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Hamilton Wins On Wild Day In Brazil

Lewis Hamilton celebrates victory in the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix. [Photo courtesy Mercedes AMG F1]

Lewis Hamilton celebrates victory in the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix. [Photo courtesy Mercedes AMG F1]

In an above average racing day that included light to heavy rain, five safety car periods and two red flags, with a race just making it to the two-hour time limit, Lewis Hamilton took his 52nd grand prix win Sunday afternoon with just over a 11 second flag to flag victory over Nico Rosberg at the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos. In a tremendous display of driving ability, Max Verstappen took third after pitting for tires that had him down from 15th place.

“First of all, I would like to thank the fans here that stood out in the rain for this long, and I appreciate all the fans here in Brazil and welcoming us, and their hospitality is second to none.” Hamilton said on the podium. “Generally, I was just chilling up front. Today was generally a good day for me and there were defiantly good chances for aquaplaning. And I would to thank my team and creating a lot of history for my team, the results that we’ve got, is incredible and I am so glad to be a part of it.”

The race itself might have been easy for Hamilton, but for the others, it was tough, as accidents from Romain Grosjean just before the start of the race, along with Markus Ericsson, Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, in his final home race, all brought out the safety car four times. An additional safety car period occurred just before the start of the race due to lots of water on the track. Red flags came out for Raikkonen’s accident because it happened on the start /finish line and repeated on lap 28, when it was impossible to race due to heavy rain in the region.

Many of the drivers changed to intermediate tires, but it did not fare to success as by the last red flag, race officials made it clear by lap 29, that all the drivers would resume with full wets on their cars. However, as the race progressed without any incidents, some drivers, starting with Jenson Button, began to change to intermediates again but returned to the pits wanting to change back to wets.

Among the retirements were both American Haas F1 drivers. Besides Grosjean, was Esteban Gutierrez, with the latter not making anything any easier for him as he was very disappointed to not finish as he looks for employment next season following being released from the squad a few days ago.

Sergio Perez was only one position from taking only his fourth career podium until he was passed by Verstappen just laps from the end of the race, and finished fourth. Sebastian Vettel took fifth in his Ferrari, while Carlos Sainz Jr. was sixth. Nico Hulkenberg finished seventh, while Daniel Ricciardo had a poor day, but finished strong to claim eighth. Felipe Nasr not only gave his home Brazilian fans something to cheer about, but finished in ninth, giving Sauber their first points of the year. Fernando Alonso took tenth following a spin that saw him as high as seventh in the race.

Hamilton’s win now surpasses Alain Prost’s record, and moves him into second best of all time. But Hamilton is 15 points behind Rosberg with one race to go in two weeks’ time in Abu Dhabi. However, Hamilton is taking it one race at a time.

“I hunting, I’m hunting, and all I can do is that the team can give me a great car and the reliability is really good and the results have really determined that,” Hamilton stated. “I am going to go with everything I’ve got.”

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