Hamilton loses out to Rosberg at Brazilian Grand Prix

Over the weekend Nico Rosberg beat Lewis Hamilton for the second race in succession to win the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The German converted pole position into a lead at the first corner and controlled the race from there, despite Hamilton pushing hard throughout.

Hamilton looked faster but in the turbulent air behind Rosberg’s car he was unable to get close enough to try to pass his team-mate.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was third ahead of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.

Mercedes dominated the race but there was plenty of tension as Hamilton sought a way to try to beat his team-mate, his competitive desire undimmed by settling his third world title two races ago.

Hamilton made slightly the better start but was forced to the outside at the first corner and had to settle into second place in the early laps.

He stayed just over a second and a half behind until their first pit stops and then made a push to try to pass him in the first part of the second stint.

For nearly 10 laps, Hamilton was within a second of his team-mate, before his tyres began to lose their edge and he had to back off.

He pleaded with Mercedes to put him on a different strategy, but was told this was not a good idea because of the potential threat from Ferrari behind.

As it turned out, Mercedes did have to change their strategy, converting from two pit stops to three when tyre degradation turned out to be more severe than expected.

Hamilton came out from their final stop 1.5 seconds behind and with 20 laps to go.

But again he was thwarted in his attempts to get close enough to pass as Rosberg drove a strong race in front of him, helped by what some might have considered coaching over the radio form his engineer, which is not allowed.