In Formula One, the very first person you have to beat is your team-mate. So who did just that in Sao Paulo? Let’s go through the teams and hand out the TMB points!

Click here to read the rules to which the drivers are being judged.

Points system:

1 point is awarded to the driver who sets the faster lap.

3 points are awarded to the driver who performs best in qualifying.

5 points are awarded to the driver who performs best on raceday.

Caterham:

Split points for both drivers, in the interests of keeping the points table looking representative at the end of the season.

At the time of writing, Caterham are just over the 50% mark on their crowd funding initiative, and it looks as though they aren’t going to make it to Abu Dhabi. Will that be the end of the team? There are lot of ifs and buts to be sorted out, particularly over who would even drive for the team if they make it to the final race. Marcus Ericsson has walked away, contract safe in hand with Sauber for 2015, and Kamui…well, let’s hope he has more pride than to accept the seat at this point.

Alice Powell is being linked with an FP1 seat at the team, which really shows the extent of how low the team really are. No offence to Ms. Powell, but one solitary point in GP3 two years ago and no super licence doesn’t suggest being able to jump into a Formula 1 car at such short notice.

It is potentially good news for any driver that fancies paying for a go for fun though. The likes of Giedo Van Der Garde or even Jolyon Palmer could pay to have a go, with no risk to their reputations. How could the driver’s reputation be damaged by driving a car that’s been sitting up for the last 6 weeks with no money and no updates? Even if they finished a lap down on everyone else, no-one would expect anything different.

Rubens, if you really want to say goodbye, here’s your chance!

Fastest lap: Split points (10 – 7 to Marcus Ericsson)

Qualifying: Split points (36 – 15 to Kamui Kobayashi)

Race: Split points (60 – 25 to Kamui Kobayashi)

Caterham: 103 – 50 to Kamui Kobayashi (Total After Round 18)

Caterham: 8-1 to Andre Lotterer (Total After Spa-Round 12)

Total for Caterham: 111 – 51 to Kobayashi/Lotterer

Marussia:

Split points to ensure the drivers are represented fairly on the end of season tables. Marussia, at this point, appear to be doomed, and neither driver looking likely to be on the grid next year. Both Jules and Max took time to chat with our reporters at this year’s Monaco & Belgian Grands Prix, and were nothing but polite, friendly, and gave of their time with a smile.

Hopefully, a last minute deal can be struck, and we will see Max & Jules in the paddock in 2015.

Fastest lap: Split points (10 – 8 to Max Chilton) (after Round 18)

Qualifying: Split points (40.5 – 13.5 to Jules Bianchi) (after Round 18)

Race: Split points (67.5 – 22.5 to Jules Bianchi) (after Round 18)

Marussia: 116 – 46 to Jules Bianchi (Total After Round 18)

Williams:

If you wanted to know where Felipe Massa was at any particular moment during the Brazilian Grand Prix, all you had to do was listen to what parts of the crowd were cheering. The mere sight of his car was enough to get the Massa Mafia (that doesn’t work, does it?) on their feet, and seeing him overtake Nico Hulkenberg to reclaim third on Lap 54 after his pitstop gaffe was enough to send them into paroxysms of ecstasy.

If every race was held at Interlagos, Felipe Massa would win the non-Mercedes championship. The old adage of home support giving you an extra boost seems to apply to Felipe more than others, and he thoroughly put Valtteri Bottas in the shade in Brazil. While Valtteri lost FP1 to Felipe Nasr, he recovered quickly to go faster than Massa in FP2 before Felipe [Massa] retook the initiative in FP3 and held it through qualifying. Bottas never got anywhere near on race day, ending the race 45 seconds behind Felipe after various maladies affected his race. His seatbelt worked themselves loose during the first stint, and this cost him time at his second pitstop. Having lost a grand total of three seconds to Felipe in the opening 25 laps, the delayed stop put him 12 seconds behind, and he fell away afterwards.

He was unlucky to be mugged by Nico Hulkenberg on Lap 42. Both Hulk & Raikkonen running behind Valtteri were on ten laps newer tyres, and when Bottas was caught, Nico threw it up the inside and outbraked himself. Being pushed wide, Valtteri had to fly across the escape road, and this allowed Kimi Raikkonen to outmanoeuvre him into Turn 3. Valtteri pitted immediately afterwards for another set of tyres, and had another slow pitstop with the team holding the car on the jacks for a couple of extra seconds as a crew member removed some debris from the front wing.

