Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, Interlagos, 2010

Nico Rosberg made two pits stops within three laps of each other during the Brazilian Grand Prix without losing a place.

How did he manage it? Find out why in the Brazilian Grand Prix analysis:

Lap 1

Lap 1

Nico Hülkenberg’s lead lasted all of a few metres and by the end of the first lap he was third.

Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton crossed the line side-by-side at the end of lap one with Alonso a nose ahead, which is why he’s shown as having passed Hamilton on lap one. Hamilton held his position at the first corner but lost it a few turns later.

Behind them the usual ‘clean side’ advantage was much in evidence – the drivers who started from seventh, ninth, 11th, 13th and 15th all made up places.

Vitaly Petrov had a disastrous start, slipping back into the midfield and then losing more ground when he swerved to avoid Jaime Alguersuari.

Pit stops

Pit stops

Nico Rosberg managed to make two pit stops within three laps of each other yet only lose one place to his team mate. How?

The answer becomes apparent when you look at the race progress chart below. Zoom in around laps 51 and 54 when he made his two stops and you can see what happened.

The first dropped him behind Michael Schumacher and to the back of the pack of cars that were on the lead lap. That meant he could come in again three laps later and return to the back of the safety car queue without having lost a place.

Schumacher then let Rosberg past, aware his team mate was on much newer tyres, meaning his two pit stops cost him no places at all.

Race progress

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Tick/untick drivers’ names to show their laps, click and drag to zoom

Adrian Sutil’s poor pace triggered the unusual situation with the safety car towards the end of the race.

From around the 20th lap he was falling back and holding up cars behind him who were then lapped, leaving just seven cars on the lead lap when the safety car came out. Among them was the fortunate Schumacher, who’d only just broken free of the Sutil train.

Jenson Button’s strategy worked like a charm though he was perhaps fortunate that the two drivers who pitted in reaction to his stop – Massa and Barrichello – had poor pit stops, leaving him free to carry on lapping quickly and pick up more places.

Lap chart

Lap chart

Hülkenberg was ill-equipped to keep the likes of Alonso and Hamilton behind for long, but he resisted the Ferrari driver’s attacks for several laps and Hamilton never found a way by on the track.

After his pit stop he withstood more pressure from Robert Kubica to the flag.

Fastest laps

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Tick/untick drivers’ names to show their laps, click and drag to zoom

Lewis Hamilton set the fastest lap of the race having changed to fresher rubber during the final safety car period.

However Alonso lapped just 0.004s slower than Hamilton’s best on the very next lap, despite having much older tyres, underlining how well the F10 treats its rubber.

2010 Brazilian Grand Prix

• Brazilian Grand Prix - complete race weekend review
• Vote for the best driver of the Brazilian GP weekend
• Red Bull win teams title but risk throwing drivers championship away
• Alonso loses the battle but he's winning the war
• Poor pace spells end of McLaren's title hopes
• Hülkenberg eighth after pole position
• Mercedes seal fourth in constructors' championship
• Brazil sees most race finishers since 1952
• Force India fall behind Williams in teams' title
• Kubica frustrated by Hülkenberg's defence

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Interlagos, 2010

Sebastian Vettel led a comfortable one-two for Red Bull in the Brazilian Grand Prix.

He took the lead from pole sitter Nico Hülkenberg and never looked challenged.

Team mate Mark Webber took second from Hülkenberg at the start and followed Vettel home in that position.

Webber briefly caught Vettel during the middle of the race but lost ground when the pair hit traffic. He revealed after the race that he’d had problems with high engine temperatures.

Fernando Alonso took third place after spending several laps battling Hülkenberg. The Williams driver defended his place carefully but Alonso finally made a move stick on lap six.

Next up to try a pass was Lewis Hamilton, who’d run wide on lap two allowing Alonso past. He wasn’t able to get by Hülkenberg and only moved ahead when the Williams pitted on lap 13.

Jenson Button was the first of the front runners to pit after being passed by Michael Schumacher early on. This worked out brilliantly for him, eventually promoting him to fifth place having started 11th.

First to react to Button’s pit stop was Felipe Massa who came out behind the McLaren. It got worse for the Ferrari driver, who had to come in on the next lap due to a problem with his front-right wheel.

Button made quick progress past Vitaly Petrov, who he passed around the outside, and in short order McLaren had to bring his team mate into the pits to make sure he didn’t drop behind Button at his pit stop.

The Red Bulls and Alonso could afford to leave their stops until later as they were under no threat from the cars behind.

