Brazilian Grand Prix – rate the race

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A huge crash, a lot of overtaking – and a conclusion to the championship battle.

What did you think of the Brazilian Grand Prix? Rate the race out of ten and have your say below:

Rate the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix out of 10

  • 10 - Perfect (15%)
  • 9 - Fantastic (37%)
  • 8 - Great (29%)
  • 7 - Good (12%)
  • 6 - Not bad (3%)
  • 5 - A bit dull (1%)
  • 4 - Often tedious (0%)
  • 3 - Boring (1%)
  • 2 - Rubbish (0%)
  • 1 - Terrible (1%)

Total Voters: 2,708

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2009 Brazilian Grand Prix

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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83 comments on “Brazilian Grand Prix – rate the race”

  1. Only rain and Kobayashi scoring point(s) would make it better. 9/10 from me.

  2. GOOO HONDA!!!

  3. Ross Brawn is a CHEAT!! How can Rubens have such bad luck..?? This happens everytime, although Jenson is champion, he did not fight for it the whole year as a true champion should….aka Screwmacher having everything his own way…go Rubens..hope you have a better year in 2010.

    1. It wasnt really Ross’s fault that Lewis burst Rubens tyre. But even if that hadnt happened, he just didnt have the pace to keep up with Mark and Robert. And if he did finish 3rd, Jenson would still be WDC.

    2. This happens everytime, although Jenson is champion, he did not fight for it the whole year as a true champion should….aka Screwmacher having everything his own way…

      Is it Michael or Jenson’s fault that the competition wasn’t good enough? The fact that they had everything their own way (dominated the competition) does not detract from their achievement of the world title.

    3. Button would have still won the champ without Barichello’s puncture!!!

  4. Ross Brawn is a CHEAT!! How can Rubens have such bad luck..?? This happens everytime, although Jenson is champion, he did not fight for it the whole year as a true champion should….aka Screwmacher having everything his own way…go Rubens..hope you have a better year in 2010.

    1. Maybe there was team orders at play with Ross in the red team but today that puncture had nothing to do with Ross

  5. Remember Ayrton Senna, greatest driver ever!!!

  6. WDC ending early loses the 1 point for perfect. 9/10 for me

  7. Some great overtaking from Jenson made the race for me.

  8. Shame the title is over. Good race from Button. Hamilton and Vettel did great! Can’t wait for next year to see them battle it out for the title.

    Good crazy race at the start but then just sat waiting for the rain which never came. Bring on 2010!

    1. I’m banking on that too. Vettel & Hamilton are the real forces in F1. Let’s hope they get the cars they deserve for 2010.

      Not to take anything away from Jenson though. It’s his year, his championship, fantastic and a worthy race to do it too.

      Interlagos just has to be up there with the classic tracks now. It’s a bit of a kart track for F1 cars but all the more exciting for it.

      Brilliant race…

      1. The 3 of them today made it look like racing again, rather than parade laps. Although Vettel and Hamilton both had better races than Jenson – Jenson still had a great race.

        1. Did Vettel pass anyone on the track?

          1. Vettel overtook quite a few people on track as well.

          2. He got Grosjean (sp?) like every one else and a fueled up Rubens on cold tyres.

          3. Vettel was very tame on track and pulled out of many half half chances, he needs to bonzi a few moves…or get more agressive. Had he made it past the williams after button did he could have finished 2nd or 3rd. Button would still be champ but this guy did have more luck than LH…everytime he had dramas either we saw a SC or half the field destruct or RBR fail in the pits.

            Congrats anyways still won the WDC.

            My drive of the race was Kobayashi, this guy is the best :) and if anyone wants to question his driving, find yourself the 07, 08 F1 season and watch one LH.
            LH does the same and is considered a master and all the rest of the media BS…he only did it in the best car on the grid and pulled some wins with same style…thus leading to this media BS.

          4. hey..that’s a little unfair. He did end up 4th, after all, starting from 15th.

            Must have overtaken as many as Button, even when we exclude the pit strategy positions gains.

