The complete 2010 Brazilian GP review

PRACTICE

Practice 1 - Friday AM

Things started dry on Friday and the Red Bull was straight into a league of its own. Vettel was half a second clear up front, though Lewis Hamilton ran Mark Webber pretty close for second.

Ferrari was off the pace. Alonso had an engine change planned for after the session and that had to stop and shut down his current unit anyway, while Massa was just plain slow.

The absence of the Scuderia left Button fourth and Robert Kubica and Nico Rosberg best of the rest in fifth and sixth. Little else happened, just Kamui Kobayashi and Vitaly Petrov spinning off at Ferradura.

Practice 2 - Friday PM

Ferrari got up to speed in Friday's second session, but not enough to cause Red Bull any problems with Vettel and Webber comfortably on top again. And this time there was just a tenth between them.

Alonso and Massa sandwiched Hamilton in third and fifth, despite Massa stopping out on track with a clutch problem with half an hour still to run.

Kubica beat Button to sixth as the Briton continued to complain about the handling of his McLaren. Nick Heidfeld and the Mercedes of Rosberg and Michael Schumacher concluded the top 10.

Saturday Practice

The first wet session of the weekend. Eventual pole-sitter Nico Hulkenberg was first to switch from the full wet to the intermediate as the circuit begain to dry, after which Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull each took a turn at the top.

It was Vettel from Massa and Alonso up until a handful of drivers chose to do qualifying simulation runs at the end. Hamilton split Vettel and Massa, then Kubica went three tenths quicker than everyone in the Renault. Vettel was out on track at the end, while Webber elected to spend the last 20 minutes of the session watching from the garage.

Petrov and Sebastien Buemi showed well in sixth and seventh, with Rosberg, Button and Rubens Barrichello this time completing the top 10.

QUALIFYING

1. Nico Hulkenberg, Williams
Team-mate qualifying battle 6-12

Wasn't among the quickest in the earlier rounds of qualifying and came out of nowhere during the slick tyre runs at the end of Q3. His penultimate lap would have been good enough for pole, but not knowing that at the time he went round again and found another second. Outstanding.

2. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
Team-mate qualifying battle 11-7

Left it late to put in a lap on slick tyres and had the measure of his title rivals, but couldn't do anything about the sensational pace of Hulkenberg on slicks.

3. Mark Webber, Red Bull
Team-mate qualifying battle 7-11

Webber had chosen to sit in the pits during the greasy track time in final practice and slid off the road once on track on slicks. But he gathered it up in time to seal third with his final lap.

4. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
Team-mate qualifying battle 13-5

The weather gave Hamilton a chance to get his McLaren where it might not have been able to go in the dry, and he was ahead of Hulkenberg for a while before being dropped by the Red Bulls.

5. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
Team-mate qualifying battle 14-4

The fourth driver to take a turn in provisional pole position during the dying seconds of the session. He lost out by choosing to go earlier than his rivals and dropping from first to fifth in no time.

6. Rubens Barrichello, Williams
Team-mate qualifying battle 12-6

Would have been a much better performance was his team-mate not on track at the same time claiming pole position. None the less, another all round strong performance from Williams in its quest for sixth in the constructors'.

7. Robert Kubica, Renault
Team-mate qualifying battle 17-1

Was set to spring a surprise on Saturday afternoon after his pace in earlier wet practice session. He was one of the first drivers onto slicks in Q3, but a slide off the road and ruined a couple of laps.

8. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes
Team-mate qualifying battle 4-14

A rare day when he had the better of his team-mate. The Mercedes were pretty evenly-matched up until Q2, where Rosberg was found wanting and Schumacher safely through.

9. Felipe Massa, Ferrari
Team-mate qualifying battle 4-14

Couldn't put a lap together when it mattered on slicks at the end and was nowhere near Alonso, again. Was fortunate to be in Q3 at all after pipping Jenson Button at the end, certainly never in danger of extending his Interlagos pole record.

10. Vitaly Petrov, Renault
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-17

Stacked it in the wall during practice and still made it into Q3, so a pretty good day for the Russian. Missed an opportunity to run on slicks at the end of Q3 though.

