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Formula 1 Brazilian GP

Brazilian Grand Prix race day

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Photo: LAT

Photo: LAT

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While we're digging through such statistics, this was the 12th world championship race to start under the safety car. The first was the 1997 Belgian Grand Prix, with the previous instances only a few months ago at Silverstone.
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This is the 69th world championship race to be red flagged. It's the third time this year it's happened after Australia and Belgium. The last time Raikkonen was involved in a race-stopping crash was the 2014 British GP.
Crash
Ricciardo is given a 5s time penalty for entering the pitlane when it was closed due to Ericsson's crash.
Radio Comms
A replay shows Verstappen having a massive twitch on the straight just as Raikkonen shunted. "I nearly lost it," he admits.
While we're on the topic of half-points races, there have only been five in F1 history - Spain '75, Austria '75, Monaco '84, Australia '91 and Malaysia '09. So the only drivers on today's grid who have previously competed in a half-points race are Button, Hamilton, Rosberg, Massa, Alonso, Raikkonen and Vettel.
Rosberg is enthusiastically munching through a banana as he talks with his engineers during this pause.
Replays show Ocon just missing Raikkonen's stranded Ferrari through the spray on the pit straight. Did well to keep calm and not overreact.
Radio Comms
"The aquaplaning is not fun, these tyres are not capable," said Hulkenberg over the radio just after the red flag.
If half points were to be awarded for this race with the current results, Hamilton would only gain 3.5 points on Rosberg in the championship rather than seven. That would mean he would be 15.5 points behind going to Abu Dhabi. This would mean he could only win the championship in two circumstances - winning with Rosberg outside the top five, or finishing second with Rosberg outside the top eight. But we're a long way from getting into that scenario, as there is still three hours to complete this race in.
Radio Comms
"I nearly lost the car on the straight! The conditions are the worst!" Nasr was no a happy man before that stoppage. Sauber urged its man to stay calm.
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Should this race not get back underway, half points would be awarded. This happens in any race that goes to less than 75% distance. Currently, the race clock is suspended, with 1h23m13s left - but in the case of a suspension the window for the race being completed is four hours. The race started at 2pm local time, so we've got until 6pm - which is still just over three hours away.
Photo: LAT

Photo: LAT

Photo: LAT

Photo: LAT

By staying out on wets throughout the chaotic opening to this race, Sauber finds itself running seventh with the remaining car of Nasr. This looks like the Swiss team's best hope to break its duck before the end of this season, though nearest rival Manor now has both cars in the points in ninth and 10th.
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Outside the points: 11 Alonso; 12 Bottas; 13 Magnussen; 14 Button; 15 Vettel; 16 Massa; 17 Gutierrez; 18 Kvyat; 19 Palmer
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Order: 1 Hamilton; 2 Rosberg; 3 Verstappen; 4 Hulkenberg; 5 Perez; 6 Sainz; 7 Nasr; 8 Ricciardo; 9 Ocon; 10 Wehrlein
Replays show Hulkenberg's Force India will definitely need a new front wing from hitting debris in that mess.
A tractor is out on the pits straight retrieving Raikkonen's wrecked Ferrari as the drivers wander through the pitlane.
Radio Comms
"How many people do you want to crash?" Vettel adds. "I nearly crashed into Kimi on the straight."
Radio Comms
"Conditions are mad. It's just stupid," said Vettel just as that was unfolding. "We need extremes and we need to stop the race."
Red flag
The red flag is now out.
Raikkonen hops out unhurt and climbs over the pitwall.
Raikkonen hit both sides of the wall in that incident, while his front wing was clipped by Hulkenberg.
Yellow flag
The safety car is immediately back out.
Crash
Raikkonen crashes on the pit straight as the race resumes!
Green flag
Back to racing, Hamilton makes a break again.
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The safety car is about to come in, let's go racing again.

By: Geoff Creighton

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