The two Williams drivers spent the most amount of time during the race in the pit lane, at 1 minute 20 for Felipe and 1 minute 25 for Valtteri. While Felipe’s didn’t change his final finishing position, Valtteri’s undoubtedly was, as he probably would have been dicing with the Ferraris, Hulkenberg and Magnussen at the end. Instead, he finished behind all of them. Felipe’s stop in the McLaren garage was a simple mistake, with both garages beside each other and similarly coloured pit overalls. Definitely one for the end of season bloopers reel.

Fastest Lap: Felipe Massa (9 – 9 to each) (after Round 18)

Qualifying: Felipe Massa (36 – 18 to Valtteri Bottas) (after Round 18)

Race: Felipe Massa (65-25 to Valtteri Bottas) (after Round 18)

Williams: 110-52 to Valtteri Bottas (Total After Round 18)

Toro Rosso:

Kvyat was another man going into Brazil on the back foot, with the smaller grid preventing him from taking his seven place grid penalty for an engine change in Austin. This meant he would likely start from the back, or very close to it. As a result, he didn’t bother too much with qualifying. He did enough in Q1 to get into Q2 and then sat out the session. This was still better fortune than Jean Eric Vergne endured. The Frenchman qualified in 16th, after missing out on most of Friday running. Max Verstappen drove the car in FP1 and a technical problem at the start of FP2 meant JEV’s first real running on the circuit was on Saturday morning.

It showed too, with JEV visibly struggling out on track, and radioing in to say that he felt the car was virtually undriveable with such little time to find a setup.

In the race, both finished outside the points, but Kyat got the better of Vergne again after starting the race on the medium tyre. Stopping later on the first round of stops brought Daniil back into play, as he led JEV on track after Vergne pitted for a second time on Lap 27. With both running mediums as they came close together on track, Daniil passed Jean-Eric on Lap 44, and never looked back, stopping on Lap 59 to take on the soft tyre and run to the end, pressuring Valtteri Bottas all the way.

Jean-Eric, running the more usual strategy, spent much of the race cooped up behind Sergio Perez, unable to pass thanks to the Mercedes engine’s superiority. No such problems for Daniil, who passed Sergio quickly after passing Jean-Eric, in that great camera move. Kudos to Daniil for passing with a straight line speed advantage that just happened to match the speed of the FOM swivelling camera’s rotation speed!

Fastest Lap: Daniil Kvyat (9 – 9 to each) (after Round 18)

Qualifying: Daniil Kvyat (33 – 21 to Daniil Kyvat) (after Round 18)

Race: Daniil Kvyat (50 – 40 to Daniil Kyvat) (after Round 18)

Toro Rosso: 92-70 to Daniil Kyvat (Total After Round 18)

Sauber:

After seemingly unlocking some pace from the C33 in Austin, it was back to the grindstone in Brazil. Both drivers made it into Q2, with Sutil then going 0.5 seconds slower than Esteban to line up 13th, with Gutierrez taking 11th.

Things went wrong almost immediately on Sunday for Adrian, after a ‘cooling configuration’ problem meant he had to start from the pitlane. Adrian did the same as Nico Hulkenberg and opted to start on the medium tyres. This worked out well in the early .Sp5rl!47rs as he made use of the clear track to jump ahead of Esteban after both had made their first stops. This was despite a problem at at Adrian’s stop. His right rear wheel bolt refused to thread on properly and the resulting correction cost Sutil five seconds.

The two remained nose to tail in 14th and 15th place for the next ten laps until Adrian pitted on Lap 39 to take on soft tyres, and swapped again for mediums on Lap 49. Esteban started on the soft tyre and stopped on Laps 8,27 & 48 to fresh mediums. He wound up 15 seconds ahead of Adrian the chequered flag. Will we be saying goodbye to both men after Abu Dhabi?

Fastest Lap: Adrian Sutil (10-8 to Esteban Gutierrez) (after Round 18)

Qualifying: Esteban Gutierrez (30-24 to Adrian Sutil) (after Round 18)

Race: Esteban Gutierrez (47.5 – 42.5 to Adrian Sutil) (after Round 18)

Sauber: 85.5 – 76.5 to Adrian Sutil (Total After Round 18)

Force India:

Sergio was compromised before he even landed in Brazil, all thanks to his indiscretion on Lap 1 in Austin, but his weekend couldn’t have gone much worse regardless. It’s actually slightly unusual at how rarely we see one off drivers in FP1 cause problems for the usual driver, but Juncadella not only had a bad showing, but ruined any chance Sergio Perez had of a good weekend regardless of his penalty.

