F1 Paddock Notebook - Brazilian GP Sunday

With a final recap from Interlagos following a dramatic day of action in the Brazilian Grand Prix, here's our F1 notebook.

- The first Brazilian Grand Prix without any home drivers on the grid came with some relief for the organizers, who saw an attendance increase in comparison to last year. While 141,000 people attended Felipe Massa’s second farewell from Interlagos last year, 150,000 people witnessed a high-quality spectacle this Sunday.

- ...not that the grid was lacking Brazilians. Massa worked for the local TV as a reporter and commentator, Rubens Barrichello was chatting to his old mates - with the two teaming up to host the drivers' parade - and Emerson Fittipaldi was up and down the grid presenting his son, Emmo, who is only 11 years old and is currently doing karting in the US.

- The gossip in the paddock this Sunday was that Robert Kubica will make a comeback for Williams next year, with the first firm suggestions of a 2019 race seat emerging over this weekend. The team has one of just three seats still available on the grid for 2019.

- Despite the drivers' fears that the level of downforce of this year’s cars would make it very difficult to overtake even in Interlagos, where races are mostly open, that didn’t happen, especially due to the different levels of tyre degradation. That seemed to be a bigger problem for Sebastian Vettel then the others, but he preferred to be sarcastic about it. Asked what happened with Ferrari’s pace, he said: “It was somewhere in the car, but I didn’t find it."

- Ferrari claimed after the race that a pre-race sensor issue on Vettel's car meant he had to run with incorrect settings for the whole race. Vettel finished sixth, having been given the call to let teammate Kimi Raikkonen past early in the second stint en route to third place.

- Ferrari's struggles meant Mercedes, even while suffering with tyre wear, had a reasonably easy way to its fifth consecutive constructors' championship. The main moment of stress came in the form of an “imminent failure” message received about Hamilton’s engine halfway through the race. But the engineers were able to control the issue, and the Brit is now 19 wins away from Michael Schumacher’s record.

- But this win seemed impossible before Esteban Ocon tried to unlap himself and touched with race leader Max Verstappen, who had pulled off some very aggressive manouevres in the first part of the race to charge from P5 to P1. After the end of the race, Verstappen said he tried to talk to Ocon, got a “stupid response”, and pushed him at least twice before going to the podium. It’s not the first time the ex-karting and F3 rivals have friction and the Frenchman seemed to know how to deal with it: asked if he would try to talk to the Red Bull driver, he just replied: “I know him.”

- The stewards looked dimly on the incident, handing Verstappen two days of public service as a punishment. This must be completed within the next six months. The drivers were seen shaking hands in the paddock after meeting with the stewards.

- Verstappen was one of the drivers who was able to beat the “Bottas wall”. Even suffering with the tyres, Bottas managed to hold his rivals - apart from the aggressive Dutchman, who made it through early on - for most of the race, but ended up finishing in fifth. And he wasn’t really proud of his defensive driving: “I was starting to get annoyed, having to defend all the time.”

- The last driver to overtake Bottas was Ricciardo, who was upset he climbed all the way from 11th on the grid after his penalty, and didn’t get the podium. “When I was fighting with the top guys, I felt there was a lack of power down the straights, so they could always pull away a bit after Junção”, explained the Red Bull driver. Not verygood news for someone who is moving to Renault next year...

- But the most disappointed driver - apart from the angry Verstappen - was Marcus Ericsson. He had a big shot starting from the sixth position, but his floor started to fall into pieces in the lap to the grid. The Sauber mechanics tried frantically to fix it, but the car was so difficult to drive that he had to retire early in the race. Teammate Charles Leclerc finished as the best of the rest for Sauber in P7.

- As the interviews in the TV pen ended, the teams were mostly packed and the exhaustion was clear in everyone’s faces. The feeling in the paddock was that this season has been two or three races too long, but in two weeks time, everyone will convene for the final race of the year in Abu Dhabi.