            Also, the video feed editor didn’t bother to show him overtaking Kobayashi.

      2. Vettel did overtake you just didn’t see it. They only showed Buttons moves because he was going for the championship. Vettel finished a place ahead of Button. His move on Rubens was great but yeah he needs to pull more moves off and be more brave.

        Interlagos is a great track, lots of overtaking happens on the old tracks like Spa, Melbourne etc. but the new ones you get nothing!!

  9. Interlagos proved it’s worth today. I lost count of the # of overtakes.

    9/10

  10. Great race 9/10…
    By the way, what was the odd that a driver with the car number 22 (last team numbers) wins the WDC 2 years in a row!

    1. Get a Brit in car 22 next year and they’re in for a good chance!

    2. And with a 5th place finish, at that!

      1. And with a 5th place finish, at that! And at the same track.

  11. I voted 8/10 but I think mabye I was being a little bit generous. The first third of the race was certainly great, the best few laps of the entire season. But after the first round of pit stops there was very little going on.

    1. You might think 8/10 is generous, but what I’m wondering is who voted 1 terrible to 5 a bit dull? I guess some people you cant impress unless they get the person to win who they want.

  12. Love Interlagos it was a good race, if not great, in terms of racing but not happy at result. :P

  13. StrFerrari4Ever
    18th October 2009, 19:47

    7/10 great overtaking moves and performances from Vettel , Button & Hamilton.
    Congragulations to Jenson he finally did it and good to see a fellow englishman happy but 2010 that will all change as normal service will resume with the returns of Mclaren & Ferrari can’t wait!

  14. AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE OI OI OI!!!

    Congrats to Mark Webber. Great weekend for us Aussies, Webber 1st in Brazil, Casey Stonner 1st in MotoGP.

    Well done to Jenson and Brawn GP. People may say that he doesnt deserve to be World Champion but you just have to look at his drive today. He may not be the most tallented driver but he is excellent when stuck in traffic.

    Great drive by Kobbashi (Yes I know ive probs spelt it wrong!) despite some (ok alot) of blocking. If he can stop doing that he will be a really good driver. I think hes got his name on one of the Toyota seats for Next Year.

    I just had to laugh when they showed Jenson hugging everyone after the race then Bernie comes over and Jenson had to full on bend down to hug him. One of the highlights of the Race!!

    9/10 for me. Defs worth waking up at 3am to watch. Best get to bed. Its 5.30, gotta be up in an hour for school. Dont think ill be able to Sleep!

    AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE OI OI OI!!!

    1. Terry Fabulous
      18th October 2009, 22:18

      That is hard core mate.
      I just finished watching the replay on ONE and am heading to work now.
      Don’t take any crap from teachers on your case when you are fast asleep in English at 2PM!

      1. Not enough here about how good webber’s drive was. absolutely untouchable. awesome weekend for australia. hopefully mark can repeat that performance in 3 races time. bring on Albert Park. i’ll be there, will you?

        1. Unfortunatly not:( My mum wont let me take the time off school. Looks like its just gonna be Clipsal for me. Anyone whos in Adelaide from 11-14 of March i fully recommend going. http://www.clipsal500.com.au

  15. Great race – the best so far – lets hope Abu Dabi will be better.

    Congrats Button, sorry Rubens – deserved at least to win the race, even losing the Champ.

    Great McLaren and Hamilton that overtaque – Hamilton – Kimi and McLaren – Ferrari in both championships – ley’s keep it up for the last up!

    And… the best race from Alonso so far… lol

  16. Someone just threw something at Hamilton I think. I’m too polite to right how stupid that is.
    Anyway hopefully Abu Dhabi will be race for sake of it and maybe some more fun

    1. *write, sorry race has turned my brain to mush!

      1. They can’t be an F1 fan, just some crazy person. Anyone with the slightest bit of knowledge knew at the point of the incident it was already over for Barrichello.

        1. With everyone going on about Button it’s a shame Hamilton couldn’t clinch the title last year with how he raced today! 17th to 3rd, incredible drive!

