13/11/2017
NEWS STORY
If nothing else, the dreaded grid penalties helped liven up what might well have been one of the most processional races of the season on Sunday.
A new MGU-H meant that Daniel Ricciardo started from 14th on the grid, thereby assuring fans of at least one man on a mission when the lights went out at Interlagos. Indeed, a first lap clash with Kevin Magnussen and Stoffel Vandoorne which necessitated a first lap pit stop added to the popular Australian's task.
To further liven up the afternoon we had Fernando Alonso, who appeared determined to absolutely pee down on Felipe Massa's parade, the Spaniard hell-bent on passing the Brazilian in his last home race. Even the fact that Sergio Perez was closing in at a rate of knots didn't sway the two-time world champion who admitted: "Let him come, there is nothing I can do, I just want to pass Massa".
And then there was Hamilton.
Starting from the back of the grid following his self-confessed mistake in Q1, in a car which had been "rebuilt from the ground up" by his crew on Saturday night, the world champion sliced through the field like a hot knife through butter.
For a few laps he even led the race until having to yield to Sebastian Vettel when he needed to pit for fresh rubber.
It was an epic drive, certainly worthy of a world champion. Though he was unable to pass Kimi Raikkonen for the final podium position, far less take on leader Vettel, Hamilton gave the performance of a lifetime.
"It was fun," beamed the Briton at race end. "It was reminiscent of my karting days when I'd start at the back, particularly in my first year or two.
"I messed up yesterday and put myself in the worst position," he admitted. "But waking up this morning, my goal was really kind of just to redeem myself, I was trying to get back to third but just ran out of tyres at the end."
"For me it was the best fourth place I have ever seen," said Toto Wolff, "and if you consider he started from the pit lane and ended the race 5.4 seconds behind the leader it is quite an astonishing drive.
"I think a win would have been possible," he insisted. "He was the quickest guy out there. But you must remember that Sebastian was managing the pace at every time of the race, apart from the last laps. So we haven't probably seen the real race."
The Austrian revealed that in the pre-race briefing, Hamilton had targeted fourth.
"When we discussed it in the morning we didn't see it as a realistic target without a safety car of P4," he said. "We had the safety car which helped us a little bit but the gap to the Ferraris was too close to the have really achieved much more."
All of which puts Bottas' performance into perspective, the Finn in identical equipment, and starting from pole, finishing 2.7s adrift of Vettel and only 1.838s ahead of 2.7s ahead of Hamilton.
Check out our Sunday gallery from Interlagos, here.