Hamilton came out of the pits behind Kamui Kobayashi but he was able to pass the Sauber driver with little difficulty and so did Button shortly afterwards.

There seemed to be little chance of any change among the top five until the safety car came out on lap 50 after Vitantonio Liuzzi crashed at the Senna S.

McLaren took the gamble to bring their cars in for an extra pit stop under the cover of the safety, while keeping their fourth and fifth places.

But there was little chance of any changes of position at the start as all of the front runners had several lapped cars between them. After the race restarted there was little sign of any change of position between the top five.

Nor did Red Bull make an enforced change of position between their drivers – even though it would have brought Webber within one point of Alonso in the championship instead of seven.

Kobayashi made a terrific re-start and passed Sebastien Buemi to take what would become the final point.

But Massa ran into trouble when he tried to pass Buemi having already picked off Adrian Sutil and Nick Heidfeld. The pair banged wheels and Massa took to the run-off area, falling back down the order again. He finished 15th.

Ahead of him at the chequered flag was another Sao Paulo local who endured a tough race: Rubens Barrichello, who picked up a puncture after contact early on.

Victory for Vettel means he’s 15 points behind Alonso heading into the final race. The body language between him and Webber was decidedly cool on the podium, Webber no doubt thinking back to his earlier words that the team were “emotionally behind” Vettel.

But in the Red Bull garage the celebrations were beginning as the 2010 constructors’ championship is their. We’ll find out in one week’s time in Abu Dhabi whether either of their drivers can lift the drivers’ title this weekend.

2010 Brazilian Grand Prix

• Brazilian Grand Prix - complete race weekend review
• Vote for the best driver of the Brazilian GP weekend
• Red Bull win teams title but risk throwing drivers championship away
• Alonso loses the battle but he's winning the war
• Poor pace spells end of McLaren's title hopes
• Hülkenberg eighth after pole position
• Mercedes seal fourth in constructors' championship
• Brazil sees most race finishers since 1952
• Force India fall behind Williams in teams' title
• Kubica frustrated by Hülkenberg's defence

Image © Red Bull/Getty images

Nico Hülkenberg, Williams, Interlagos, 2010

Timing was crucial in qualifying and Nico Hülkenberg exploited it to perfection.

Qualifying times in full

As the track dried with every passing lap in Q3, not only was the circuit offering more grip, but it was also becoming easier for drivers to keep their tyre temperatures up.

Hülkenberg began his final lap with just a few seconds left on the clock. But the remarkable thing is his penultimate lap of 1’15.462 was also good enough for pole position.

The perfectly-timed last lap goes some way to explaining his colossal 1.1 second advantage (in a car which had been off the pace by the same margin in dry practice).

It’s likely that the championship contenders couldn’t afford to risk cutting it as fine as Hülkenberg did. Had they got it wrong they might have ended up in the second half of the top ten.

But none of this detracts from what was an absolutely top-draw performance from Hülkenberg. After all, his team mate was a huge 1.8 seconds slower.

Was it all down to a wet weather set-up? It seems very unlikely – if that were the case he would surely have been much quicker in Q1 and Q2, which were far wetter than Q3.

Driver comparisons

The balance of power at Mercedes tipped in Michael Schumacher’s favour for a change – although an unhappy Nico Rosberg said he was blocked by Sebastien buemi in Q2.

Felipe Massa should thank his lucky stars Rosberg was held up or he might not have made it into Q3. Even so the huge gap between the Ferrari drivers makes grim reading for Massa at his home race.

Christian Klien out-qualified Bruno Senna on his return to HRT. But Senna said he did not use a new set of intermediate tyres later in Q1, which seems strange. Tomorrow’s race is expected to be dry, so there’s no need for the team to save a set of intermediates.

Ultimate laps

An ultimate lap is a driver’s best time in each of the three sectors that make up a lap combined.

Another key aspect of Hülkenberg’s performance was that all his three sector times were either his best or very close to it.

His fastest time was within a hundredth or so of the best he was capable of – the championship contenders behind him were all capable of quicker times.

2010 Brazilian Grand Prix

• Brazilian Grand Prix - complete race weekend review
• Vote for the best driver of the Brazilian GP weekend
• Red Bull win teams title but risk throwing drivers championship away
• Alonso loses the battle but he's winning the war
• Poor pace spells end of McLaren's title hopes
• Hülkenberg eighth after pole position
• Mercedes seal fourth in constructors' championship
• Brazil sees most race finishers since 1952
• Force India fall behind Williams in teams' title
• Kubica frustrated by Hülkenberg's defence

Image © Williams/LAT

Robert Kubica was fastest in a wet final practice session ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Heavy rain fell ahead of practice but the track dried throughout the final hour.