  17. 10 out of 10 for me.
    Overtaking, drama, a masterful drive at the front from Webber, some fantastic charging through the field from Button, Vettel and Hamilton, and all on one of the best circuits – no dull Tilkedrome.
    Can we have this every week?

    1. I’m with you Lewis. Action packed race. Some brilliant overtaking on the track. And WDC decided with the winner surely silencing his critics with some great hard-nosed racing throughout the pack to take 5th from a starting position of 14th. Even the weather had us on tender hooks until the end.

      10/10

      Wish they were all this good.

  18. I think you must to drop out the phrase before the poll. It can manage to a tendentious answer.

  19. Mark Hitchcock
    18th October 2009, 20:21

    9/10

    First lap packed a season’s worth of excitement into a few minutes and the rest of the race was still pretty exciting with Button’s overtaking etc.

    A fitting Championship decider.

  20. I’m so glad the championship was decided at a real F1 track. Well done Button, although I wish Rubens could have won in Brazil, poor man.

    Great race 8/10

  21. HounslowBusGarage
    18th October 2009, 21:21

    That was quite a race. I rated it 9/10 and I think I counted 11 or 12 on-screen passing manoeuvres which is not bad at all.
    Monster congratulations to the Master Ross Brawn and to Jenson; wonderful to see them both winning. But I have to say my heart bled for Reubens. Always so near and always so far.
    Oh, and I think we might be in for an exciting 2010 if Kobayashi is going to be driving for Toyota.

    1. What a race …. !

      Dare I say it….Kubayashi’s gutsy drive today ( his very first in F1…amazing ! )
      reminded me of the early drives of an overenthusiastic and very young man from Kerpen in Germany….now what was his name ?

      If Toyota don’t retain him for next season they are nuts ! Kubayashi is exactly the kind of raw talent F1 needs.

  22. 10/10 for me. Kobayashi’s battles were the highlight of the race for me. I hope he is retained by Toyota for next year, 2010 will be great with him and with Sato aswell.

    1. Agree..Definitely one to watch!!

  23. We saw more passing from so many different drivers in this one race then we saw all year long.

    Especially Jenson,so much for his laying back and expecting to fall into the title next race.

    Ross Brawn, a nine time constructor’s champion with three different teams. I guess we now know how important to Ferrari Brawn was during Schmy’s reign of terror, don’t we??

  24. Kobayashi: who is he ? I’ve never seen such a good rookie.
    Very very impressed.
    I can’t understand why some people rate this race as “rubbish” or “terrible”… This was by far the most exciting race this year: Ham did fantastic, Vettel fought till the end, Button showed us how to overtake on the track.

    I am sad for Rubens:it would have been such a nice story…

    Congrats to the drivers, the crowd and the people behind the design of this beautiful track !

    1. Alonso fans..

  25. Kobayashi is my ‘driver of the day’, as Martin Brundle would say. He impressed the hell out of me all day long, and showed plenty of race craft and balls going wheel to wheel with Button and Nakajima just to name a few.
    The race had the feel of a season final, like it usually is in Brazil, with drivers trying their damndest to put on a good performance. It had overtaking, skill, and drama, plus the passion of the crowd. Truly awesome stuff!
    Highlight for me, the Jarno Trulli interview with Speed Tv’s Peter Windsor. ‘He’s an idiot, total idiot this Sutil!’ After seeing the replay, only one person looked an idiot to me, and it wasn’t Adrian Sutil.

    1. There is very little in the world that is funnier than an angry Italian.

      1. You forgot “little” between “angry” and “Italian” lol

        Looking forward to seeing Kobayashi going around next year, impressive first up drive

      2. Prisoner Monkeys
        19th October 2009, 6:53

        Two angry Italians?

  26. Voted great, nice to see Jensen fired up, good for him.
    Talking about good tracks I’m watching the 250’s at Phillip Island, love to see an F1 race there.

  27. Best race of the season. I had some distant hope left for Vettel and was hoping Barichello would snatch the win against a non points finish for Button, but Abu Dhabi is just going to have to suck.