11. Jenson Button, McLaren
Team-mate qualifying battle 5-13

Complained all weekend about not getting a balance in the McLaren, and was once again struggling with locking fronts in the wet. Was unfortunate not to scrape into Q3 when bumped by Massa at the death, missing a chance to turn things round with a lap on slicks in Q3.

12. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber
Team-mate qualifying battle 9-9

Overcame a crash and another wild scare behind a Lotus in practice to sail through to Q2, but he was a whisker away from challenging for a place in Q3 again.

13. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
Team-mate qualifying battle 14-4

Rosberg was flying during practice, more in the dry than in the wet, and didn't have much pace in the wet on Saturday. Didn't get a decent lap together in Q2 and missed the final session for the first time since Spa.

14. Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso
Team-mate qualifying battle 7-11

Did just enough to beat his team-mate and was comfortably into Q2, but wasn't really close to making Q3. Just an average middle of the grid day.

15. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso
Team-mate qualifying battle 11-7

He looked really strong in the wet practice session on Saturday morning, but couldn't hook it up again when it mattered. Fifteenth was already nothing to shout about, but throw in his five place penalty for causing an accident in Korea and it's a pretty bad day.

16. Nick Heidfeld, Sauber
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-2

It wasn't to be one of the Saturday's when Heidfeld and Sauber had a sniff of Q3. The pace just wasn't there, which is why he ended up slower than both Toro Rossos.

17. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Force India
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-15

A poor day all round for the Force India team. The car seemed off the pace throughout, but the drivers didn't help by getting in each other's way on their quick laps in Q1. Liuzzi scraped through, but didn't get far.

18. Adrian Sutil, Force India
Team-mate qualifying battle 15-3

Pretty angry with his team-mate after they crossed paths more than once, and blamed the Italian for not getting a decent quick lap in at the end.

19. Timo Glock, Virgin
Team-mate qualifying battle 16-2

Virgin didn't seem to be on a par with Lotus throughout practice, but the German pulled it out of the bag when it mattered to qualify first of the new teams. None of them were anywhere near the other 18 at Interlagos.

20. Jarno Trulli, Lotus
Team-mate qualifying battle 10-8

Once again had the better of team-mate Kovalainen, but will have been surprised and not thrilled to have been jumped by Glock for 19th spot.

21. Heikki Kovalainen, Lotus
Team-mate qualifying battle 8-10

Quiet Saturday for Kovalainen. Had the double disappointment of losing out to his team-mate and Glock.

22. Lucas di Grassi, Virgin
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-16

Out-qualifying team-mate Glock has become something of a rarity for di Grassi, but he'll want to have been closer than seven tenths away at his home grand prix.

23. Christian Klien, HRT
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-0

Hard to place his performance in the HRT, but you can only think that out-qualifying Senna and lapping just quarter of a second slower than a Virgin is a good day.

24. Bruno Senna, HRT
Team-mate qualifying battle 11-7

Not a great home debut for the Brazilian. When it got down to the business end of Q1 he had a spin at Mergulho and ended up seven tenths slower than team-mate Klien and last on the grid. At least it meant his penalty for a gearbox change was irrelevant.

QUALIFYING RESULTS

Pos  Driver         Team                   Q1        Q2        Q3
 1.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth      1:20.050  1:19.144  1:14.470
 2.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault       1:19.160  1:18.691  1:15.519
 3.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1:19.025  1:18.516  1:15.637
 4.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1:19.931  1:18.921  1:15.747
 5.  Alonso         Ferrari                1:18.987  1:19.010  1:15.989
 6.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1:19.799  1:18.925  1:16.203
 7.  Kubica         Renault                1:19.249  1:18.877  1:16.552
 8.  Schumacher     Mercedes               1:19.879  1:18.923  1:16.925
 9.  Massa          Ferrari                1:19.778  1:19.200  1:17.101
10.  Petrov         Renault                1:20.189  1:19.153  1:17.656
11.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1:19.905  1:19.288
12.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari         1:19.741  1:19.385
13.  Rosberg        Mercedes               1:20.153  1:19.486
14.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:20.158  1:19.581
15.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:20.096  1:19.847
16.  Heidfeld       Sauber-Ferrari         1:20.174  1:19.899
17.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes   1:20.592  1:20.357
18.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1:20.830
19.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth        1:22.130
20.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth         1:22.250
21.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth         1:22.378
22.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth        1:22.810
23.  Klien          HRT-Cosworth           1:23.083
24.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth           1:23.796