Kubica took to the top of the times late in the session. Sebastian Vettel, who was fastest in both of yesterday’s practice sessions, headed the times until then.

Lewis Hamilton was third having tried a high downforce set-up on his McLaren in anticipation of more rain before qualifying.

The Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso were fourth and fifth having been fastest earlier on in the session.

Jenson Button seemed to struggle in the wet conditions as he did in Korea, and was heard on the radio complaining about his front tyres locking.

He finished ninth behind Vitaly Petrov, Sebastien Buemi and Nico Rosberg.

Championship contenders Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso kept their running to a minimum, each doing fewer than ten laps.

Third practice ultimate laps

An ultimate lap is a driver’s best three sector times added together.

Combined Brazil practice times

2010 Brazilian Grand Prix

• Brazilian Grand Prix - complete race weekend review
• Vote for the best driver of the Brazilian GP weekend
• Red Bull win teams title but risk throwing drivers championship away
• Alonso loses the battle but he's winning the war
• Poor pace spells end of McLaren's title hopes
• Hülkenberg eighth after pole position
• Mercedes seal fourth in constructors' championship
• Brazil sees most race finishers since 1952
• Force India fall behind Williams in teams' title
• Kubica frustrated by Hülkenberg's defence

Image © Renault/LAT

Mark Webber, Red Bull, Interlagos, 2010

There’s hardly anything to choose between the two Red Bull drivers in their battle for supremacy in Brazil.

Sebastian Vettel may have topped both sessions but Mark Webber’s faster sector times put him ahead by just nine thousandths of a second around a 4.3km lap of Interlagos.

Closest rivals Ferrari showed their hand in the second session but were over three tenths of a second slower than the RB6s.

View interactive chart full screen

Tick/untick drivers’ names to show their laps, click and drag to zoom

The two Red Bull drivers were fastest in first and second practice on Friday at Interlagos.

But although Sebastian Vettel headed both timed sessions, Mark Webber has got the pace to challenge for pole position.

At Korea Vettel took pole position by less than a tenth of a second. Today just 0.009s separated their best ‘ultimate laps’ of the Interlagos track (see below).

Ferrari showed their hand in second practice. Interestingly, Felipe Massa was faster than Fernando Alonso up until his clutch problem halfway through the session.

But McLaren looked out of sorts, Jenson Button complaining about poor rear grip and ending the session 1.2s slower than Vettel. Lewis Hamilton fared slightly better but was still well off the pace.

These three cars look more closely matched on race pace. The front runners’ lap times much more closely matched at the end of the session when they were running higher fuel loads (zoom in to the last 12 minutes’ of the session on the chart above to see).

The super-soft tyre appears to give its best on its first lap – few drivers found an improvement on a later lap. An exception was Alonso, but that could be related to the timing of the yellow flags following Massa’s stoppage.

However with rain expected to fall ahead of final practice and qualifying tomorrow, the grid for Sunday’s race may yet become even harder to predict.

As ever, it’s hard to guess exactly what fuel levels the teams will have been using in this session and a true picture won’t emerge until qualifying.

One driver who was particularly happy with his performance is Nick Heidfeld:

I am quite satisfied because I didn’t expect us to be that strong here, and the lap time isn’t on the edge yet. The long runs were even better than eighth fastest. I feel here I made a step forward with the set up of the car.
Nick Heidfeld

Ultimate laps

An ultimate lap is a drivers’ best three times in each sector added together.

2010 Brazilian Grand Prix

• Brazilian Grand Prix - complete race weekend review
• Vote for the best driver of the Brazilian GP weekend
• Red Bull win teams title but risk throwing drivers championship away
• Alonso loses the battle but he's winning the war
• Poor pace spells end of McLaren's title hopes
• Hülkenberg eighth after pole position
• Mercedes seal fourth in constructors' championship
• Brazil sees most race finishers since 1952
• Force India fall behind Williams in teams' title
• Kubica frustrated by Hülkenberg's defence

Image © Red Bull/Getty images

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Interlagos, 2010

Sebastian Vettel headed the second practice session in Interlagos by one-tenth of a second over team mate Mark Webber.

Webber led the early running in practice but Vettel eked out a small advantage when the drivers switched to super-soft tyres later in the session.

Fernando Alonso took third place after his problems in the first session. This time it was team mate Felipe Massa’s turn to hit trouble, coming to a halt in the same place as Alonso with clutch trouble.

Fourth place, almost seventh tenths of a second slower than Vettel, was Lewis Hamilton.