    Great drive from Button, his best of the season. Cool action all round, Kobayashi was kicking ass and already made quite a name for himself, Buemi drove a great race, two drivers fiercly arguing on track over a crash and Kovaleinen set his countryman on fire. Pretty awesome.

    Don’t like Button, but he was always going to deserve the championship if he won it, I’m happy he did it in such style.

  28. How about some kudos for Kubuca? Oh, wait, I keep forgetting that Heidfeld is a better driver. I hope Keith puts up the consistency stats for this race. A very good race, Button did do well, no question. A deserving champion, yes. An interesting one? In this race he was. But drives of the day go to Webber, Kubica, Hamilton and Kobayashi – hope he has another shot to show it wasn’t a one-off.

  29. How about some kudos for Kubica? Oh, wait, I keep forgetting that Heidfeld is a better driver. I hope Keith puts up the consistency stats for this race. A very good race, Button did do well, no question. A deserving champion, yes. An interesting one? In this race he was. But drives of the day go to Webber, Kubica, Hamilton and Kobayashi – hope he has another shot to show it wasn’t a one-off.

  30. How about some kudos for Kubica? Oh wait, stupid me, I keep forgetting that Heidfeld is a better driver. Button deserves the championship, he drove very well today, but when was the last time a world champion wet his pants with glee because he finally managed to get around a first-time driver… Drives of the day go to Webber, Kubica, Hamilton, and Kobayashi – hope he gets the chance to prove it wasn’t a one-off.

    1. Ok, so I reposted the same thing three times. Well, now at least three comments mention Kubica’s driving.

  31. 55% of you rated the race as fantastic or perfect. if it were button crashing out early, i’m sure that number would be much lower.

    1. I described it as fantastic. And I don’t like Button at all.

      It was still great. And much as I don’t like him; a fitting drive to win a WDC

  32. Now this was a real finale to the season.

    Who needs Abu Dhabi now? Not me.

    1. Jelle van der Meer
      19th October 2009, 16:51

      Ok – don’t watch – for me it is another, a new, an extra race.

      Less at stake does not mean there is no battle, no interesting things happening.

      I rather have any type of race over not having a race. Race calendar should be extended to more than 20 races – why does there need to be a 4 month break.

  33. Despite the fact that the WDC outcome was not as I wished, that was one of the best races of the season.

    + it makes Bernie’s whoring out to uninterested nations look rather silly with nothing important left to fight for.

    More traditional, flowing circuits please. Could Kovalianen please drive his car infront of Hermann Tilke :-)

  34. Kobyashi was awesome, I know he weaved but why not allow it certainly made a LOT of things more interesting today.

    Also how interesting that we had such an awesome race today with loads of action on one of the classic tracks that haven’t been butchered by Tilke. Also feel sorry for Rubens always seems to screw up for him :(

  35. Prisoner Monkeys
    19th October 2009, 1:46

    Pretty much the best race of the season.

    1. Terry Fabulous
      19th October 2009, 3:25

      Cannot agree more.

  36. I am a little bit disappointed with the coverage actually. I realised that I missed out a lot of good action. For instant, they didnt show how Kubicia gain his position up to P2? and How did Rubbens lost its pace and went down to P3/P4 toward the end before the puncher. Plus, BBC didnt really talk about the strategy that teams were using.
    Normally they did ok in coverage, but maybe there were too much going on for this race, they couldnt cover it all??

    I just felt a bit lost when I was watching it yesterday.

    1. Hamilton passed Reubens handily during the race for P3. They showed that on TV.

  37. A very eventful race. Button drove his buttocks off. But it was so painful to see Barichello fall down the order, before finally getting a puncture from lewis. Not the result I wanted to see at all, but Button DEFINITELY earned it.

  38. Prisoner Monkeys
    19th October 2009, 6:54

    Best race of the season!