With Sergio’s first laps at Interlagos coming on Saturday morning, he was unsurprisingly well off the pace. Bringing up the rear of the field, he was 0.5 seconds slower than next slowest man…Nico Hulkenberg. Force India looked off the pace all weekend, and qualifying did little to assuage doubts over their competitiveness. Sergio ended up qualifying second from last, starting last as a result of his penalty. Hulk wasn’t much further ahead, just 0.2 seconds faster in Q1 got him into the second part of qualifying, where he would up 12th.

An inspired strategy decision then brought Nico into play during the race. Starting on the mediums, Nico’s first pitstop came on Lap 16, about 9 laps after most of the soft tyre runners had stopped. Due to this, Nico was able to run in clear air and at a comfortable pace, even leading the race from Lap 9 until his pitstop.

Nico stayed on mediums through his stops up until his final stop on Lap 60, swapping to softs before proceeding to catch the two Ferraris in 6th and 7th. Such was his pace in the closing laps, the Ferraris lead of 12 seconds over Nico on Lap 62 was less than 0.5 second by the chequered flag, after Nico set the fastest non-Mercedes driver lap of the race. Had Alonso been held up by Raikkonen for even a single lap more, it could have been a Force India ahead of both of them.

Sergio remained mired at the back for most of the race after running a conventional strategy. He finished in 15th, 40 seconds behind Hulkenberg after also picking up a five second penalty for speeding in the pits during his second stop on Lap 25.

Fastest Lap: Nico Hulkenberg (12 – 6 to Nico Hulkenberg) (after Round 18)

Qualifying: Nico Hulkenberg (38 – 18 to Nico Hulkenberg) (after Round 18)

Race: Nico Hulkenberg (55 – 35 to Nico Hulkenberg) (after Round 18)

Force India: 103 – 59 to Nico Hulkenberg (Total After Round 18)

McLaren:

Jenson set the faster race lap by more than 0.5 second, he was the highest qualifier, and he moved forward from his starting position to match his season best result, while Kevin went backwards. Yet it seems that Jenson is the one to be released from the team.

Jenson hung on gamely to the Williams drivers during the opening stint of the race and through the first pitstops. He said afterwards that he destroyed his tyres doing this but was able to compensate by using DRS to stay with Bottas. Knowing that Felipe Massa had to take a five second penalty was the reasoning behind this, but Massa’s pace straight out of the pits put paid to any chance Button had of passing him through the stops.

Jenson was 3.5 seconds behind Felipe heading into those second stops, but Felipe blinking first and stopping on Lap 25 meant he could unleash laps in the 1.14s while Jenson was still lapping in the 1.17s before he pitted himself on Lap 27. With Valtteri falling by the wayside thanks to his faulty seatbelts during those stops, Jenson and Felipe were free to race each other until the end of the race. The Williams proved the faster package, and Felipe ended up finishing 7 seconds ahead by the chequered flag, despite calling into Jenson’s pit crew for service! The only threat to Jenson’s 4th place came when he emerged from his third stop behind the two stopping Kimi Raikkonen. The resulting scrap allowed Sebastian Vettel to climb all over the back of Jenson’s McLaren, but he weathered the storm while passing Kimi, and proceeded to move a further three seconds up the road by the flag.

Magnussen made the most of an uncharacteristic error from Sebastian Vettel at Turn 3 to jump up behind Jenson on the opening lap, but was consistently slower throughout the race. He reported high tyre degradation running the same tyre strategy as Jenson, and was 22 seconds behind by the chequered flag.

Here are FormulaSpy’s Top Ten Jenson McLaren Moments.

Fastest Lap: Jenson Button (9 – 9 to each) (after Round 18)

Qualifying: Jenson Button (30 – 24 to Kevin Magnussen) (after Round 18)

Race: Jenson Button (65-25 to Jenson Button) (after Round 18)

McLaren: 101-61 to Jenson Button (Total After Round 18)

Lotus:

Romain Grosjean, like former team-mate Raikkonen, attempted a two stop strategy at Interlagos. He started from 14th on the medium tyres, and stopped for the first time on Lap 24 for another set of mediums. Realising that a 20+ lap stint on soft tyres at the end wasn’t viable, Romain’s second stint was just 16 laps, with another stop on Lap 59 to swap to the soft tyres.

