Michael Schumacher, Mercedes, Interlagos, 2010

This weekend the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace circuit will be packed to the rafters with passionate F1 fans for the last race of the season.

Several F1 Fanatics have been in the crowd at Interlagos and shared their advice for anyone else planning to do the same.

Read on for their tips on going to the Brazilian Grand Prix.

There are some spectacular viewing opportunities at the track. Here are some thoughts on where to watch the action:

I’m going to G grandstand at Reta Oposta. Less expensive, but you can see the Senna S and the pit exit at your left, and from the right, the final of that straight as well, so, you manage to see some overtaking.
Giuliano Carrieri

The pit straight offers some excellent viewing opportunities across the track as Gibbo explains:

Sector D at the end of the pit straight. This is where most overtaking occurs.

If you sit towards the back you can see all down the pit straight and over one-third of the rest of the circuit.
Gibbo

Lopes prefers a similar vantage point:

I’d say Sector A at the entrance to the pits. You can see most of the pit straight and the entrance to turn one, then half the back straight and turns four and five, the entrance to turn six, as well as multiple bits and pieces of the slow complex and the two last corners.
Lopes

Another vote for the pit lane entry from Luiz:

I was at the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2009. It was a very good experience, as my first and unforgettable one.

I bought a ticket for sector A, in front of pit lane entry, at last corner, where the cars run more than 200kph, and where you can see 70% of the track.

The track is very nice, the food is expensive but good quality.
Luiz

As Jenson Button found out last year, security can be a problem at this track. Here are some thoughts on how to transfer to and from the circuit safely:

Most hotels will be able to book you onto a shuttle bus.

Failing that find three others and get a taxi.
Gibbo

Driving to the circuit is a tricky task as Teo Marcus explains:

I’m Brazilian and my advice to you is do not drive and park your own car nearby the circuit.

Instead, you can use hotel’s transfer services (but you’ll need to wait the others that are using that too) or you can take a cab from the hotel and another one to go back. Ask the cab driver where is the best place to find a cab after the race.

Try to know some Portuguese words because are not all Brazilians speak English very well.

Another important thing: Get there early and be prepared to face the crowd.
Teo Marcus

The “get up early” message was reiterated by several people who’ve been to Interlagos:

You have to wake up early if you want to get good seats. There are people who goes to the line just after the saturday race in order to get good seats on sunday.

This year I woke up at 5am and the seat I had was suitable.
Gustavo

That view is also echoed by Vox Vocis:

I would certainly plan on getting there early! The Brazilians love their Formula 1 and I can tell you that the grandstands are always chock-a-block each year.

Some hotels do offer a transfer service to the Grand Prix, however, you’re probably best off getting a cab to the circuit. They can drop you right at the front gate.

While it can be a bit of a wait when leaving, cabs are fairly cheap and might be the best, easiest and safest way in.
Vox Vocis

Are you going to the Brazilian Grand Prix this weekend? Find other F1 Fanatics who are here:

• Going to the 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos
• Where to sit and where to watch at Interlagos?
• How to get to Interlagos
• Buying tickets for the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos
• Where to stay near Interlagos?

Image © Mercedes

Start, Interlagos, 2010

Interlagos, the home of the Brazilian Grand Prix, has seen its second fatal crash in as many weeks.

Paulo Kunze died this morning from injuries sustained in a crash at the circuit on Sunday. The 67-year-old’s Stock Paulista car hit the barriers at Curva do Sol and rolled several times.

It comes two weeks after Gustavo Sondermann lost his life following a crash on the start/finish straight.

Felipe Massa, Ferrari, Sepang, 2011

In the wake of Sondermann’s crash the race organisers announced changes to the run-off at the circuit in time for this year’s F1 race.

Felipe Massa paid tribute to Sondermann during the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend, carrying the driver’s name on his crash helmet.

Thanks to Aldo Gamboa for the tip.

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Images © Red Bull/Getty images, Ferrari

Once almost eight kilometres long with a two-and-a-half-minute lap, Interlagos has been halved in length since holding its first world championship race in 1973.

But the home of the Brazilian Grand Prix retains its distinctive character and, of course, the passionate Brazilian fans.

