2017 Brazilian Grand Prix

The 2017 Brazilian Grand Prix (formally known as the Formula 1 Grande Prêmio Heineken do Brasil 2017) was a Formula One motor race held on 12 November 2017 at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in the Interlagos neighborhood of São Paulo, Brazil. The race was the nineteenth and penultimate round of the 2017 FIA Formula One World Championship and marked the forty-sixth running of the Brazilian Grand Prix, the forty-fifth time that the race had been run as a World Championship event since the inaugural season in 1950, and the thirty-fourth World Championship event to be held at Interlagos.

2017 Brazilian Grand Prix
Race 19 of 20 in the 2017 Formula One World Championship
← Previous raceNext race →
Layout of the Autódromo José Carlos Pace
Layout of the Autódromo José Carlos Pace
Race details[1]
Date 12 November 2017 (2017-11-12)
Official name Formula 1 Grande Prêmio Heineken do Brasil 2017[2][3]
Location Autódromo José Carlos Pace, São Paulo, Brazil
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 4.309 km (2.677 miles)
Distance 71 laps, 305.909 km (190.083 miles)
Weather Sunny
Attendance 141,218[4]
Pole position
Driver Mercedes
Time 1:08.322
Fastest lap
Driver Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer
Time 1:11.044 on lap 64
Podium
First Ferrari
Second Mercedes
Third Ferrari
Lap leaders

Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas started from pole position with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen behind, after World Champion Lewis Hamilton crashed out of qualifying early and started from the pit lane. Vettel overtook Bottas on the first corner, after which he set the pace through most of the race. Vettel won the Grand Prix, followed by Bottas and Räikkönen. Hamilton eventually climbed to fourth, closing to less than one second of a podium finish.[5]

Report

edit

Free practice

edit

The three free practice session demonstrated very tight competition between Ferrari and Mercedes.[6] In first and second free practice, Lewis Hamilton was quickest, with both Ferraris and both Red Bulls within one second. Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso were notably strong in these sessions. In the third session, the order was similar. However, Valtteri Bottas pipped Hamilton's best time by three thousands of a second; and neither Max Verstappen nor Massa put in a strong lap. In the final practice round, less than a tenth of a second separated the two Mercedes and two Ferraris.

The first practice session saw George Russell's Formula One debut appearance. There was also an unusual appearance of a test driver (Antonio Giovinazzi) in the second practice session (usually, any test drivers that participate in a racing weekend, do so in the first practice session).

Qualifying

edit

Qualifying began in a dramatic fashion as World Champion Hamilton lost the back end of the car with over-steer, seemingly due to a driver error, crashing to retire from Q1 without setting a lap time. Räikkönen was fastest in Q1 and Vettel in Q2. In the final qualifying session, however, Bottas took pole position. Vettel qualified a close second, followed by Räikkönen, Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo. Ricciardo took a 10-place grid penalty for exceeding his quota of power unit components and started 14th on the grid. Hamilton elected to change his gearbox and power unit, so started the race from the pit lane.

Race

edit

Vettel achieved a good start during the second phase of clutch control to overtake Bottas on the first corner. There were numerous retirements due to collisions on the first lap. Romain Grosjean lost the back end, clipping Esteban Ocon off the track. Ocon's resultant retirement ended his record streak of 27 races finished from his Formula One debut. Stoffel Vandoorne and Kevin Magnussen also retired due to a collision on the first lap.

Hamilton, starting from the pit lane, implemented an inverted tyre strategy running to lap 44 on one set of soft tyres. After overtaking the back-markers and mid-field, he fell into first place as the leading cars – predominantly on one-stop strategies – pitted. Hamilton's only pit-stop positioned him fifth, after which he overtook Verstappen and was briefly able to challenge Räikkönen for the podium,[5] but unable to overtake Raikkonen in third. Ricciardo also battled up to sixth after starting fifteenth on the grid and dropping to seventeenth as collateral of the Vandoorne-Magnussen collision.

Setting the pace through most of the race, Vettel won the Grand Prix, followed by Bottas and Räikkönen. Including Hamilton, the top four finished within the space of 5.5 seconds, with the two Red Bulls more than 30 seconds behind. The following three positions also carried a race-long battle to the finish line, finishing within 1 second of each other. Initially overtaking on lap 5 (as the safety car was pulling into pitlane), Massa held off Alonso who remained close throughout the race.[7] Sergio Pérez also caught up to these two racers to cross the finish line barely behind Alonso.

