Rosberg wins in Brazil as Verstappen entertains

Nico Rosberg won the Brazilian Grand Prix in quite emphatic style from his fifth straight pole position. His Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton claimed he had the pace to beat Rosberg but just couldn't get close enough to pass, but in reality it looked like Rosberg had the world champion covered for the second race in a row.

Maybe if Rosberg had displayed this kind of driving earlier in the year we'd be looking forward to a title decider in Abu Dhabi in two weeks time but Hamilton has had him under the thumb for pretty much the entire season until the pressure was off when the the title was claimed two races ago in America.

It was a less than enthralling race which to be honest matches most of the races in 2015 with only a few epics to remind us how great Formula 1 can be. Once again as the battle at the front remained static it was left to the midfield to bring the entertainment and once again the driver doing most of the entertaining was Max Verstappen. 

This still only 18 year old superstar in the making was mixed up in the fight and for the umpteenth time is star of the race simply for the move he put on Sergio Perez into the Senna S, turns 1 and 2 of the lap.

With the down on power Renault power unit in the back of his Toro Rosso it was never going to be easy to pass for Verstappen or the other Red Bull affiliated cars. So when Verstappen got close enough to the Mercedes powered Force India of Perez it had to be a bit of a do or die move.

He had the DRS on the start finish straight and dived to the outside of turn one and just held it alongside Perez before hugging the kerb and the inside of turn two leaving Perez with the option of giving in or crashing. Perez wisely chose the former, Verstappen was through and went on to claim two points for ninth.

Verstappen has gotten better and better as the season has gone on, it's going to be so exciting to see him in a top car which isn't likely to be too far away.

Meanwhile at the front, Hamilton was asking to be switched to a different strategy in his attempts to get by Rosberg, but Mercedes have a policy that unless it's absolutely necessary then both drivers will run with the same strategy in the interests of fairness.

That is indeed fair enough, but for the entertainment factor there needed to be something different for one of them to provide us with a battle for the lead. Hamilton often closed the gap down, but Rosberg made no mistakes and as the tyres wore down was able to pull a gap to keep Lewis at bay.

There's meant to be a shake up in the rules for 2017 to allow the cars to stay closer to each other, therefore making overtaking easier. Unfortunately a lot of the sports commentators and even the drivers like Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel are saying it looks like the direction these new rules are going to go to won't help at all. By allowing the cars pace to be dictated by the front wing and body work it means the car behinds airflow will always be spoiled by the car in front, leaving them with not enough down force to remain close.

If the the cars were given more grip by the tyres and ground effect aero was given more of a priority then this would change. Over the years I've heard this argument many times, but for whatever reason the rule makers are not listening. So even though I applaud the sport for wanting to make the cars look better, sound better and go up to six seconds a lap faster, what's the point if the racing isn't going to be any better? 

Rule changes often allow the bigger teams to increase the gap over the midfield anyway and once again we could end up with one team dominant. If the main aim is to increase competition there is an argument to leave the rules as they are as time and again it's been proven that stability in regulations closes the field up.

There's also been a lot of talk about how to make Formula 1 more competitive in general. Well first thing first is to give the teams equal money. Fine if some teams can acquire more sponsorship, I guess that's just life, but why not let the teams have an equal starting point? I hope the European Competition commission will rip up the current contracts giving some teams a hugely inequitable amount of money and see to it that all teams are paid the same.

For the good of the sport it's about time the teams stopped thinking of just themselves. In a perfect world, all the teams would be paid the same amount with the only difference being the money they get from their finishing position in the constructors championship the previous year. However, that is going to take years to sort out. For the fastest sport in the world, sorting anything out fairly is like watching a snail go from one end of the garden and back. I'm sure it's an interesting journey though.

Formula 1 has it's problems but it shouldn't be forgotten that generally speaking there also isn't too much wrong with the product, there shouldn't be knee jerk reactions just because something isn't working out for a year.

All sports have their seasons where there isn't as much competition at the top but F1 hasn't had it so bad, in 6 of the past 10 seasons the championship has gone down to the last race. There is plenty of competition, sometimes it just takes a while to come together, or as in the case this year, one driver is just simply head and shoulders above the rest which should be admired and not criticised.

However, silly ideas like reverse grids, success ballast, qualifying races and the like have no place in Formula 1. This sport is meant to be the pinnacle and artificial ways of spicing up the entertainment so directly should not be encouraged. Perhaps there could be less practice but a qualifying race isn't a good idea, it would take away from the main event.

If anything perhaps one way of helping keep competition closer is to stop the teams at the front from developing their cars for a few races so others can have a chance at catching up. For instance in a 20 race season, after the first five races, the teams at the top would be held to keep their car in that spec until the final five races and the title run in. 

Teams behind would continue to be allowed to develop but if they haven't caught up in a certain time frame then it's tough luck, they've had their chance. Of course top teams would fight against this, but if they were suddenly in a position that say McLaren find themselves in I'm sure they'd love it. It's a rough sketch, but it gives opportunities for those behind to catch up while leaving the sporting action still a sport and not WWE.

Having said all that with the the current rules generally stable for a third season, next year looks to be shaping up nicely with Ferrari and Vettel on course to give Hamilton and Mercedes a serious run for their money. Speaking of Vettel, he finish third with some good race pace not far off the Mercedes, while his team mate Kimi Raikkonen was a lonely fourth.

Valtteri Bottas in the Williams had the start of the day moving from seventh to fifth where he stayed. Force India's Nico Hulkenberg was sixth, Daniil Kvyat's Red Bull was seventh, Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado in the Lotuses were eighth and tenth. Maldonado managed to hit Marcus Ericsson for which he received a 5 second penalty. Both cars managed to continue so that's positive.

Felipe Massa in the other Williams was originally eighth but was disqualified when his right rear tyre was 0.1 psi above the minimum tyre pressure Pirelli allow. The tyre blanket was also 27C hotter than the 110C maximum allowed. For various reasons Williams are appealing as their independent measurements show the tyre was within the required tyre pressures. All very exciting.

McLaren disappointed again but at least Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso got to the finish. Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull started from the back after an engine penalty but could only work his way up to 12th. Speaking of Red Bull all their bluster and threats of leaving the sport have come to nothing. What a surprise when their contract to get paid more money from the commercial rights holders and holds them to the sport until 2020 also stipulates they'd have to pay about half a billion to leave. It looks like they will be back with Renault next season but with the possibility of developing the engine themselves.

Anyway, the F1 circus rolls on to Abu Dhabi now where hopefully we'll get an epic finale to take us into the winter with fond memories of what has otherwise been a less than thrilling campaign.

all photos taken from autosport.com