Interlagos, 1973

Length: 7.96km (4.946 miles)
Lap record: 2’34.160 (Jean-Pierre Jarier, Shadow)

Its proper title is the “Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace” (pronounced par-chay), named for the Brazilian driver who scored the only win of his F1 career at the track in 1975, and lost his life in a light aircraft accident in 1977.

But the Sao Paulo circuit is usually referred to simply as “Interlagos” meaning “between the lakes”. It refers to the nearby Guarapiranga and Billings reservoirs that supply water to the sprawling suburbs that surround the track.

Brazil’s most populous city has produced several F1 drivers including arguably its greatest star of all – Ayrton Senna.

The circuit held a non-championship race in 1972 and although only a dozen cars appeared, it won a place on the calendar the following year.

Pace was one of four Paulistas on the grid for F1′s first race at Interlagos in 1973, along with Luiz Bueno, Wilson Fittipaldi and his reigning champion brother Emerson. A dominant win by the latter gave the home crowd exactly what they came to see.

The track was first used in 1940 and held lower formulae races. Its addition to the world championship was thanks in part to the efforts of television station TV Globo who promoted races at the track for junior formulae as Fittipaldi moved up through the ranks.

In its original form Interlagos was almost twice the length it is today. From the start/finish line the drivers tackled a series of extremely fast and banked left-hand corners. They then swung into a long, serpentine infield section. The final sequence of corners was much the same as it is now.

The track was only used in this longer form for seven F1 races. The last of which, in 1980, was won by Rene Arnoux for Renault.

Here’s footage from the track as it was in 1973:

Interlagos, 2010

Length: 4.309km (2.677 miles)
Lap record: 1’11.473 (Juan Pablo Montoya, Williams)

After spending the best part of a decade at the Jacarepagua circuit in Rio de Janeiro, F1 returned to Interlagos in 1990. The track underwent some substantial modifications, so that for the first race at the revised circuit it looked a little unfinished in places, rather like Korea did more recently.

The track was substantially sanitised, with the fast outer portion almost entirely removed. Instead the first corner became an S-bend complex that cut through onto the infield section – albeit with the cars now travelling in the opposite direction.

They continue along Reta Oposta and into Subida do Lago – now re-shaped into a double-apex corner. From here they cut back onto a later section of the old track and into a familiar series of corners that double back on themselves – Laranja, Pinheirinho, Bico de Pato and Mergulho.

The last real corner on the track, Juncao, was re-profiled. The long climb back to the start/finish line begins here.

It curves left, and the lack of run-off on the right-hand side has been a problem in recent years, Fernando Alonso suffering a huge crash there which ended the race early in 2003.

Brazilian stock car driver Rafael Sperafico was killed in an accident there in 2007. Changes to the run-off have been made ahead of this year’s Grand Prix.

Senna failed to win the first race on the new Interlagos in 1990 after tangling with the lapped Saturo Nakajima. But he made amends with delirious victories in front of his home crowd in 1991 and 1993.

More recently another Paulista, Felipe Massa, won in 2006 and 2008 – though his second win was bittersweet as it couldn’t prevent him losing the world championship to Lewis Hamilton.

Fellow Sao Paulo native Rubens Barrichello has never managed to win his home race despite starting from pole position here in 2003, 2004 and 2009. Two more Paulistas, Lucas di Grassi and Bruno Senna, join them on the grid this year.

Interlagos has attracted criticism for its poor facilities in the past. Qualifying for the 2000 race had to be red-flagged after overhead advertising hoardings fell on the track.

But despite lacking the polish of Yas Marina, even in its reduced form Interlagos is widely regarded as one of the best tracks on the modern F1 calendar. It’s the second-shortest circuit currently in use and has the lowest lap time, meaning drivers are kept busy in traffic

After a few minor alterations to the track, including the re-positioning of the pit lane exit, the circuit hasn’t changed significantly since 2000. In 2004 it was moved from the beginning of the calendar to the end and has been the scene of every championship-deciding race since 2005.

Interlagos has a deserved reputation for providing excellent races. Though its place at the end of the season and the unpredictable weather play their part, the superb track deserves much of the credit too.

