FOR the final time this season and on this blog, I will be looking back at specific events from previous years of the country about to host a round of the FIA Formula One World Championship. This time, it will be a bit different, as I charter the history of the Brazilian Grand Prix since it returned to Interlagos in 1990.
The Brazilian Grand Prix had been staged on the Rio de Janeiro circuit in the 1980s, but returned to a shorter Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo from 1990 onwards. To locals, it is better known as the Autodromo Carlos Pace, a Brazilian driver who won his home event in 1975. Sao Paulo has certainly put on some special events since its return to the Grand Prix calendar.
Alain Prost won the first event in 1990 after local hero Ayrton Senna ran into the back of backmarker Satoru Nakajima whilst leading. Senna had never won his home race, but he ended the barren run in 1991. He started on pole position and spent the majority of the race, fighting off a stiff challenge from the Williams of Nigel Mansell. A wild spin for Mansell led to a gearbox failure, which was the Achilles heel of that chassis. With three laps to go, the unpredictable Brazilian weather played its usual wildcard, with Senna waving furiously for the race to be stopped. Aided to that, he was struggling with a misbehaving gearbox of his own. Somehow, he finished the race with just one working gear and the McLaren beat Riccardo Patrese by just two seconds. Cue euphoria and ecstasy in the crowd. Senna had worked so hard for the victory; he was in intense physical pain and had to be lifted out of his car by paramedics. He was suffering from cramp in his arms and shoulders. Undeterred, he stood on the podium to take the top prize and achieve his remaining ambition of winning his home race. He repeated the feat in 1993, edging out Damon Hill in another wet/dry race.
For 1994, Ayrton switched to the all-conquering Williams team. With Mansell away in IndyCars and Prost retired from racing, surely he was going to steamroller a mediocre field and take his fourth championship. However, the partnership didn’t work out and as we all know, it ended tragically at Imola. However, it was already in trouble from the outset in Brazil, with the 34-year old clearly unhappy about the nervous handling of the FW16 chassis. He did drag the machinery to pole position, but that was more down to his brilliance behind the wheel, rather than the car’s competitiveness. In the race, he spun off and stalled his engine whilst running second on lap 56. As Michael Schumacher coasted to victory by a full lap, the Brazilian fans heading out of the gates in their droves, unaware that this was the last Brazilian Grand Prix Ayrton Senna had competed in.
For years afterwards, Brazil had to largely do with pay drivers in the sport, such as Pedro Diniz, Tarso Marques and Ricardo Rosset. Their only shining light was the talents of Rubens Barrichello and when he moved to Ferrari for the start of the 2000 season, there were high hopes that he might end their long drought for a home winner. Sadly, Rubens Interlagos jinx continued to strike at Maranello. Hydraulics failure twice, an accident with Ralf Schumacher in 2001 and a fuel feed problem in 2003 put him on the sidelines, part of an event that will go down as a special race.
New tyre regulations meant both Michelin and Bridgestone had not brought a full wet tyre to Sao Paulo in 2003 and with the track soaked, the race started behind the Safety Car. An aquaplaning river at turn three turned that corner into the car version of Beachers Brook at the Grand National. Juan Pablo Montoya, Jenson Button and Michael Schumacher were among the six victims who crashed out on this corner. Barrichello looked set for victory, when he passed David Coulthard’s tyre hungry McLaren, but the fuel pressure issue robbed him of a certain triumph. The incident-packed race was stopped early after almighty accidents for the Jaguar of Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso’s Renault. Both escaped unharmed, although Alonso needed precautionary checks in an ambulance, so missed the podium ceremony. The race was initially awarded to the McLaren of Kimi Raikkonen, but a countback error meant Giancarlo Fisichella was rightfully awarded his maiden success five days later in an FIA enquiry into the incidents in Paris.
Traditionally, Brazil had been one of the early season races, but it moved to a season ending regular from 2004 onwards. Juan Pablo Montoya secured the final victory for Williams to the present day that year, before Interlagos became the setting for some gripping championship deciders. Fernando Alonso was crowned champion in 2005, becoming the youngest driver to achieve this in the process. A year later, he did it again, although this was overshadowed by Michael Schumacher’s final race of his first career, which involved a storming drive back through the field to fourth, after an early puncture. In 2007, Kimi Raikkonen pinched the championship from under the noses of McLaren’s Alonso and Lewis Hamilton with a season ending victory and in 2009, Jenson Button put in the drive of his life from 14th on the grid to clinch the title with a stirring performance to fifth for newcomers Brawn GP.
However, if you want drama, try the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix, which will go down as one of the most dramatic finishes of all time. Going into the event, Lewis Hamilton had a seven point lead over local hero, Felipe Massa. Massa did nothing wrong all weekend, starting on pole position and never looked troubled to take his sixth win of the season in changeable conditions. Fifth place would have been good enough for Hamilton to take the title in only his second season in the sport, but when he was overtaken by Sebastian Vettel’s Toro Rosso with three laps to go, Hamilton had been relegated to sixth. For the second successive year, the championship seemed to be slipping away from Hamilton, but the wet weather intensified on the final lap and left Timo Glock’s Toyota stranded on dry tyres. He was powerless to resist Vettel and Hamilton, who passed Glock into the final corner on the last lap of the season. Ferrari celebrated, thinking they had won, as did McLaren. It was the latter who had it right; Hamilton had secured the title in the most sensational fashion possible.
This season’s title battle may have been settled a long time ago, but let’s hope Brazil produces another special event this weekend to conclude the 2011 Formula One season.
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