F1

An exciting Brazilian Grand Prix saw Nico Rosberg come out on top to claim victory over teammate Lewis Hamilton on Sunday. This means Rosberg has closed the gap between the pair somewhat and the championship will come to a fantastic and no doubt action packed finale at the last round in Abu Dhabi.

Brazilian GP: Team and driver quotes - Race | Formula One News http://t.co/8OrzidFcal pic.twitter.com/KnQUJROy3D — Formula One World (@FormulaOneWorld) November 10, 2014

Mercedes are of course elated as the pair claim their 11th one-two victory of the season. That being said, there won’t be many hugs and kisses flowing around the Mercedes garage at the moment. The controversy arises out of Bernie Eccelstone’s decision to make the final round of the season worth double points, which means that despite Hamilton’s lead he will need to be very careful as he needs a win or second to take the championship win. If Rosberg finishes first, Hamilton will need to finish no lower that P2 otherwise Rosberg will steal the championship from right under him.

Formula One: Nico Rosberg not keen on double points season finale. Read http://t.co/9Wr3CprZYz #F1 pic.twitter.com/t2MZhAJ9JE — ST Sports Desk (@STsportsdesk) November 10, 2014

The issue is that, although the Mercedes cars are absolutely dominating the track this season, there has been some reliability issues which could spell absolute disaster for the Briton, if his car fails, his title dreams are over, unless Rosberg’s fails too.

#F1 implodes around Hamilton v Rosberg's title showdown, @easonF1 explains http://t.co/lYyAMUjt7k (PIc: Getty) pic.twitter.com/7HRrE5AgjF — Times Sport (@TimesSport) November 10, 2014

Lewis Hamilton felt somewhat hard done by, as a miscommunication over the radio caused him to spin out and lose vital seconds. Rosberg had pitted and typically the teammate would then pit the lap after, believing this would be the case, Hamilton used up all of his tyres in what he thought would be his pit lap but was then told to go for another lap. He now had limited grip and unfortunately locked his wheels up on turn four and span out and never quite recovered the time lost.

Rosberg capitalises on error to leave title race as fight to finish @easonF1 says http://t.co/Sue5CIUZ5n (Pic: Getty) pic.twitter.com/Y8CuTHiOep — Times Sport (@TimesSport) November 10, 2014

Felipe Massa rounded off the podium and gave a good show for his home crowd in the Williams car. He had a really fantastic race and was actually fighting at the front until the stewards issued him a five second stop and go penalty for speeding in the pit lane which meant he was resigned to third in the end. There was still a great reaction from the crowd though for his podium finish. Jenson Button proved his worth for the Mclaren team after finishing fourth and grabbing some championship points, only just missing out on the podium to Massa. It will be interesting to see whether he can start getting on the podium more next season with changes to the car, as we know he has the skill to be up there.

Relive the #BrazilGP and browse through @JensonButton's #TopShots: http://t.co/rkTrxlXPkg pic.twitter.com/lDWB4vxnsQ — Sports Partnership (@thespartnership) November 10, 2014

The rest of the point scoring grid went as follows, Sebastien Vettel fifth, Fernandos Alonso sixth, Kimi Raikkonen seventh, Nico Hulkenberg eighth, Kevin Magnussen ninth and Valterri Bottas tenth.

MotoGP

The final round of the MotoGP took place over the weekend in Valencia and it certainly didn’t disappoint, especially for the local Spanish fans who were able to witness Marc Marquez take his 13^th win of the season. Valentino Rossi took second and Dani Pedrosa completed the podium.

#auto #cars : 2014 MotoGP Is Over, Marquez Sets New Record [Photo Gallery] http://t.co/WuiB0c9vNN pic.twitter.com/S680AsIDff — Automotive News (@AutoNews18) November 10, 2014

This means that he has now beaten the record for the most number of wins in a season that Mick Doohan previously held at twelve. Marquez had already clinched the title mathematically a few rounds ago but his day was even better than he was expecting it to be as his younger brother took the Moto3 title. The Marquez household will be buzzing this week that is for certain.

MotoGP: Alex Marquez becomes Moto3 World Champion - http://t.co/DUFcnbYuRX pic.twitter.com/EvCKCSIWeu — Emanuele Venturoli (@RTR_MotoGP) November 10, 2014

Andrea Iannone led the race to begin with after getting a fantastic start, blasting past Rossi while Marquez starting on the second row managed to get himself up to third after just a few laps. Before the halfway mark Marquez had caught Rossi, made his move and jumped to second before making light work of Iannone to claim first, from which I began to build a respectable lead that he held all race long. Marc Marquez wins the final race of the season ahead of Valentino Rossi #MotoGP pic.twitter.com/h4u84j8xAS — Paddock Spy (@PaddockSpyUK) November 9, 2014 There were some issues later on into the race when some rain began to fall on the track, although it was not too bad the riders had to make the decision to either stay on their dry set up bikes or go back to change to their wet ride. Lorenzo and Iannone decided to change bikes which was to be their downfall as they began to lose ground and ultimately caused Jorge Lorenzo to drop out of the race completely.

F1 Off the Track

The drama continues behind the scenes regarding the smaller teams in F1, with Bernie Ecclestone doing a complete turn around on what he had said previously. He previously stated that his income distribution system was unfair to the smaller teams and was said to be in talks with F1 owners CVC about a $160 million ‘fighting fund’ for the smaller teams.

After this weekend’s racing however he seems to have totally changed his tune and is now saying the talks would be a “waste of time” and that the teams should sort out their own problems off the track or leave the sport altogether. He has suggested that maybe the smaller teams should stop making their own cars, which is where most of the money is used, and buy a car from the bigger companies and compete that way. The estimated cost of a season if done how Ecclestone suggests would be around $30 million, considerably less than what their budget currently is.

Bernie Ecclestone rings death knell for Formula One minnows Lotus, Sauber and Force India http://t.co/lNfr980Jm5 pic.twitter.com/iDsl8ayctW — Telegraph Sport (@TelegraphSport) November 10, 2014

In other news Caterham have turned to crowd funding for the resources to be able to race the final round at Abu Dhabi, they have already raised $1 million, which is about half of what they need to compete. People can pledge as little as $5 toward the cause and receive a variety of different rewards depending on their contribution and the largest donator will have their name on the car for the final race, a very special reward indeed. That is it for this weekend’s racing round up, check back next Monday for more motor sport updates. Missed last weekend’s motor sport action? No worries, check out the best bits in the last racing round up. Fancy some awesome car chase videos? Take a look at James’s top ten car chase scenes.