George Russell claimed his first Formula One victory as he won the Brazilian GP at Interlagos on Sunday with Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton coming in second.

The pair had started on the front row but the crash-marred race was far from a procession to the team's first victory of the season. Hamilton bumped wheels with Max Verstappen of Red Bull, already crowned champion, on lap seven.

The Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were third and fourth while Fernando Alonso came fifth in an Alpine.

The race started with a crash in lap one as Daniel Ricciardo in a McLaren and Kevin Magnussen in a Haas collided, spun and crashed into each other again.

When racing resumed, Verstappen made an immediate and determined attempt to pass his old rival Lewis Hamilton and did not back off when the Briton hit back to take a slight edge heading into a corner.

The cars touched and debris flew. Hamilton went off the track before returning to the race but Verstappen paid a higher price.

Almost at once, Lando Norris, who failed to finish, and Charles Leclerc also touched.

Verstappen and Norris were both hit with five-second penalties.

Verstappen also sustained damage which forced a pit stop for repairs but fought back to cross the line sixth.

China's Zhou Guanyu declined to pit for softs in the final Safety Car restart and ended up 12th for Alfa Romeo.

What the teams said?

Russell paid an emotional tribute to the generosity and support of his family, the Mercedes team and teammate Hamilton.

"What an amazing feeling. A huge thank you to the whole team for making this possible. It's been an emotional rollercoaster, this season, this race. I felt in control, Lewis was super-fast and then when I saw the safety car, I thought this is going to be a difficult end. He put me under so much pressure. But I'm so happy to come away with the victory," Russel said after the race. 

"On the in-lap, all of these memories came flooding back, starting off with my Mum and Dad in Go Karting, going through and all the support I've had from the rest of my family, my girlfriend, my trainer, my manager. The likes of Gwen, who first gave me the opportunity to get on the program with Mercedes, and James Vowles and Toto. I can't thank everyone enough," Russel continued.

Hamilton said, "I have to say huge congratulations to George, what an amazing drive he did today, he did an amazing job yesterday in the Sprint so he truly deserves it. To my team, I'm so proud of everyone back at the factory and here. This is an incredible result – we've worked so hard through this year to get a 1-2, and to get a win. This is hugely, hugely deserved for everybody, so a big thank you to you all!"

The 12th finished Zhou said he was "quite happy about the weekend, overall, especially when you look at how we started, compared to where we finished."

"Still, today has been a bit difficult on my part: I got my drink system straw stuck in my helmet at the beginning of the race, before managing to remove it, but, later on, we suffered from some turbo issues, something we will have to investigate ahead of next week. We pitted early, aiming to undercut other drivers, but then towards the end, the Safety Car made it quite difficult for us to keep up, especially because we didn't have many tires left. Nevertheless, it's good to see that the team managed to bring home some more points to give us a good position for the constructors' championship ahead of the final race."

(With input from AFP)