2006 Brazilian GP: Facts & Stats

Fernando Alonso won the world championship, Felipe Massa won the race, but it is Michael Schumacher's contribution to a thrilling Brazilian Grand Prix that will live longest in the memory.

Having only won once in his career when starting lower than seventh on the grid (something he's done 24 times overall), perhaps we shouldn't have expected Schumacher to be a contender for victory at Interlagos, but there's no doubting that his pace was more than good enough.

After stopping for a new rear tyre on lap 10, Schumacher was 63 seconds behind Kimi Raikkonen. It took him 59 laps to catch and pass the Finn, ultimately for fourth place. The fastest 12 individual laps were all set by Schumacher, proving he's not retiring due to lack of speed. His fastest lap, the 76th of his career, was 0.715 seconds clear of even Felipe Massa.

In his 250th Grand Prix appearance - his 247th start - he wasn't able to emulate Luigi Fagioli and Jim Clark as a winner on his last F1 start, and Schumacher even suffered the rare indignity of having one of his records taken away from him. By finishing second, Fernando Alonso became the youngest ever double champion at 25 years and 85 days, beating Schumacher's 1994/95 double, clinched when the German was 26 years 292 days old.

Alonso is only the third driver to clinch back-to-back titles at the same circuit, and the first away from Suzuka. Ayrton Senna (1990/91) and Mika Hakkinen (1998/99) both clinched at the Japanese circuit, but it's never been achieved elsewhere until now.

Neither Schumacher nor Alonso could mount a realistic challenge to Felipe Massa, who became the first home winner in Brazil since Ayrton Senna in 1993. Until this weekend, Massa had led Schumacher on the race track for just 130 of the 1040 racing laps this season (12%), and been headed from start-to-finish 10 times in 17 races. For the first (and only) time on Sunday, Massa led Schumacher for the whole duration of a race.

The Brazilian is the 17th different winner in 24 races at Interlagos - cementing third place in the championship - and he was the first to win from pole position on this circuit since Hakkinen back in 1998. On Michelin's farewell appearance, it was Bridgestone who scored the clean sweep of pole, victory and fastest lap.

Away from the three headline-makers, Jenson Button had a strong run to third place. It's only his third podium of the year, but it was his seventh consecutive score, the longest current streak. Proving that Michael Schumacher wasn't the only man going flat-out to the flag, Button set his personal best lap on the final tour, as he attempted to wrest second place from Alonso.

The highlight of Button's drive was his audacious pass of Raikkonen on lap 29, and the Finn was also passed by Schumacher at the end. Fifth place was disappointing on a weekend where he scored his first ever front row slot at Interlagos. For McLaren, it was their 265th front row start, breaking a tie for second all-time with Williams (Ferrari are still way ahead, on 428).

Teammate Pedro de la Rosa will have been mildly frustrated to be outqualified by Raikkonen in all of their eight races as teammates in 2006, and he finished eighth in a race at Interlagos for the third time in his four appearances on this circuit. However, this was the first time he'd scored a point here (the previous times were in 2000 and 2002, when points were only awarded down to sixth place).

Probably watching Massa's exploits with some envy, Rubens Barrichello at least managed to finish this time, having suffered nine consecutive Interlagos retirements from 1995 to 2003 (including retiring from the lead of the 2002 and 2003 races). Barrichello was passed on-track a total of 49 times this season, the most of any driver. By contrast, Super Aguri's Takuma Sato was only passed 42 times, and Alonso was only overtaken three times - twice by his own teammate.

Rubens Barrichello (Honda RA106) © LAT

Speaking of Sato, scoring Super Aguri's first ever top-ten finish on Sunday would normally be cause for celebration in itself. However, the real encouragement can be found in the fastest lap column. Sato set the ninth fastest lap of the race.... and wasn't the quickest Super Aguri driver. Sakon Yamamoto amazingly set the seventh quickest lap, better than point-scorers Barrichello and de la Rosa, and just a tenth shy of Raikkonen!

Toro Rosso again embarrassed their "senior" cousins at Red Bull, as both drivers were ahead of the Ferrari-powered squad on the grid. Tonio Liuzzi takes the crown for most positions gained on the first lap this season, passing 46 cars at the start of races, while Scott Speed is the only man to have finished the last eight Grands Prix. This was the last appearance for a V10 engine in Grand Prix racing, a configuration that first appeared in 1989.

More importantly, it was the last appearance for Cosworth, who have had an interrupted involvement in Formula One since their revolutionary Ford DFV V8 won first time out at the 1967 Dutch Grand Prix. All 176 of their victories were achieved under the Ford banner, and the only two podiums scored under their own name were with Jaguar - Eddie Irvine was third at the 2001 Monaco and 2002 Italian Grands Prix.

While the Toro Rossos had a solid race, the Cosworth-powered Williams team had yet another nightmare. For the second successive Brazilian GP, the Williams drivers collided with each other on the first lap, eliminating each other from contention. In Mark Webber's case it's the third year running where he's tangled with a team colleague, having also hit Christian Klien in 2004 when they were Jaguar teammates.

Another team who made a swift exit from Interlagos were Toyota, who suffered identical rear suspension failures on Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher's cars. It meant BMW-Sauber clinched fifth place in the Constructors Championship, despite neither Robert Kubica nor Nick Heidfeld scoring in Sunday's race.

Bernie Ecclestone celebrates his 76th birthday this coming Saturday, and he will no doubt be pleased that this championship decider was free of controversy, instead packed with incident, emotion, and great racing. Best of all, there are a mere 146 days left until the 2007 Australian Grand Prix....