  39. This was clearly the best race of the season! Crashes, overtaking, fire, fighting, new champion… I’m amazed.

    I’m a bit disappointed about Button’s championship (IMO a season is a bit of a fail if driver like Jenson Button can take the championship) but after all Button was on fire in Brazil, he took the championship with style (even though there was some whining on team radio, again).

    Congratulations Jenson!

  40. Great race. I’m not a Button fan and didn’t want him to win the championship without getting onto the podium again, but I actually really enjoyed watching him in this race. Easily the best I’ve ever seen him drive so I can’t begrudge him his title at all.

    I totally agree with all the people praising Kobayashi, he was great fun to watch and I really hope he gets a seat next year.

    It’s a shame the BBC was so fixated on Button/Brawn – obviously they’re pleased that a British driver and team have won the titles, but they pretty much completely ignored the stellar drives from Webber, Kubica and Hamilton. Seriously good stuff.

    Trulli’s rant at Sutil was an amusing highlight but I can’t believe both Brundle and Legard failed to spot the fact that Alonso had been taken out in that incident as well. The cameras were quite clearly showing him getting out of his Renault and being taken back to the pits, and the commentators totally ignored it. Come on guys, pay attention!

    Finally, poor Rubens. I would have loved to have seen him on the podium at his home race, even if he still lost the championship. The way he applauded and congratulated Button showed what a great sportsman he is.

    I’m actually still really looking forward to Abu Dhabi. It’s all about the Vettel/Barrichello and Hamilton/Raikkonnen championship battles…

  41. Fantastic 9/10

    Very enjoyable, Webber was awesome and Jenson seemed to throw caution to the wind and showed the true racer he is. Vettels move around the outside of Grosjaen was first class as well. Drama in the pits with Heikki trying to set fire to Kimis Ferrari. I loved the bottle on display from new boy Koboyashi despite his missinterpretation of the blocking rules!
    Even Trulli added something by trying a move which was at best daring, at worst dangerous, then trying to blame Sutil, Kimi should have had a word with both of them.

    Congrats Jenson, very well deserved in the end, now the pressure is off maybe he can add another win, the Brawns should be quick at Abu Dhabi.

  42. A proper track, and some real skill to admire: sustained speed from Webber, attacking driving and late, late braking from Button and Hamilton, and a satisfying result. Extra point for Trulli v Sutil!

    Like last year, the runner-up’s dignity and generosity completed the picture. Would be lovely to see Rubens and Williams win again next year.

    Race strategies strung the suspense out a bit longer, but the action went flat while we waited for it to unfold. Webber’s pit crew got away with some tyre-fumbling while they can: slow changes like that will cost them next year! Never mind, only one more fuel-stop “race” left now…

  43. One of the best races for quite a while in my opinion.

  44. The race was good, but WHAT IS UP WITH THE PENALTIES AFTERWARDS? I’m not so disappointed with the actual penalties, they were fair in terms of what was doled out. What I cannot stand is the fact that they were given after the race. STUPID STUPID STUPID. If they had happened in the last few laps, sure, I can see that. But a lap 1 incident and then at the FIRST round of stops? Why cant the stewards give out a decent penalty during the race anymore? Do they feel that they need to watch the entire live world feed coverage and cannot take 15 minutes to do their job during the race?

  45. Jelle van der Meer
    19th October 2009, 16:44

    Can someone explain me how so far 27 people have rated the race “Terrible”.

    Likely because they do not like the end result but no way any real F1 fan can class the Brasil race as “Terrible” nor “Rubbish” or “Boring”

    There were crashed, overtaking, errors, Iceman defrosted, bad/good strategies and continuous threat of rain (unfortunate no actually rain).

    PLEASE anyone that rated the race so low – please explain your reasons – what should happen for a race to marked “Great” or higher in your eyes.

  46. “”Kobayashi is my ‘driver of the day’,Kobyashi was awesome””,oh, please,like most japanese A1 drivers ,good at blocking….took out his own country men(now that was funny) and when JB got past him , he was 2sec. a lap faster.

    1. That didn’t make him any less enjoyable to watch though. :D

    2. As far as I know, not letting faster cars get by you is an important racing skill….

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