THE RACE

The title fight was always likely to go down to Abu Dhabi. With Fernando Alonso ahead in the points but Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber sitting in quicker cars, the final finishing positions were the most likely outcome all along.

If you could have made a wish to mix things up a bit and make it a more exciting race to watch, what would you have done? Maybe changeable conditions on Saturday for qualifying, or a surprise pole-sitter to throw a spanner in the works. How about both?

It looked good. If Nico Hulkenberg could have held up the Red Bulls, so that Alonso and Lewis Hamilton could have a go at them... Or if he'd at least split them, or somehow orchestrated the start so that someone else could.

But ultimately, the anomaly at the front ended up depriving the lead protagonists of whatever spectacle they might have produced if left to their own devices.

It was a valiant effort by Hulkenberg, but not because he's the bunny in the headlights that it's easy to make out in these scenarios - in fact this is the first year of his racing career that he hasn't spent starting races from pole, winning them, winning championships. No, it was a valiant effort because the tools he was working with weren't a match for his rivals.

His initial movement off the line was swift, he did make a good start. But somewhere between generating motion and approaching the first corner, the Williams-Cosworth-Hulkenberg combination lost out to Red Bull-Renault-Vettel, and from the outside there was nothing he could do.

His only mistake was in slithering wide at Turn 4 to allow Webber through. But then it was still the first lap of the race, and shortly afterwards Hamilton did the same thing to gift fourth to Alonso.

For the neutral, it was a shame that Hulkenberg's presence only really aided the escape of the Red Bulls. By the time he settled into the race and began defending expertly, the leaders had gone and he was backing up Alonso and Hamilton - exactly what they couldn't afford.

Alonso eventually found a way round, but Hamilton was powerless to follow him, in spite of several lunges. Eventually, Hulkenberg - and the other cars behind Hamilton - were forced to pit early in response to Jenson Button's stop, which freed Hamilton to pull clear of that group before his own.

That dropped Hulkenberg back into the pack as the two Mercedes stayed out and jumped him (although at the expense of a place to Button). From there on, he remained in close quarters with Robert Kubica as the first of those lapped by Vettel in eighth and ninth places.

For the pair up front, it was one of those modern-era slugging matches where nothing really happened. The gap was jolting back and forth as both drivers put everything into it - there was a spell before the safety car period when Webber worked it down to 1.5s and Vettel responded to take it back up over 3s. But without a timing screen, it wasn't much of a battle.

Webber's only real opportunity came at the safety car, but between him seeming slow to respond to the restart, Kubica's Renault lying between the two RB6s and Vettel's pulverising pace at the green flag, the chance was gone almost before it came.

The wide smile fixed on Vettel's face during the post-race formalities was a world away from the solelm look on his team-mates, but it was reflected by Alonso almost chuckling his way through the official press conference.

You might have thought Alonso's frustration would be bubbling over as he sat behind Hulkenberg for the first seven laps while the Red Bulls disappeared into the distance. But his pace, once ahead of the Williams, told the story as the gap just grew more slowly from there on.

Yes, he closed on Webber late in the race but the Australian had been warned about an overheating engine and was already beaten by Vettel. Alonso knew early on he didn't have the pace to beat them, and he did the best he could. Taking 15 points for third place was a good return. The bonus of Vettel staying ahead of Webber the icing on top. It's looking as though Ferrari and Red Bull might both end up helping Alonso to clinch his third world crown.

There must have been a strange feeling in the McLaren camp after the race. The team had a good race, really. Fourth and fifth was the best it could have done, both pilots drove well, the strategy calls turned out to be spot on... and yet both drivers went out of the championship. Okay, Hamilton can still get it in Abu Dhabi if he wins and everyone else crashes, but he knows it's over.

