After taking the win at Mexico last time out, Nico Rosberg not only made it five consecutive pole positions in 2015 at Interlagos, he also made it his second consecutive victory at the track and it was back-to-back wins for the German as well after the win in Mexico. He saved his tyres in Q2, knowing those would be the ones he would start the race on, then narrowly beat Lewis Hamilton to pole position for the race, then soaked up the pressure from the World Champion to control the race superbly.
For the battle for the championship, it is a shame that Rosberg was not performing like this at the start of the year. It is difficult for any driver to take five consecutive pole positions, so for Rosberg to do so was some achievement, and he seemingly has rediscovered that lost qualifying form. Off the line, he defended well from Hamilton, the World Champion thinking about a move around the outside of his team-mate but in the end deciding against it. He dutifully slipped in behind Rosberg, and it was there that Hamilton spend nearly the entirety of the race, only not being behind when the two Silver Arrows made their pitstops. This was massively from frustrating for Hamilton, who was shouting over the radio 'its impossible to pass', although Max Verstappen had no difficulty later on in the race (we will come back to that later).
Hamilton had yet to win in Brazil and only had two podium finishes to his name at Interlagos, and was desperate to change that in 2015. He did get very, very close to Rosberg several times, but Nico did not buckle or break a sweat, calmly sticking to the racing line and getting the perfect exit out of the corners, and letting Hamilton enjoy all of the dirty air coming from the back of his W06 Hybrid. Mercedes originally planned for a two stop race, but with Ferrari switching Vettel onto a three stopper, that changed, although neither Mercedes was ever threatened by the Prancing Horse. As the race entered its final stages, Hamilton declared his tyres were finished, and by the checkered flag, he was nearly eight seconds behind Rosberg. Nico had lead from start to finish, and was delighted at taking yet another win at Brazil. If Rosberg can carry on like this in Abu Dhabi, maybe 2016 will be a better year after all.
Apart from the strategy change for Vettel and the early close action between the two Mercedes, there was little action among the top four all race, with Kimi Raikkonen having a lonely run to 4th place. It was behind the 5th placed Bottas that all the action was taking place. Bottas jumped up from 7th to 5th at the start and had a look at Raikkonen but couldn't pass him, nor could he for the rest of the race, so behind him was where all the fun was, as Max Verstappen pulled off to brilliant overtaking moves into the Senna S', first on Sergio Perez, where the two touched, thus allowing Romain Grosjean to go round the outside of the Force India through turn 3, and next on Felipe Nasr, both moves around the outside of the respective cars.
Verstappen has already pulled off some spectacular moves this year, and the overtakes in Brazil only further highlighted the talent of the teenage sensation. The two points he scored for the Toro Rosso team were crucial for their quest to take 6th place from Lotus in the constructors championship, a task made harder with the Lotus cars of Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado finishing in 8th and 10th respectively, after Felipe Massa's Williams was excluded from the race with tyre temperature issues. In a race with little overtaking, Verstappen really got peoples attention. For Torro Rosso to take 6th from Lotus in Abu Dhabi, Verstappen will need to race like he did in Brazil again, but then again, when doesn't he race like that?
Brazil also marked the last race in 2015 for American Alexander Rossi, who stepped in at the Manor team at Singapore for five of the last seven races, the other two races (Russia and Abu Dhabi) being driven by Roberto Merhi, whilst Rossi finished the GP2 season. Rossi had done a superb job, the only blot on his copybook being when he crashed at turn 18 in Singapore FP1, but since then had not put a foot wrong (bar clattering into Stevens at turn 1 in Austin), and had pushed team-mate Will Stevens hard in his five races and surely has done enough to warrant a seat with the Manor squad for next season. The safe bet is that he and Stevens will be in the car, but we will have to wait and see.
For the second year in a row then, Brazil belonged to Nico Rosberg and the resurgence from the German continued, raising hope further of proper title fight in 2016 between Rosberg and Hamilton. If Rosberg can take pole and the win again in Abu Dhabi, 2016 could really be a year to remember, especially too, if Ferrari can join the party and don't discount Williams either.
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