Stats: Alonso's Interlagos jinx

As Sebastian Vettel strives to secure an indisputable Formula 1 record of nine consecutive grand prix victories in Brazil this weekend, Fernando Alonso will be trying to avoid extending a less enviable statistical run.

He has taken seven podium finishes at Interlagos without ever winning the race. That's the most podiums at a single track that any driver has achieved without triumphing there.

Alonso has only actually stood on the Brazilian GP podium six times, as in 2003 he was in an ambulance when the trophy ceremony took place. He kept his third place on countback despite being the catalyst for the race-stopping incident after ploughing into the wreckage of Mark Webber's equally massive accident.

As well as an empty third place, that podium also had its first- and second-place men the wrong way round. Kimi Raikkonen had to hand his winner's trophy to Giancarlo Fisichella a week later when the FIA ruled that the Jordan had passed the McLaren early enough to remain ahead on countback.

Alonso will have had no regrets about 'only' being third and second on the 2005 and '06 Brazilian GP podiums, as those results clinched his two world championships, at the expense of Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher respectively.

But the Spaniard has also had the opposite experience: third in 2007 and second in '12 left him beaten by Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel in those title showdowns, while third behind the Red Bulls in 2010 took a crucial chunk out of his points lead ahead of the Abu Dhabi finale in which Vettel pipped him.

Alonso was third in 2007, but Raikkonen won and took the title by one point © LAT

His other Interlagos podium is a largely-forgotten second place in the 2008 title decider, a great underdog result for Renault in the wet but overshadowed by Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton's staggeringly dramatic championship battle.

Given Ferrari's current form, another against-the-odds result in poor weather has to be Alonso's best hope this weekend, and he surely won't be worried about stretching his close-but-no-cigar record if it means getting back on the rostrum for the first time since Singapore in October.

The nearest rival to Alonso in this statistic is Raikkonen's run of six Bahrain GP podiums without a win.

Unlike Alonso's Interlagos dramas, this statistic comes from a relatively prosaic set of circumstances: coincidentally the Finn and his cars have often just been pretty quick at Sakhir but lacking the final edge to win, as was the case with Lotus there for the past two years.

The exception is the 2006 race. Raikkonen had to start 22nd and last that year following a suspension failure in qualifying, yet showed stunning pace on a one-stop strategy to rise to third. Had he qualified properly, he surely had the speed to triumph - and that might have been McLaren's best chance in what turned out to be a winless year.

LEADING A RACE WITHOUT WINNING

Rubens Barrichello's failure to win in Brazil despite leading six times is one of F1's great tales of home-race heartbreak.

Keeping his Stewart ahead in 1999 was always a long shot, and in the mixed weather of 2004 and '09 others proved faster and tactically superior. But the retirements in 2000, '02 and '03 were the real tearjerkers - especially the last of those, where he inexplicably ran out of fuel shortly after passing David Coulthard for the lead.

Barrichello hunted down and passed Coulthard in '03, only to run out of fuel © LAT

This statistic is however skewed slightly by the refuelling era.

For example, of the six Italian GPs that Mika Hakkinen led without winning, four were races where he only briefly popped in front as others pitted.

Being overtaken by McLaren team-mate Coulthard in 1998 and then being passed by arch-rival Schumacher for eventual victory when Coulthard's engine blew right in front of them was a little more painful, though not as much as spinning out of the lead while firmly in control at Monza a year later.

TOP BRAZILIAN GP STATS FOR THE CLASS OF 2013

Interlagos has been a good venue for...

• Mark Webber won in Brazil in both 2009 and '11, starting second each time. Curiously, in the last four Interlagos events he qualified second in the two odd years and third in the two even years.

• Interlagos has been a key venue in Nico Hulkenberg's emergence as a Formula 1 star. He took a sensational pole for Williams with slicks on a damp track in his rookie year in 2010, and last season he led a GP for the first time there, heading 30 laps before his collision with Hamilton.

Not so fond of Interlagos...

• Heikki Kovalainen has finished five of his six Brazilian Grands Prix, but scored points only once, with a seventh in 2008. He crashed heavily in '07, and has been out of the points on every occasion since '08. Last year he was able to get his Caterham as high as sixth in the rain, but was only 14th at the flag.

• Romain Grosjean has never scored points or qualified inside the top 10 at Interlagos. Last year he hit Pedro de la Rosa's HRT in qualifying and spun out of the race at Mergulho.

Fourth in 2007 remains Rosberg's best result in Brazil © LAT

• Nico Rosberg has never reached the podium or started from the front row in Brazil. His best result is fourth, scored in 2007 with Williams, and sixth on the grid two years ago with Mercedes.

Glass half-full or half-empty?

• Sebastian Vettel claimed his third title at Interlagos last year, but it was an uphill struggle after a first-lap collision with Bruno Senna. His only win in Brazil came in 2010. The following season he had to slow with gearbox problems and finished second behind Red Bull team-mate Webber.

• Felipe Massa is the only Brazilian to win at home since the Ayrton Senna era, but his 2008 triumph came on the day he lost the championship to Hamilton at the final corner. That event marked Massa's last pole and last win, 85 races ago. No Ferrari driver has ever gone so long without topping a podium or a grid.

• Lewis Hamilton might have celebrated clinching a title in Brazil in 2008, but his third place a year later is his only podium at Interlagos, and he hasn't finished there since 2010. An early electronics problem meant he lost the 2007 crown, and last season he was taken out by Hulkenberg's spinning Force India as he passed it to take the lead.

All information courtesy of AUTOSPORT's stats partner FORIX - the world's most comprehensive motorsport database