Jenson Button could only managed seventh behind Robert Kubica. Behind him were Nick Heidfeld and the two Mercedes drivers.

It was a largely quiet session until the dying moments when Michael Schumacher and Jaime Alguersuari had a run-in with each other at turn two. Light contact was made as Schumacher passed Alguersuari around the outside.

Alguersuari then had a spin at Mergulho further around the lap.

Meanwhile Kamui Kobayashi had to take evasive action at turn one as he nearly ran into the back of one of the Lotus cars.

Kobayashi had another near-miss when he moved across on Nico Rosberg as the Mercedes driver came past him.

2010 Brazilian Grand Prix

• Brazilian Grand Prix - complete race weekend review
• Vote for the best driver of the Brazilian GP weekend
• Red Bull win teams title but risk throwing drivers championship away
• Alonso loses the battle but he's winning the war
• Poor pace spells end of McLaren's title hopes
• Hülkenberg eighth after pole position
• Mercedes seal fourth in constructors' championship
• Brazil sees most race finishers since 1952
• Force India fall behind Williams in teams' title
• Kubica frustrated by Hülkenberg's defence

Image © Red Bull/Getty images

Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, Interlagos, 2010

The first practice session in Brazil brought few surprises. Red Bull look fast, with a healthy half-a-second advantage over McLaren.

Ferrari kept a low profile in the first session as usual – there’s no way they’re really the best part of two seconds off the pace, even though Felipe Massa was complaining about understeer during the session.

View interactive chart full screen

Tick/untick drivers’ names to show their laps, click and drag to zoom

The gap between the two Red Bull drivers is eye-catching given they set them at similar times with a similar amount of tyre wear. And there’s no consolation for Mark Webber in the ultimate lap times (see below) either.

Once again, it seems Vettel has the upper hand, and at McLaren it was the same story for Lewis Hamilton.

As expected the McLarens are the fastest thing in a straight line, Jenson Button clocking 318.4kph through the speed trap.

But even so, the Red Bulls were quickest through every sector. Let me correct that: Sebastian Vettel was quickest through every sector.

Vettel’s 1’12.328 beat the best time seen in last year’s first practice by a tenth of a second.

But it remains to be seen how quick the cars will go when they switch to the super-soft tyre – which could have a significant bearing on strategy for the race.

A final note on today’s first practice session: Vitaly Petrov’s crash was reportedly caused by an F-duct problem and not driver error.

Ultimate laps

An ultimate lap is a drivers’ best three times in each sector added together.

2010 Brazilian Grand Prix

• Brazilian Grand Prix - complete race weekend review
• Vote for the best driver of the Brazilian GP weekend
• Red Bull win teams title but risk throwing drivers championship away
• Alonso loses the battle but he's winning the war
• Poor pace spells end of McLaren's title hopes
• Hülkenberg eighth after pole position
• Mercedes seal fourth in constructors' championship
• Brazil sees most race finishers since 1952
• Force India fall behind Williams in teams' title
• Kubica frustrated by Hülkenberg's defence

Image © www.mclaren.com

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Interlagos, 2010

Sebastian Vettel was the fastest driver in the first practice session at Interlagos, lapping almost half a second faster than anyone else.

But championship rival Fernando Alonso’s session came to an early end when his Ferrari stopped on the track.

Before the failure Ferrari said they were planning to change Alonso’s engine ahead of the second session anyway. Afterwards they said the engine had expired earlier than expected.

Because the cars are not under parc ferme conditions Alonso will not incur a penalty for the engine change.

Mark Webber made it a Red Bull one-two ahead of the two McLarens.

Robert Kubica set the fifth fastest time but team mate Vitaly Petrov hit trouble once again. He spun at Ferradura and crashed heavily into the barriers.

Another driver to hit trouble at the fast right-hand corner was Kamui Kobayashi, but he didn’t make such heavy contact with the barriers after spinning off.

One driver who had a very quiet session was Timo Glock, who didn’t set a time until the final 20 minutes. He ended up second-fastest of the new teams.

The sixth-fastest time went to Nico Rosberg and it was reported during the session that Mercedes were using the track time to test a 2011-style diffuser.

2010 Brazilian Grand Prix

• Brazilian Grand Prix - complete race weekend review
• Vote for the best driver of the Brazilian GP weekend
• Red Bull win teams title but risk throwing drivers championship away
• Alonso loses the battle but he's winning the war
• Poor pace spells end of McLaren's title hopes
• Hülkenberg eighth after pole position
• Mercedes seal fourth in constructors' championship
• Brazil sees most race finishers since 1952
• Force India fall behind Williams in teams' title
• Kubica frustrated by Hülkenberg's defence

Image © Red Bull/Getty images

The Russian driver said:

When you have tough races like Japan and Korea, you can’t wait to get back in the car to forget those bad memories, so I’m really looking forward to Interlagos.

