Laps 71
Circuit length 4.309 km (2.677 mi)
Race length 305.909 km (190.067 mi)
Number of times held 38
First held 1972
Most wins (drivers) Alain Prost (6)
Most wins (constructors) McLaren (11)
Last race

So Jensen finally did it, Britain's tenth world F1 Champion and our first back-to-back one, alongside young Lewis Hamilton, two kids from similar middle-class backgrounds but marketed very differently on their background. Jensen is the handsome square-jawed racer, dad John also raced cars in his younger days, cutey pie and articulated Lewis also coming from a motor sport lineage. Formula One is still a very spoilt mans sport and the fact Jensen Button only made five true overtakes in his first six wins at the start of the season suggest how uncompetitive it generally is. But a wins a win and well done Jensen, even though he and Hamilton are so sanitized by their loyalty to their clean cut image they bore me senseless like most of the races.

-The Circuit-

Interlagos is unusual as it's in the city suburbs, Sao Paulo the worlds second most populated city. The drivers says it's a great racers track with daring overtakes possible, the Senna 'Ss' the best first corners in racing. But the teams say it's the worse to stage a grand prix wit very tight pit lanes and poor access. The buses are old and slow out to the track and the tickets expensive. The crowds are huge and passionate though and in these parts motor sport is bigger than football.

The cars wiggle through the 'S,s' and then bomb down to a very tight left hander to squeeze up the field before accelerating up the hill through turn five and then roaring down to turn six and seven, two increasingly tight bends, turn 8 a first gear job and nine giving you some speed but then hard on the breaks for 10 before you build up speed for the drag into the hairpin turn 12 before blasting up the hill to the start/finish straight, the fastest finish in sport.

-The Race-

The Brazilian GP wasn't boring in anyway last Sunday though, Interlagos always an exciting race, the thrilling first corners, the Senna 'S`s' , some of the best in motor racing. When half the grid has swept around the long chicane the back part of the field are still going over the start-finish line, going into the left hander blind to what carnage may have occurred, what happened last Sunday.

With local hero Barrichello on pole he had to at least finish in the top three to keep the championship alive for the last race in Abu Dabi, which most cynics believe Bernie Ecclestone and the stewards try to engineer that scenario year in, year out, the fact Vettel and Button were dumped down the grid after wet qualifying evidence of.
Lap One would see three key incidents alone: Vettel kissing Kovalainen left rear into a spin in Turn One, Aussie Mark Webber swerving into and breaking Kimi Räikkönen front wing but staying intact himself, and then Jarno Trulli hitting Adrian Sutil sending both cars off the circuit and the Force India into the innocent Fernando Alonso. Trulli and Sutil then enjoyed some good old demonstrative helmet pushing and shoving in the gravel trap as the yellow flags were waved franticly. It was a fabulous start to the race with so much resting on it, televised sport at its best! While the Safety Car was dispatched for Lap Two, Kimi Räikkönen drove through a wall of flame in the pit lane as Heikki Kovalainen drove away from his pit box trailing a fuel hose, a wizards short and dramatic 'pop' of flame adding to the frantic excitement.

After that it was overtaking all the way from Button and the third contender Sebastian Vettel as the two cut and barged their way from their lowly grid slots into the points, Button keen to wrap up the title with another points finish and Vettel desperate to stay in the Championship fight with the win to halve his 17 point deficit. But Mark Webber cruised to a worthy race victory, 20 seconds ahead of Poland's Robert Kubica with an unlikely podium for Lewis Hamilton from P18 on the grid. The curse of Interlagos struck again for Barrichello with a slow puncture after it popped on someone's rear wing and he had to pit and concede the championship, eventually finishing 8th. Vettel, who was the fastest man in the final half of the race, had dragged himself from 15th on the grid to 4th, Button a worthy 5th with a fearless and spectacular drive. Räikkönen, who was the guy nearly fried in the pits, was 6th, Buemi 7th.

-Result-

10 Points M. Webber Red Bull
08 Points R. Kubica BMW
06 Points L. Hamilton McLaren
05 Points S. Vettel Red Bull
04 Points J. Button Brawn GP
03 Points K. Räikkönen Ferrari
02 Points S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso
01 Points R. Barrichello Brawn GP

-The Season-

66 points in the first seven races for Button turned into just twenty three points from the next ten races, effectively the sixth best car and driver on the track as the others caught up in the second half of the season. In fact his team mate Barrichello cashed in on that rather unexplained performance drop off with three wins to take it to the final two races, proving it wasn't really the car as Jensen drove defensively. I'm not sure if Rubens did have such a bad puncture and we didn't hear a word from him after on the coverage or the team radio but Jensen did drive brilliantly in the final race and is the champ. Grand Prix is always shrouded in controversy, team orders and mystery, as we saw with the Renault saga.

Hamilton and the rest were nearly on the pace, as was the Red Bull for the finale, the diffuser row diffused as the rest caught up. Just about anyone could have won the championship if the season was based on the last ten races when the teams did catch up.

Driver Country Team Points

1 Jenson Button (GB) Brawn-Mercedes 89 (Champion)

2 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault 74

3 Rubens Barrichello (Brz) Brawn-Mercedes 72

4 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault 61.5
5 Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes 49
6 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 48
7 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams-Toyota 34.5
8 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 30.5
9 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 26
10 Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota 24

-Constructors-

Brawn needed one point at Interlagos for the title and got five, but Brawn not as poor a team as Ross makes out. Honda produced this years engine early in 2008 and continued support of the team when they retired from GP as a team rather than an engine builder. The team is based in my home county of Northamptonshire and we now hope Bernie will give us our bloody grand prix back at Silverstone after this win. Jensen, alas doesn't live in Kettering. Wicksteed Park is no Monte Carlo!

FIA Formula 1 constructors' world championship

1 Brawn-Mercedes 161
2 Red Bull-Renault 135.5
3 McLaren-Mercedes 71

4 Ferrari 70
5 Toyota 54.5
6 Williams-Toyota 34.5
7 BMW Sauber 32
8 Renault 26
9 Force India-Mercedes 13
10 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_Grand_Prix

Summary: Back-to-back champions!