Here’s an introduction to the 1990 race on F1′s return to the track and the start of the first Grand Prix on the revised Interlagos:

Interlagos, 2010 Brazilian Grand Prix

How F1 tracks have changed

• F1 circuits history part 1: 1950
• F1 circuits history part 2: 1951-53
• F1 circuits history part 3: 1954-57
• F1 circuits history part 4: 1958-60
• F1 circuits history part 5: 1961-66
• F1 circuits history part 6: 1967-70
• F1 circuits history part 7: 1971-74
• F1 circuits history part 8: 1975-78
• F1 circuits history part 9: 1979-84
• F1 circuits history part 10: 1985-89
• F1 circuits history part 11: 1990-93
• F1 circuits history part 12: 1994
• F1 circuits history part 13: 1995-98
• F1 circuits history part 14: 1999-2002
• F1 circuits history part 15: 2003-07
• F1 circuits history part 16: 2008 and beyond

Image © Brawn GP

Hamilton started 17th and finished on the podium

Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton may have been disappointed with their qualifying performances but they made up for it with impressive drives to the front in the race.

Take a look at how they did it and get more insight into how the race unfolded with the Brazilian Grand Prix analysis.

Lap 1

Brazilian Grand Prix position change on lap one

The first-lap destruction derby ruined the races of four drivers who’d made it to Q3 including the likes of Jarno Trulli. The Toyota driver had a decent slug of fuel on board and would have been a contender for the podium.

KERS got Kimi Raikkonen up to third but his collision with Mark Webber put paid to his hopes of a big points haul – and left Ferrari vulnerable to McLaren in the battle for third in the constructors’ championship.

At the restart Robert Kubica got a run on Nico Rosberg and passed him. This was an important move – if Kubica had stayed stuck behind the Williams he wouldn’t have been able to get in front of Barrichello at the first round of pit stops.

From back to front

Lewis Hamilton vs Jenson Button vs Sebastian Vettel

Hamilton, Vettel and Button finished third, fourth and fifth after starting 14th, 15th and 17th respectively. They carved their way to the front using a mixture of strategy, luck and good old-fashioned overtaking.

All three of them were helped by the lap one melee which moved several cars out of their way. McLaren made the most of the safety car hiatus by bringing Hamilton in for an early pit stop. That allowed them to discard the super-soft tyres Hamilton had started on, allowing him to spend most of the race on the more favourable medium specification tyres. Plus, he was fuelled longer and could pit later.

Button and Vettel made headway with some early passes, though the cameras missed a couple of Vettel’s. It took Button 16 laps to break down Kamui Kobayashi’s defence. Once he did it was too late to get far enough ahead of Vettel to keep the Red Bull driver behind. Button’s efforts were not helped by Webber appearing in front of him after the eventual winner made his first pit stop.

Vettel made his first pit stop after the halfway mark but the team wisely elected not to fuel him to the end as he surely wouldn’t have made it on the super soft tyres. That meant he could do nothing to keep Hamilton behind, but in the last 14 laps Vettel cut Hamilton’s advantage from 7.5s to 0.7s at the chequered flag. Whether he would have been able to do anything about the KERS-equipped McLaren had the race gone on any longer is another matter.

Button, meanwhile, had no incentive to go chasing after Vettel and backed off in his final stint on his way to the championship.

Race charts

Brazil race chart (click to enlarge)

Brazil race chart - average times (click to enlarge)

Before the race we identified Barrichello’s early first pit stop as a potential problem and so it turned out to be, as the lap chart makes clear. He was 2.7s ahead of Webber and 4.1s ahead of Kubica before his first pit stop. After all three had pitted Barrichello was 7.6s behind Webber (a 10.3s swing in seven laps) and 1.2s behind Kubica.

Why did Raikkonen not make the kind of progress Hamilton did given that he also had KERS and a bonus first pit stop? He got stuck behind Romain Grosjean in his first stint and lost touch with the middle bunch of cars. But give him credit – he did get a fireball thrown in his face…

Brazil lap chart (click to enlarge)

NB. The above charts do not reflect Heikki Kovalainen’s 25-second penalty.

2009 Brazilian Grand Prix

• Webber wins in style as Button races to title (Brazilian Grand Prix race report)
• Button and Brawn celebrate (Pictures)
• Brazilian Grand Prix in pictures
• Jenson Button is F1 world champion
• Brawn win 2009 F1 constructors’ title
• Brazilian Grand Prix stats & facts
• Brazilian Grand Prix fastest laps analysis
• Brazilian Grand Prix – rate the race
• Championship standings after Brazil
• Brazilian Grand Prix result

Constructors’ championship

Rubens Barrichello has gambled on a slightly shorter first stint

Rubens Barrichello won’t have everything his own way tomorrow as the fuel weight for the Brazilian Grand Prix revealed he will have to stop two laps earlier than Mark Webber and Adrian Sutil.