But it’s difficult to know what to expect because I’ve never been to Brazil before and it’s another new challenge for me. It’s a famous circuit because there have been so many great races there, especially in the last few years with the championship being decided. I remember watching these races on television so it will be great to experience it for real.
Vitaly Petrov

The short Interlagos track only took an hour to learn on Renault’s simulator, according to Petrov:

After Korea I went straight to Enstone to see the engineers and to talk about Brazil. The team have lots of data from last year, which is useful for learning the track because you can see the gears, the braking, the line, and you can start to understand the lap more.

I also went back in the simulator to help me learn the Interlagos circuit. It only takes an hour to know the track pretty well and to have the confidence to start pushing.
Vitaly Petrov

Robert Kubica finished second last year for BMW. He said Interlagos is a difficult circuit to get a good set-up for:

Brazil is a bit of a strange track and it’s really difficult to predict how we will perform. There is a long straight out of the last corner where the f-duct will give us lots of gain and this is also where the power of the engine will be important.

I think that we might have a lottery with the weather because Brazil gets unsettled conditions at this time of year, so it’s likely we will have some wet running, as we did in 2009. When it rains the track has very poor grip and you have to be lucky to get the perfect balance with the car.

It’s a difficult track for setting up the car because of the long straight and the uphill sections of the track. You have to choose between top speed, or running a lot of downforce and gaining through the corners, so it’s very difficult to balance those two things.

The track has a bit of everything – low speed, high speed and it’s kind of an old school circuit so there are quite a lot of places where you can gain lap time. But, as I said before, it’s quite difficult to get everything in the right place with the balance and the car set-up.

You are very near the fans because the grandstands are very close, which makes the feeling on the grid very special. 95% of them are cheering for Brazilians, but it’s still a nice atmosphere.
Robert Kubica

2010 Brazilian Grand Prix

• Brazilian Grand Prix - complete race weekend review
• Vote for the best driver of the Brazilian GP weekend
• Red Bull win teams title but risk throwing drivers championship away
• Alonso loses the battle but he's winning the war
• Poor pace spells end of McLaren's title hopes
• Hülkenberg eighth after pole position
• Mercedes seal fourth in constructors' championship
• Brazil sees most race finishers since 1952
• Force India fall behind Williams in teams' title
• Kubica frustrated by Hülkenberg's defence

The Lotus driver said:

It’s a pretty hardcore end to the season and I’ll make sure I’m properly prepared by resting a bit and then I’ll do enough training to adjust to the time changes, flight times and the races themselves.

To be honest, it’s easier for me than it is for many other people in the team. The last couple of races require a massive push from everyone to set up the garages, go racing and then pack up everything and relocate to Abu Dhabi.

By the end of the season we will have all earned some time off, but we have to make sure we stay focused on securing tenth place, and for the next couple of races that’s what it’s all about.
Heikki Kovalainen

Team mate Jarno Trulli retired in a crash on the first lap of last year’s race but said he enjoys the track which has more “rhythm” than some modern venues:

Brazil is a good circuit to drive on, it’s one of my favourite tracks. I’ve always enjoyed myself there and the atmosphere is great, but it’s not a place where I’ve had a great deal of luck in the races, so hopefully that will change this year.

The start is crucial, but if you can get through that without any problems, the rest of the lap is pretty rewarding. There’s none of the long straight/first gear hairpins that you have on quite a few of the modern tracks, so you can get into a good rhythm and really lean on the car into the corners.

My best result there was fourth in 2000, and while I know repeating that is obviously unlikely, our goal will be to get both cars across the finish line and go to Abu Dhabi still as the best of the new teams.
Jarno Trulli

Team principal Tony Fernandes will not be attending this weekend’s race but said he will be “watching every second of the race weekend from home”.

2010 Brazilian Grand Prix

• Brazilian Grand Prix - complete race weekend review
• Vote for the best driver of the Brazilian GP weekend
• Red Bull win teams title but risk throwing drivers championship away
• Alonso loses the battle but he's winning the war
• Poor pace spells end of McLaren's title hopes
• Hülkenberg eighth after pole position
• Mercedes seal fourth in constructors' championship
• Brazil sees most race finishers since 1952
• Force India fall behind Williams in teams' title
• Kubica frustrated by Hülkenberg's defence