Hamilton was, like Alonso, frustrated for a while behind Hulkenberg. But much like his former foe, the delay didn't really make much difference to his race. He was able to lap as quickly as those he was chasing while he was on new tyres, but in so doing he wore them out and struggled. Were it not for the free pitstop he was gifted by Vitantonio Liuzzi's crash, he wouldn't have been lapping anywhere near the Red Bull/Ferrari pace at the end. He'd have been back on the radio helpfully repeating "no grip" to the engineers.

So fourth was Hamilton's maximum today, just as fifth was Button's. A gamble on an early tyre stop worked for Button and jumped him ahead of the midfielders. But 59 laps on one set of tyres would have been a big ask for him too, so he was another thankful for the opportunity to take a new set behind the safety car.

Best of the rest this time was Mercedes. Williams' promising race slipped south when Hulkenberg was swallowed by the pack and Rubens Barrichello was delayed by a puncture. Kubica was there or thereabouts for Renault but not quick enough in the small windows he had to make a difference and spent most of his afternoon in a queue.

Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg made the difference for Mercedes by staying out longer. They were in the minority in not responding to Button's early stop. In the end, they lost a place to the McLaren, but gained a hatful from everyone else.

They also had the fortune of not yet being lapped when the safety car was called out, so had plenty of daylight to those behind. Rosberg even had enough time to make two stops - the first succumbed to confusion caused by a radio problem. Once back out, Schumacher let him and his fresh tyres ahead to chase Button in vain.

RACE RESULTS

The Brazilian Grand Prix
Interlagos, Sao Paulo, Brazil;
71 laps; 305.909km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time
 1.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           1h33:11.803
 2.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +     4.243
 3.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +     6.807
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +    14.634
 5.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +    15.593
 6.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +    35.300
 7.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +    43.400
 8.  Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth          +     1 lap
 9.  Kubica        Renault                    +     1 lap
10.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +     1 lap
11.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap
12.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +     1 lap
13.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap
14.  Massa         Ferrari                    +     1 lap
15.  Petrov        Renault                    +     1 lap
16.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +     1 lap
17.  Heidfeld      Sauber-Ferrari             +     1 lap
18.  Kovalainen    Lotus-Cosworth             +    2 laps
19.  Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth             +    2 laps
20.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +    2 laps
21.  Senna         HRT-Cosworth               +    2 laps
22.  Klien         HRT-Cosworth               +    6 laps

Fastest lap: Hamilton, 1:13.851

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                         On lap

Di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth              63
Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes         50


World Championship standings, round 18:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Alonso       246        1.  Red Bull-Renault          469
 2.  Webber       238        2.  McLaren-Mercedes          421
 3.  Vettel       231        3.  Ferrari                   389
 4.  Hamilton     222        4.  Mercedes                  202
 5.  Button       199        5.  Renault                   145
 6.  Massa        143        6.  Williams-Cosworth          69
 7.  Rosberg      130        7.  Force India-Mercedes       68
 8.  Kubica       126        8.  Sauber-Ferrari             44
 9.  Schumacher    72        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         11
10.  Barrichello   47       
11.  Sutil         47       
12.  Kobayashi     32       
13.  Hulkenberg    22       
14.  Liuzzi        21       
15.  Petrov        19       
16.  Buemi          8       
17.  De la Rosa     6       
18.  Heidfeld       6       
19.  Alguersuari    3       
         
All timing unofficial

Lap-by-lap as it happened on AUTOSPORT Live

TEAM BY TEAM

McLaren

Hamilton slipped up to let Alonso past in the early laps before becoming stuck behind polesitter Hulkenberg with rapidly fading tyres. An opportunistic change to fresh rubber under the saftey car unlocked some pace, but heavy lapped traffic meant the podium trio were out of reach.

Button battled through from a disappointing 11th on the grid, taking advantage of an early stop for hard tyres to vault up the order and end the race just a second behind his team-mate in fifth, but it was nothing like the unlikely result needed to keep him in title contention.

