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This year's Grand Prix in Sao Paulo started wild and ended with measured control and skill from the world's top drivers. The first Brazilian Grand Prix took place at the Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo in 1973. Over the years, Rio and Sao Paulo both have hosted the race. Eventually, the Interlagos circuit regained its position as sole host of the event. Interlagos is a neighbourhood of the city of Sao Paulo. The name Interlagos means "between the lakes". The course goes by the official name Autodromo Carlos Pace, after the Brazilian F1 driver who won his first and only Formula One race there in the '70s. This particular Formula 1 racetrack is 4.309 kilometers in length. The total race distance is 305.909 kilometers. The Brazilian Grand Prix is a 71-lap race. The circuit features a first turn named after F1 great Ayrton Senna, and a long straight between turn three and four. The track also includes a series of challenging turns and varying elevation changes. Saturday's qualifying ended up being a wet affair. Heavy rains turned this session into the longest one in Formula 1 history. It ran two hours and 41 minutes. Qualifying efforts saw Brazilian driver Rubens Barrichello of Brawn GP take the pole position. Second on the grid went to Mark Webber, while Adrian Sutil of Force India took the third spot. Teams prepared for rain on Sunday race day as well, but in the end, it held off. The race started with intense energy. Bold manoeuvers by drivers jockeying for positions from the start resulted in mishaps. Adrian Sutil was out of the race after the first lap. He had a touch-up with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and a collision with Jarno Trulli of Toyota. Trulli, upset, got out of his car, ran over to Sutil and berated him. Fisticuffs looked to be next but cooler heads prevailed. Trulli received a fine for going against race marshal orders and for his fit of anger against Sutil. Trulli also retired from the race at this point. Fernando Alonso of Renault was a victim of this incident too. His car received damage because of Sutil veering back onto the track after his collision with Trulli. This knocked Alonso out of the race on Lap 1 as well. The end of the first lap of the race also saw chaos in the pit lane. McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen pitted, and then upon release his crew did not disengage the fuel hose properly. Kovalainen headed back onto the pit lane with the fuel hose still attached. It broke away spraying gasoline down the pit lane. The gasoline ignited and Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari drove through a momentary firewall in the pit lane. He was unhurt. With the mayhem of the first lap out of the way, the drivers got down to racing after the yellow flag. Jenson Button of Brawn GP started an aggressive campaign of closing in on and passing cars ahead of him. This was of necessity as he began the race from position 14 on the grid. His goal for Sunday was to secure enough points to gain his first F1 Drivers' Championship. For Red Bull's Mark Webber he challenged pole sitter Rubens Barrichello for the lead. After the first set of pit stops, he had the lead and ran a precise race gradually building up his lead over Barrichello. Barrichello couldn't hold the pace and gradually faded down the grid. He experienced a tyre puncture, which necessitated an unscheduled pit stop. This eventually saw him finish the race in eighth place. BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica put in a very strong performance. He held the pace but lost time as cars ahead of him, after his initial pit stop, held him up. This caused him to lose precious seconds and Webber took advantage of this and built a bigger lead. Kubica held on and claimed second spot on the victors' podium. Britain's Lewis Hamilton of McLaren drove brilliantly as well, watched by millions courtesy of live coverage with BBC F1 - he started the race towards the end of the grid and ended up as the third man on the podium. Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull finished in fourth spot. He also started back on the grid, in 16th spot, however his opening sector of the race was fast and he chipped away until he secured top placing. Kimi Raikkonen ended up in sixth spot after enduring the fire, a tire puncture and front wing trouble. Overall, he survived to garner three valuable points. Sebastian Buemi of Toro Rosso drove a clean race and finished seventh gaining two points. While not the Brazilian Grand Prix winner, Jenson Button was clearly the story of the day. His fifth place finish based on daring driving of a controlled intensity garnered him four points. That was enough to crown him F1 champion of 2009, with one race left to go. His Brawn GP team also won the Constructors Championship. With deserved kudos to Jenson Button, Mark Webber perhaps unfairly received less attention for his win on Sunday. That's the nature of Formula 1 when a new champion receives his crown. In the end, Webber's performance was one of class and was not lost on knowledgeable F1 fans who admire skilled driving such as his. Formula 1 has one race left on this year's calendar. That's the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Teams will compete hard as they did in this week's Brazilian Grand Prix. They will want the positives from the last race of the season to carry over to the start of next year. It should mean an interesting race under the sun in the UAE.
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More information F1 for 2010 including the Monaco Grand Prix and Monte Carlo apartments for sale are at monacoproperty.net/grand_prix F1 teams will be hoping next year will be a good one for them, and there will be plenty of press and to be included in articles about that in the months ahead.
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