Lewis Hamilton won a rain-hit Brazilian Grand Prix to take the Formula One title battle with Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg into the season's last race, in Abu Dhabi in two weeks.

The full 71 laps were just completed within the time limit after an incident-packed race which saw a series of spins and crashes on the wet surface at Interlagos and was twice interrupted with red flags.

World champion Hamilton took the chequered flag for his first win in Brazil, 11.455 seconds ahead of Rosberg who now needs to finish third or higher in Abu Dhabi to capture the championship for the first time.

"I was generally just chilling up front, when it rains it is usually a good day for me," said Hamilton, who with 52 grand prix victories has now gone past Alain Prost in the all-time list and is second only to Michael Schumacher, on 91.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen made a series of brilliant overtaking manoeuvres to finish third, with Force India's Sergio Perez fourth and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel fifth.

Rosberg said: "It didn't go my way today, Lewis did a great job. It was very difficult conditions but I can live with second place."

Rain played havoc with the race, which began with a safety-car start, was twice interrupted with red flags - once for a high-speed crash on the straight by Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen - and in all featured the safety car five times.

Hamilton got away cleanly from the front after the safety car went off on lap 7 while Verstappen quickly got past Raikkonen to put pressure on Rosberg.

But drivers were having trouble even on the wet tyres on the slippery surface, and Vettel span on lap 11, while Sauber's Marcus Ericsson aquaplaned and crashed into a barrier on lap 13, bringing out the safety car

Verstappen pitted immediately, followed by team-mate Daniel Ricciardo for intermediates, but the Australian came in just after the pit lane had been closed, earning him a five-second time penalty.

After the restart on lap 19, Raikkonen span and crashed on the straight and the red flag was out to interrupt the race. The Finn lost control and his Ferrari hit a wall on the outside and then came back across track and stopped facing the wrong way near the pit wall.

After a 35-minute break the race resumed from lap 21 under a safety car but the red flag came out again seven laps later because of the persistent rain, to boos and thumbs down by spectators in the stands.

After another safety car restart, Verstappen pounced to overtake Rosberg on the outside when the German slightly lost traction in the wet on the Senna S turn, to take second place.

But Verstappen had a major scare when he slid at high speed on lap 39 after touching the white lane on the pit straight and came close to hitting a barrier. The Dutch teenager managed brilliantly to right his car and also then fend off a challenge from Rosberg.

Rosberg also had a half spin which cost him time after Verstappen had pitted for intermediate tyres - a decision which probably ultimately cost him second place.

The safety car was back out when Brazilian Felipe Massa in a Williams - on his last home race before retirement - span and crashed out on lap 49 near the pit lane entry. A tearful Massa walked to the paddock holding up the Brazilian flag to the applause of mechanics including from his former team Ferrari.

Verstappen was struggling on the intermediates behind the safety car and switched again to wets, with the race resuming on lap 56.

He then fought his way back up from 16th with a series of overtaking manoeuvres, including a pass on Vettel, who complained he was pushed off the track, then Sainz and Force India's Sergio Perez to reach the podium.

Sainz was sixth ahead of Force India's Nico Huelkenberg, Ricciardo, Felipe Nasr in a Sauber and McLaren's Fernando Alonso.