Classification

edit

Qualifying

edit
Pos. Car
no.
Driver Constructor Qualifying times Final
grid
Q1 Q2 Q3
1 77   Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:09.452 1:08.638 1:08.322 1
2 5   Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:09.643 1:08.494 1:08.360 2
3 7   Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:09.405 1:09.116 1:08.538 3
4 33   Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer 1:09.820 1:09.050 1:08.925 4
5 3   Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer 1:09.828 1:09.533 1:09.330 141
6 11   Sergio Pérez Force India-Mercedes 1:10.145 1:09.760 1:09.598 5
7 14   Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 1:10.172 1:09.593 1:09.617 6
8 27   Nico Hülkenberg Renault 1:10.078 1:09.726 1:09.703 7
9 55   Carlos Sainz Jr. Renault 1:10.227 1:09.768 1:09.805 8
10 19   Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1:09.789 1:09.612 1:09.841 9
11 31   Esteban Ocon Force India-Mercedes 1:10.168 1:09.830 10
12 8   Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 1:10.148 1:09.879 11
13 2   Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren-Honda 1:10.286 1:10.116 12
14 20   Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 1:10.521 1:10.154 13
15 28   Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso 1:10.625 No time 182
16 94   Pascal Wehrlein Sauber-Ferrari 1:10.678 15
17 10   Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso 1:10.686 193
18 18   Lance Stroll Williams-Mercedes 1:10.776 164
19 9   Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1:10.875 175
107% time: 1:14.263
44   Lewis Hamilton Mercedes No time PL6
Source:[8][9]
Notes
  • ^1  – Daniel Ricciardo received a 10-place grid penalty for exceeding his quota of power unit components.
  • ^2  – Brendon Hartley received a 10-place grid penalty for exceeding his quota of power unit components.
  • ^3  – Pierre Gasly received a 25-place grid penalty for exceeding his quota of power unit components.
  • ^4  – Lance Stroll received a 5-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change.
  • ^5  – Marcus Ericsson received a 5-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change.
  • ^6  – Lewis Hamilton failed to set a time within the 107% requirement, but received permission from the stewards to start the race. He also started from the pit lane due to a gearbox and power unit changes.

Race

edit
Pos. No. Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 5   Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 71 1:31:26.262 2 25
2 77   Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 71 +2.762 1 18
3 7   Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 71 +4.600 3 15
4 44   Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 71 +5.468 PL 12
5 33   Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer 71 +32.940 4 10
6 3   Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer 71 +48.691 14 8
7 19   Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 71 +1:08.882 9 6
8 14   Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 71 +1:09.363 6 4
9 11   Sergio Pérez Force India-Mercedes 71 +1:09.500 5 2
10 27   Nico Hülkenberg Renault 70 +1 Lap 7 1
11 55   Carlos Sainz Jr. Renault 70 +1 Lap 8
12 10   Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso 70 +1 Lap 19
13 9   Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 70 +1 Lap 17
14 94   Pascal Wehrlein Sauber-Ferrari 70 +1 Lap 15
15 8   Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 69 +2 Laps 11
16 18   Lance Stroll Williams-Mercedes 69 +2 Laps 16
Ret 28   Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso 40 Engine 18
Ret 31   Esteban Ocon Force India-Mercedes 0 Collision 10
Ret 2   Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren-Honda 0 Collision 12
Ret 20   Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 0 Collision 13
Source:[10]

Championship standings after the race

edit
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for the sets of standings.
  • Bold text and an asterisk indicates the 2017 World Champions.

References

edit
  1. ^ "Brazil". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 12 April 2018. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
  2. ^ Mitchell, Malcolm. "2017 Formula 1 World Championship Programmes - The Motor Racing Programme Covers Project". www.progcovers.com.
  3. ^ Mitchell, Malcolm. "Interlagos - The Motor Racing Programme Covers Project". www.progcovers.com.
  4. ^ "F1 reveals overall rise in 2017 attendance". GPupdate.net. JHED Media BV. 8 December 2017. Archived from the original on 9 December 2017.
  5. ^ a b "Sebastian Vettel wins Brazilian Grand Prix after Lewis Hamilton fightback". The Guardian. 13 November 2017.
  6. ^ "FP3 – Mercedes and Ferrari all but inseparable at Interlagos". formula1.com. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  7. ^ "2017 Brazilian Grand Prix – Race History Chart". FIA. 12 November 2017. Archived from the original on 18 November 2017. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  8. ^ "2017 Brazilian Grand Prix – Qualifying Session Official Classification". FIA. 11 November 2017. Archived from the original on 18 November 2017. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  9. ^ "2017 Brazilian Grand Prix – Official Starting Grid". FIA. 12 November 2017. Archived from the original on 18 November 2017. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  10. ^ "2017 Brazilian Grand Prix – Race Official Classification". FIA. 12 November 2017. Archived from the original on 18 November 2017. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  11. ^ a b "Brazil 2017 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
edit
Previous race:
2017 Mexican Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
2017 season
Next race:
2017 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Previous race:
2016 Brazilian Grand Prix
Brazilian Grand Prix Next race:
2018 Brazilian Grand Prix