Hamilton wins Brazilian GP, takes title showdown to final race

Three-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has taken the championship battle with Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg to the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi by winning the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix in Sau Paulo, thereby cutting down the latter's lead to 12 points.

Reigning champion Hamilton survived a race that was repeatedly disrupted by heavy rain and crashes. Rosberg now needs a podium finish in the final event on November 27 to seal his first Formula One title win.

The Briton, who moved to second in the list of grand prix winners behind Michael Schumacher, said, "I'm still hunting, hunting. I will give it everything I've got in Abu Dhabi, which has generally been a good track for me."

"Nico has finished every race this season, so beating him is going to be difficult. But I will take the speed I've got to try to win the race," he was quoted as saying by the Guardian.

The three-time world champion, however, admitted that it was one of the most difficult of the grand prix he had won.

"This experience is so surreal and won't kick in until later after all the years of trying to win this grand prix and all the emotions that go with it. It is a hard grand prix to win and this was one of the most difficult of all," he said.

"I feel grateful and incredibly happy. This has been my dream since the first time I saw Ayrton Senna race when I was five or six," he added.

This was Hamilton's first win in Brazil at the 10th attempt and completed a hat-trick of recent wins, following his triumphs in the United States and Mexico last month.

Referring to the conditions, Hamilton said that it was understandable for the first red flag with everyone going off.

"I don't really understand why the second stop came but rain is the trickiest of conditions. If people didn't make mistakes, it would be too easy and everyone could do it. We run at serious speeds and there is a lot of water for the tyres to disperse and they struggle the faster we go," he said.

The race also saw Red Bull driver Max Verstappen producing produced arguably the most stunning performance of the as he recovered from falling back to 16th after a late tyre change to claim third place.