but both drivers carried on. Two laps on, Maldonado battled Nasr and got past him, but a five-second penalty followed for his role in the Ericsson clash. Grosjean passed Verstappen for tenth by lap 43, and Hamilton was 3.4 seconds behind Rosberg on lap 44.
Raikkonen made his second stop on lap 47 and Vettel his third a lap later, with Rosberg reacting to both. Hamilton changed tyres on lap 50 and then posted the quickest lap of the race a lap later. Massa moved ahead of Grosjean into eighth on lap 53, and he was already under investigation over his pre-race tyre temperatures.
Maldonado served his penalty and overtook Nasr for ninth on lap 57, while Nasr, who had run a two-stop strategy, fell behind Ricciardo on lap 61. Ricciardo took another place from Perez on lap 67, and Verstappen moved into tenth a lap later. At the front, Hamilton's tyres wore badly in the closing stages, and Rosberg took the chequered flag 7.7 seconds ahead.
| Driver | Result | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Nico Rosberg | Winner | Pole by 0.078 seconds; finished 7.7 seconds clear |
| Lewis Hamilton | Second | Set the race fastest lap; tyres worn at the finish |
| Sebastian Vettel | Third | Completed the podium for Ferrari |
| Pastor Maldonado | Tenth | Last point of his Formula One career after Massa's disqualification |
| Felipe Massa | Disqualified | Tyre temperature 137 degrees Celsius against 110 allowed |
| Carlos Sainz Jr | Retired | Stopped on the way to the grid, then retired after a few hundred metres |
Why was the race criticised?
Reception was mainly negative. Corriere dello Sport called the race boring, and Corriere della Sera wrote of Formula One being like a sleeping pill. Sky Sports described it as mundane and soporific, and only Verstappen's overtaking brought colour to the race, according to the Spanish paper Sport.
The Independent argued that the race confirmed Formula One should look at ways to make overtaking easier. Hamilton said that fans probably did not find it exciting and called for rules that would make overtaking easier, and Vettel agreed, asking for more grip from the tyres so that drivers could follow each other more closely.
What happened to Felipe Massa?
After the chequered flag, Massa was excluded because his tyres had run too hot in the opening laps. Pirelli measured the highest temperature on his right rear tyre at 137 degrees Celsius, while a maximum of 110 degrees Celsius was allowed. Williams announced an appeal, but on 19 November 2015 it dropped the case, arguing that a decision was unlikely before the end of the year.
The disqualification moved Maldonado up to tenth, which gave him his last point in Formula One. He had been at the centre of the collision with Ericsson, and Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn said he was very annoying and pointed to similar situations in his past.
What did the drivers say after the race?
At the podium interviews, conducted by former driver Martin Brundle, Rosberg said he was delighted with the win. Rosberg said Paris had made everything relative, and he waved away Brundle's theory that a more aggressive approach earlier in the year would have won him the title.
Hamilton said he could not follow Rosberg closely without damaging his tyres too much, and that he would otherwise have had the pace to pass him. Vettel called it a good race but not very exciting, since the Ferraris had been in no-man's land behind the Mercedes cars.
The main talking point was Hamilton's wish to take a different strategy from his teammate. Toto Wolff, the team principal, maintained that the calls on strategy belonged to the team rather than the drivers. Damon Hill, the 1996 world champion, shared Hamilton's frustration, and the Daily Telegraph's Daniel Johnson argued that the drivers had become more robots than racers.
After Sao Paulo, Rosberg was clear of Vettel in the drivers' table, and Raikkonen had got to within a single point of Bottas in fourth with one race left.
