Lewis Hamilton (P7, 6 pts): 8/10
We've heard Lewis Hamilton getting agitated about things over the team radio several times this season, but he seemed even more out of sorts than usual at Interlagos - despite the fact that in many ways the pressure is off, having secured his sixth championship last time out in Austin. But actually he seemed to be putting himself under more pressure than ever this weekend, snapping out orders and rebuking his pit wall team when they failed to have the answers he was seeking. Perhaps that's because he knew Mercedes were firmly on the back foot this weekend, or perhaps he was trying to make up for the absence of Toto Wolff in Sao Paulo and feeling he needed to assume the mantle of team management responsibility all by himself? Whatever the reason, he wasn't at his best in Brazil: after opting out of the wet FP1 he was only fifth fastest in the afternoon. Topping FP3 proved something of a false dawn and he missed out on the front row of the grid in qualifying by half a tenth. He bared his teeth at the start of the race with a gritty pass on Sebastian Vettel, but for the rest of the afternoon tried and failed to find a way to get on top of the threat posed by Max Verstappen. Once again at odds with his team's tyre calls, he made the call to pit under the final safety car himself but this put too much pressure on him at the final restart and he made a rare error when he tipped Alex Albon into a spin. He immediately admitted the mistake and apologised after the race, but the resulting five-second penalty cost him a podium position.