The Woking-based team again fall short in the race for the constructors' crown and, with a 24-point deficit, Hamilton says only "a miracle" can land him the drivers' title in Abu Dhabi.

Mercedes

Rosberg finished sixth with team-mate Schumacher following him home in seventh after a solid but unspectacular race for the team. Qualifying did not go well with Rosberg missing out on the top 10 shootout after being baulked in traffic and Schumacher back in eighth place.

Rosberg was forced to pit three times after a problem with his radio caused confusion during a late stop under the safety car. Schumacher let Rosberg through afterwards as he felt his team-mate's fresher rubber gave him a better chance to attack Button ahead of them.

The team admitted it was the best it could hope for, but appears to have turned its ambitions towards next year.

The team from Milton Keynes wrapped up the constructors' championship in style with a dominant one-two - just what was needed after the disaster of Korea.

Beaten fair and square in qualifying by a flying Hulkenberg, both drivers made the best start possible and found themselves in first and second by the end of lap one. With Alonso bottled up behind Hulkenberg and Hamilton, and then not having enough pace even when in clear air, the one-two result seemed assured.

There were questions over whether the team may try and switch the positions to give Webber the best chance to beat Alonso in the championship finale, but the team said afterwards that was never an option.

Alonso did all that could have been asked of him and heads into the final race of the season with an eight-point advantage after his fifth podium finish in a row.

Massa had a terrible race. He qualified ninth in the wet-dry session on Saturday and then dropped to the back of the field after his front-right tyre was cross-threaded at his first stop. He then battled gamely on to finish 15th but not after bouncing off a number of other drivers - notably Alguersuari.

After the euphoria of its first pole since 2005 on Saturday, the team was fully aware that it could not expect such miracles on race day. Hulkenberg made a good start, but it was not enough to stop Vettel leading out of Turn 1.

He was passed by Webber almost immediately afterwards, but put up a spirited defence against Alonso and Hamilton. He was leapfrogged by both McLarens in the pitstops and ended up eighth.

Team-mate Barrichello had made the call that put Hulkenberg on dries in qualifying, according to Patrick Head, but he struggled in the race, suffering a puncture after clashing with Alguersuari.

Petrov's race was over from virtually the first lap when he had to take avoiding action to not hit Alguersuari.

Kubica said he spent much of the afternoon in traffic with ninth place a poor return for his pace in free practice and seventh on the grid.

The team will probably wish this weekend never happened with the drivers arguing about who held up who in qualifying and a sole 12th place to show for it.

Sutil failed to make it out of the first qualifying session, but at least he finished the race. Liuzzi on the other hand saw his progress from 16th on the grid ended in the Turn 3 tyre wall.

Decent performances in qualifying had Alguersuari line up 14th. But he repeated his Suzuka trick of seeming to hit everyone he could during the race - following on from an incident with Schumacher during qualifying on Saturday. He finished in 11th with Buemi 13th.

Trulli battled it out for best of the newcomers with Glock all through practice before losing out to the German by a big margin in qualifying due to the rain. Kovalainen was just behind his team-mate with 21st on the grid.

Both drivers battled with Glock, with Trulli finishing behind Kovalainen after suffering a small hydraulic issue.

After comfortably out-qualifying his team-mate Senna, Klien started the race four laps down after fuel pressure problems. Senna declared himself satisfied after his first home grand prix after finishing just behind the other new teams.

Glock took 'class pole' on Saturday but was squeezed out in Turn 1 as a result of the Alguersuari/Petrov incident. He was passed by Kovalainen and then found he did not have the pace to keep up with the Lotus cars. Di Grassi pitted towards the end with a problem which was fixed in the garage and meant he was not classified.

Kobayashi beat team-mate Heidfeld again, but didn't seem his usual self - complaining of a lack of grip and ceding a position easily to Hamilton during the pitstop phase.

The Japanese did grab the last point for 10th, however. Heidfeld was running well but was hit with a penalty for not getting out of the way of Rosberg when being lapped and finished 17th.