Pastor started from 16th and was down to last by Lap 4, stopping at the end of that lap to swap to the medium tyres. Romain’s long first stint in clear air allowed him to run at a good pace and he emerged from his first pitstop on Lap 24 12 seconds ahead of Pastor, who had just made his second pitstop. Pastor closed this gap slowly down to around 5 seconds by Lap 59 as Romain pitted for the final time.

Pastor didn’t need to pit again, and even with Romain running around a second a lap faster, Grosjean probably wouldn’t have caught up on Pastor again. It became a moot point with 7 laps to go when Romain’s engine let go for the second year in a row at Interlagos. Pastor gets the race points and is having an arguably stronger end to the year than Romain. His speed has never been in doubt, and now that he seems to have stopped crashing (he hasn’t since Singapore FP2!), he is able to match and beat Romain. Assuming Romain is kept next season, and there’s no reason to think he won’t, a more drivable and stable E23 could restore Pastor’s blemished reputation.

Fastest Lap: Romain Grosjean (9 – 9 to each) (after Round 18)

Qualifying: Romain Grosjean (42 – 12 to Romain Grosjean) (after Round 18)

Race: Pastor Maldonado (50-40 to Romain Grosjean) (after Round 18)

Lotus: 101-61 to Romain Grosjean (Total After Round 18)

Ferrari:

Yes, Fernando qualified in front of Kimi Raikkonen. Yes, Fernando also finished in front of Kimi including an overtake on track to get past, but Raikkonen gets the nod for the race points in Brazil. For probably the first time all year, we finally saw a Raikkonen who actually seemed to be able to place his F14T exactly where he wanted, put the power down as he wanted, and turn in as he wanted. It all came together for once, and with just two weeks remaining in the season, we finally got a glimpse of the duels we could have been having all year had Raikkonen figured out the problem earlier.

After being unable to get his medium compound tyres to last just ten laps last time out in Austin, Raikkonen got them to last a mammoth 36 laps in hotter conditions at Interlagos. Longevity and consistency was key, and he set the slowest fastest lap of the race on Lap 37, a 1.14.9. However, the next 34 laps demonstrated what Raikkonen is capable of when he’s comfortable. Between Laps 38 & 71, Kimi lapped in the 1.15s every single time, apart from one lap battling with Jenson and one lap battling with Fernando.

Had his front jack not failed during his second stop, Kimi would have been an extra five seconds up the road from Button, Vettel & Alonso after they pitted for the final time. While he probably wouldn’t have been able to hold off Jenson and Sebastian, Fernando wouldn’t have gotten past. As it was, he only managed to get past with at the start of Lap 67 and immediately had to back off due to being marginal on fuel. DRS also rather easily ended the great scrap, as Raikkonen was powerless to stop Fernando passing into Turn 1.

It’s too little, too late to save Kimi’s year in terms of reputation, but showing up and actually racing Fernando was a step in the right direction. Quick in Friday practice, Kimi was his usual mediocre self in qualifying, but came to life during the race and returned to his Lotus strategy of making a stop less than everyone else. Going from one extreme in Austin to another in Brazil shows that something has finally clicked, can Raikkonen keep it up in Abu Dhabi?

Fernando had another one of his usual great weekends, starting in 8th and finishing 6th. Just what exactly is going on in the behind the scenes game of poker at Ferrari? Fernando isn’t blinking, and with three drivers under contract for 2015, it’s only a matter of time until Ferrari have to bite the bullet and pay off one of them. The possibility of a sabbatical year as a paid Ferrari driver to sit on the sidelines is starting to look a realistic one, unless either Sebastian or Kimi are tossed aside.

