Vettel has dominated the race after taking the lead from pole polesitter Valtteri Bottas at the beginning of the race. Hamilton, who sealed his fourth world title at the race in Mexico, provided much of an excitement for a change as he carved his way through the pack in the first few laps.
He made gains for his crash in qualifying that left him start from the back of the grid. He moved up to sixth within 20 laps and got into the lead on the 30th lap when leaders Vettel, Bottas, Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen entered pits.
The German cruised his way to a comfortable win that served as a reminder of what might have been had his title challenge did not collapse in around September and October due to a series of driver and team mistakes.
Hamilton stayed running longer on an interesting tyre strategy and delayed his stop till lap 43 and then returned to the track in fifth place. He did a clever pass around the outside of Force India’s Sergio Perez before that and did make brought out some hear pumping racing.
Emotions ran around the Interlagos track as Felipe Massa said goodbye to his home fans as the veteran driver retires at the end of the season.