Hamilton closes the gap with victory in Brazil

The Mercedes AMG Petronas driver raced to his 52nd career victory, surpassing the tally of Alain Prost. Only Michael Schumacher, with 91 victories, has more wins than Hamilton.

It was Hamilton’s ninth win of the season and his third in a row but his first at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace. Hamilton closed the gap on his Brackley team-mate and championship leader Nico Rosberg to 12 points.

Sunday’s race at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in São Paulo got off to an inauspicious start for Banbury’s Haas F1 Team.

Romain Grosjean spun his Haas VF-16 on the reconnaissance lap en route to the grid.

Grosjean backed into the barrier on the run up to the line and the crew were unable to make repairs.

Team-mate Esteban Gutiérrez started 12th and the first seven laps were run behind the safety car before race control.

Gutiérrez made the switch to intermediates on lap 14 and, when Kimi Räikkönen spun on the straight, he was up to 17th and stayed there once the red flag was lifted.

They were led by the safety car for seven laps before race control displayed the red flag again as persistent rain made the track unsuitable for racing.

A red-flag stoppage and another restart behind the safety car saw green-flag racing finally commence on the 32nd lap. Gutiérrez was up to 12th by lap 40 before a series of electrical issues culminated in his retirement after 60 laps.

Haas remain eighth in the constructor standings with 29 points.

Seventh-placed Toro Rosso extended its margin over Haas to 34 points as Carlos Sainz Junior picked up eight points but the Banbury team maintained its 21-point advantage over ninth-place Renault as they failed to finish in the points.