Fastest Lap: Fernando Alonso (13 – 5 to Fernando Alonso) (after Round 18)

Qualifying: Fernando Alonso (48 – 6 to Fernando Alonso) (after Round 18)

Race: Kimi Raikkonen (72.5 – 17.5 to Fernando Alonso) (after Round 18)

Ferrari: 133.5 – 28.5 to Fernando Alonso (Total After Round 18)

Mercedes:

Nico did exactly what he needed to do in order to salvage some credibility should he win the World Championship, and headed the order at the end of every single session. In fact, had he set a fastest lap just 0.064 seconds faster, he would have beaten Lewis at that as well. Both Merc drivers have now won one pointless trophy each, with Lewis picking up the 2014 DHL Fastest Lap Award after setting an insurmountable 7 fastest laps so far this year. Nico is qualifying king, with an also insurmountable 10 pole positions so far this year. So well done to both on those, it’s unlikely either will be consoled by them should they lose the big trophy.

Once again though, there is a caveat to Nico’s victory in Brazil. While he unquestionably handled the pressure from Hamilton in the closing 15 laps remarkably well, why did he allow Lewis to get so close? Even a slight brake lock up would have given Lewis the lead. A lead that Lewis, more than likely, would have snatched himself on Lap 28 when he emerged from his pitstop after setting a scorching 1.14.3 on what was the first lap of ‘Hammertime’, a full second faster than Nico’s lap immediately prior to his stop. With Lewis’s previous lap also marginally faster than what Nico had just done, Hamilton would have and should have emerged from the second stops in the lead, assuming his in-lap wasn’t significantly off the pace.

Instead, Lewis dropped it after the Mercedes strategists got too greedy and kept him out for another lap. Just as he’s threatened to do after numerous practice spins, he lost the rear of the car and that was it. Race handed to Nico.

Despite protestations to the contrary from Rosberg, the gap was too close for it to have been under control. While Nico could afford to drop a little bit of time to Lewis after being handed a 7.5 second lead, letting Lewis get within DRS range in the interest of ‘saving tyres’ is just plain misdirection. Lewis had the superior pace and strategy, he should have won, but he didn’t. Kudos to Nico for not cracking under severe pressure.

Fastest Lap: Lewis Hamilton (11-7 to Lewis Hamilton) (after Round 18)

Qualifying: Nico Rosberg (30-24 to Nico Rosberg) (after Round 18)

Race: Nico Rosberg (57.5 – 32.5 to Lewis Hamilton) (after Round 18)

Mercedes: 92.5 – 69.5 to Lewis Hamilton (Total After Round 18)

Red Bull:

There wasn’t much between the two Red Bull boys, but for once, it all went Sebastian Vettel’s way. Despite Daniel being the faster man in FP1, FP2, FP3 and Q1, Sebastian rose to the occasion in Q2 & then went on to out qualify Daniel, 6th and 9th respectively. Both men held position at the start, but Sebastian made an error at Turn 4, somewhere he said he didn’t have ‘the best memories’ of after spinning there on Lap 1 in 2012 while battling for the title.

The error saw Vettel run a little wide onto the kerb, and the hesitation allowed Kevin Magnussen & Fernando Alonso through, putting Sebastian just ahead of Daniel. Hanging on in that position until his second stop on Lap 24, Sebastian undercut the two men he had allowed through on Lap 1, and started climbing back up the order as the likes of Raikkonen and Hulkenberg pitted in front of him. Overtaking the struggling Toro Rosso of Kvyat allowed Sebastian to close on Jenson Button, and Vettel ended up duelling with Button while the McLaren driver fought with Kimi Raikkonen. Ultimately, Sebastian wasn’t able to climb any higher than 5th, but even without his error, probably wouldn’t have managed a higher position than Button’s eventual 4th.

Ricciardo hung around behind Sebastian for the opening quarter of the race, and had fallen four seconds behind Vettel after a slightly later second stop. His suspension then failed under braking into Turn 1, and that was his day done. Thankfully for Daniel fans, the early season premonition of bad luck that struck Daniel in Malaysia left him alone for the majority of the season, and instead chose to attach itself to Sebastian’s car. Which of the Red Bulls will have the curse in 2015?

Fastest Lap: Sebastian Vettel (9 – 9 to each) (after Round 18)

Qualifying: Sebastian Vettel (30-24 to Daniel Ricciardo) (after Round 18)

Race: Sebastian Vettel (70-20 to Daniel Ricciardo) (after Round 18)

Red Bull: 109-53 to Daniel Ricciardo (Total After Round 18)

Follow me on Twitter or Facebook to keep up to date with every Team-Mate Battle in 2014!

I now also write Team Mate Battles for Formula E! Check them out here.