Jarno Trulli, who starts fourth, will also make his first stop later than Barrichello. Here’s the fuel weights in full:

Fuel weights

Jenson Button is starting on a similar strategy to the cars immediately in front of him – he will need to work is way past them if he is to have any chance of scoring well tomorrow.

The two McLarens are fuelled aggressively and will be able to use KERS to make progress. Sebastian Vettel, however, has settled on a long first stint in the hopes of moving up the running order.

Trulli could be a dark horse for a strong result here, as the heaviest of the top four. But a fast-starting Kimi Raikkonen could upset his race.

Sebastien Buemi also has a very respectable fuel load having qualified an excellent sixth for Toro Rosso.

The start

Barrichello will have to fend off Webber at the start, but he can at least take heart from the fact that this highest KERS car – Raikkonen’s – is four places back and not likely to give him too much grief.

Button will be having nightmares about that 14th place grid slot tonight. The Senna ‘S’ is a devillish funnel that’s just made for first-lap accidents – such as the one that eliminated David Coulthard on the first lap of last year’s race.

Worse, Button has F1′s three least experienced drivers right in front of him – Kamui Kobayashi, Jaime Alguersuari and Romain Grosjean – and the fast-starting McLaren duo just two rows back. And his other title rival Vettel in his wheel tracks. The pressure on Button at the start will be gigantic.

Wet set-ups

The teams are restricted in terms of the changes they can make to the cars between qualifying and the race. So the other big question mark ahead of tomorrow’s race is what kind of set-ups the drivers have gone for – who’s gambling on wet weather, and who’s leant towards a dry set-up.

On the face of it Vettel seems the most likely to have taken the gamble. Normally so at ease in wet conditions, he was unable to do better than 16th in the first part of qualifying.

Also the McLaren drivers were quick to blame their failure to progress beyond Q1 on the shortcomings of the MP4-24. Although the cars’ downforce levels are poor, 17th and 18th is still somewhat worse than one might expect, suggesting something else might be responsible for their low starting positions.

Update: Vitantonio Liuzzi has been given a five-place penalty following an engine change. This is more bad news for Button, as Vettel now starts alongside him and the KERS-powered Mclarens start one place closer.

Brazilian Grand Prix

• Barrichello on pole at home as Button slumps to 14th (Brazilian GP qualifying)
• Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying in pictures
• Brazilian Grand Prix grid

Sebastian Vettel swims out of the pit lane at Interlagos

It may have taken the best part of three hours, but qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix provided high drama and set up a fascinating grid ahead of tomorrow’s race.

Here’s a selection of pictures of the drivers in action on an utterly soaked circuit at Interlagos.

Brazilian Grand Prix pictures

• Rubens Barrichello, Brawn, Interlagos, 2009
• More F1 pictures

Images (C) Ferrari spa, Williams/LAT, Bridgestone, www.mclaren.com, Getty Images/Red Bull, Force India F1 Team, Toyota F1 World, BMW ag

Rubens Barrichello starts 13 places ahead of Jenson Button

Rubens Barrichello has a precious opportunity to slash Jenson Button’s championship lead in tomorrow’s Brazilian Grand Prix.

The home hero took pole position in a wet session that took a mammoth two hours and 45 minutes to complete. Button was eliminated in Q2 and starts 14th, two places ahead of Sebastian Vettel.

Q1

After most of final practice had been missed due to rain a fresh downpour greeted the drivers as qualifying got started.

With the rain settling in all the drivers apart from Barrichello and Mark Webber went out to begin with. But only seven of them had a chance to set times before one of them – Giancarlo Fisichella – spun at the first corner, bringing out the red flags.

The restart was delayed as the Ferrari was recovered while race control waited for conditions to improve. They did, and when Lewis Hamilton led the first of the cars out when qualifying resumed they were instantly 12 seconds quicker than they had been before.

For most of the rest of the session the times tumbled quickly as the track began to dry. The Williams duo led the way to begin with, bot Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima setting fastest times.

Two teams were visibly struggling – McLaren and Red Bull, raising the suspicion they had picked dry-biased set-ups as tomorrow’s race is not expected to be wet.

Whether they expected that choice to leave them struggling to reach Q2 is a different matter. Although Webber scraped through by a tenth of a second, championship contender Sebastian Vettel couldn’t escape the bottom five. Nor could Hamilton, who went off at the start of his last lap as the rain got heavier again.

Drivers eliminated in Q1

16. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull-Renault – 1’25.009
17. Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren-Mercedes – 1’25.052
18. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes – 1’25.192
19. Nick Heidfeld, BMW – 1’25.515
20. Giancarlo Fisichella, Ferrari – 1’40.703

Q2

The start of Q2 was delayed further as the rain continued to fall. Despite no obvious let-up in the conditions, the green light surprisingly appeared and 15 cars headed onto the track.

But in no time at all Vitantonio Liuzzi had a huge crash on the pit straight, bringing out the red flags once again.

With the rain continuing to fall it took an hour to get the session re-started. But when it finally did it brought a dramatic development – championship leader Button was eliminated, and left in 14th on the grid.

The track began to dry quite quickly and halfway through several drivers switched to intermediate tyres – led by Rosberg, who once again looked instantly at ease with the wet conditions.

Neither of the Brawn drivers opted to try the intermediates and that proved Button’s undoing. But while Barrichello scraped into the last place in the top ten Button, 0.9s slower than his team mate, failed.

Read more: Vitantonio Liuzzi suffers huge crash as qualifying starts in heavy rain (Video)

Drivers eliminated in Q2

11. Kamui Kobayashi, Toyota – 1’21.960
12. Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso-Ferrari – 1’22.231
13. Romain Grosjean, Renault – 1’22.477
14. Jenson Button, Brawn-Mercedes – 1’22.504
15. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Force India-Mercedes – no time

Q3

The top ten drivers strapped on intermediate tyres and spent the final ten minutes trading fastest lap times – the pole position holder changing at least once every minute. Sebastien Buemi, Robert Kubica and Jarno Trulli all had turns at the top.

Barrichello should have been at a disadvantage as he was one of the first drivers to start his final lap. He took pole position back with it – a 1’19.576 – but his chasing rivals should have had the benefit of a slightly drier track to improve their times on.

It didn’t work out that way, with some failing to improve and others backing off. Webber took second, a scant tenth of a second off Barrichello, and Adrian Sutil made a late move up into third.

But Barrichello was safe and ended his five-year pole position drought – his last coming at the same circuit five years ago.

Before the race weekend Bernie Ecclestone said he wanted to see the championship decided at the final round in Abu Dhabi. It looks like there is a very good chance of that happening now.

The fuel weights have been published: Early pit stop could compromise Barrichello (Brazilian Grand Prix fuel strategies)

Top ten drivers in Q3

1. Rubens Barrichello, Brawn-Mercedes – 1′19.576
2. Mark Webber, Red Bull-Renault – 1′19.668
3. Adrian Sutil, Force India-Mercedes – 1′19.912
4. Jarno Trulli, Toyota – 1′20.097
5. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari – 1′20.168
6. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso-Ferrari – 1′20.250
7. Nico Rosberg, Williams-Toyota – 1′20.326
8. Robert Kubica, BMW – 1′20.631
9. Kazuki Nakajima, Williams-Toyota – 1′20.674
10. Fernando Alonso, Renault – 1′21.422

Read more: Brazilian Grand Prix grid

*Gearbox change penalty

Just as in Suzuka two weeks ago, qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos was repeatedly delayed – this time due to bad weather and crashes.

The session began on time but was stopped after Giancarlo Fisichella spun at the first corner.

Race control originally decided to start Q2 after a delay even when there was no obvious let-up in the rain. The first time the cars came past the pits Vitantonio Liuzzi lost control on the straight, hit the pitwall hard and then nearly took out Kimi Raikkonen.

This brought out the red flags for a second time while the shattered Force India was recovered.

Liuzzi confirmed afterwards he lost control of the car after he came off the accelerator as he approached turn one – before he had chance to get on the brakes.

It’s easy to be critical in hindsight but given how suddenly Liuzzi lost control, the fact that Kazuki Nakajima also spun, and the visible streams of water running across the track, the decision to start Q2 when they did was clearly a mistake.

At the time of writing race control are waiting for better weather conditions to get qualifying re-started once again. Join us on the live blog for more.