Pre-GP Stats Analysis: Brazil

Titles decided at the last race

It's the 25th time in history that the world drivers' championship has gone down to the wire.

These are the previous occurrences:

(*) Pironi was injured and thus unable to fight for the Championship;

(**) Schumacher was stripped of his second place after his collision in the last race with championship contender Villeneuve.

Britain for 200

Lewis Hamilton's win in China was the 199th by a British driver. The country with the next most wins is Germany with 104 (91 of them Michael Schumacher's).

How long...

Great Britain and Brazil are the countries boasting the highest number of world champions: 12 from Great Britain and eight from Brazil.

The last Briton to win the title was Damon Hill in 1996 and the last Brazilian champion was Ayrton Senna, back in 1991.

McLaren have also been waiting a long time for another constructors' title: the last one came in 1998 with Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard driving the MP4-13. Hakkinen was also the last to win a drivers' title in a McLaren, in 1999.

No.2

Only one driver has won a world championship carrying the No.2 since 1974 (the year fixed numbers were introduced).

That driver is Alain Prost, who took the crown three times with a number two car: in 1985, 1989 and 1993.

On the other hand, the No.2 car lost the title in 1981, when Carlos Reutemann at the last race to Nelson Piquet, and last year when Hamilton lost to Raikkonen at Interlagos. The No.2 was also second in 2002 and 2004 (Rubens Barrichello).

Youngest champions

If Hamilton wins the title this year, he will become the youngest world champion of all time.

At the moment the record belongs to Fernando Alonso, who was 24 years, two months and 17 days when he clinched the title at the end of 2005.

Hamilton will be 23 years, nine months and 26 days on Sunday - 20 years younger than the first world champion, Nino Farina, who was 43 years, ten months and four days.

Heidfeld 150

Nick Heidfeld will celebrate his 150th race start at Interlagos. He will be the 28th driver to reach this goal. The absolute record belongs to Barrichello, who has 266 starts under his belt.

A clean sweep

Fernando Alonso arrives at the last race at Interlagos having defeated his teammate Nelsinho Piquet in all the qualifying rounds held so far during 2008.

There were several occurrences since 1950 where a driver was able to outqualify his teammate at every race, but it has not happened in the last ten years.

The last one to record a clean sweep was Jos Verstappen, who in 1996 outqualified Ricardo Rosset in all the 16 rounds of the championship.

The other ones in the last 20 years were:

• Heinz-Harald Frentzen, 1995, 17-0 against Karl Wendlinger and Jean-Christophe Boullion;

• Michael Schumacher, 1993, 16-0 against Riccardo Patrese;

• Michael Schumacher, 1992, 16-0 against Martin Brundle;

• Gerhard Berger, 1988, 16-0 against Michele Alboreto.

Race distance

David Coulthard has run 59,727km in his 245 race starts and if he manages to complete 64 laps at Interlagos, he could become the third driver in history to reach the milestone of 60,000km.

At the moment the only ones to reach this goal are Michael Schumacher, at 66,164km, and Rubens Barrichello at 64,754km.

Rubens close to retirement record

Rubens Barrichello has retired 11 times in 15 home grands prix and if he scores one more DNF he could clinch an all-time record of retirements in the same race. That honour is presently held by Andrea de Cesaris and Riccardo Patrese.

De Cesaris retired 12 times each from the Brazilian, British and San Marino Grands Prix, while Patrese was out 12 times in the British Grand Prix.

Barrichello has, however, outqualified his teammates 10-5 at Interlagos.

Brazil personal scorecard

• Kimi Raikkonen last year won the race and his first world championship. He also had a string of three second place finishes from 2003 to 2005. The Finn suffers in qualifying on the Brazilian track, as he managed to gain only one front row spot in seven attempts (2006) and trails his teammates 5-2;

• Before Felipe Massa's victory at Interlagos two years ago, he only managed a single point in three attempts (2004). Massa set pole at Interlagos both in 2006 and 2007;

• A troublesome race for Nick Heidfeld, who scored his maiden podium here in 2001 and was back in the points only last year in sixth. Four retirements in seven starts, but the German is quick in qualifying having outqualified his teammates 6-1;

• Robert Kubica's best result in qualifying is seventh last year, from which he gained his only point-scoring finish out of two races in Brazil: a fifth place;

• Fernando Alonso set pole in Brazil in 2005 and has finished on the podium four times out of six races, but has never won it;

• Kazuki Nakajima started his first F1 race in Brazil one year ago, finishing in tenth place;

• David Coulthard won the race in 2001 and scored three more podium finishes in 1995, 1998 and 2002. In 13 races run at Interlagos, he suffered four retirements and one disqualification. His last point finish here was in 2003 (fourth);

• Mark Webber has never scored points in Brazil, as his best result was ninth in 2003. That was also the last time he finished a race at Interlagos;

• Jarno Trulli was at his best in 2000 and 2001, when he scored a fourth and a fifth, from then onwards his best result has been only an eighth, scored twice: in 2003 and last year. He has also retired four times out of 11 races here;

• Jenson Button's best result came in 2006, at his seventh race run here: a third place. That is the last podium to date for the British driver;

• Giancarlo Fisichella scored here his maiden win in 2003 after a controversial race finish that gave him first place only when the weekend was over. He climbed on the podium also in 2000, in second place;

Other notes on the Brazilian Grand Prix

• McLaren are the most successful team in Brazil, counting 11 wins to Ferrari's nine. They also have the highest number of poles: ten to Williams nine, but the last pole recorded by a McLaren car here was in 2000 (Mika Hakkinen);

• BMW Sauber's best result in Brazil has always been scored by Kubica: ninth in 2006 and fifth last year;

• Both Hondas retired from the race with engine failure in 2007;

• Red Bull have never scored points in Brazil. Their best result is a ninth place scored in 2005 and last year;

• Renault haven't won in Brazil since their return to racing in 2002. Their last win in Brazil dates back to 1982 (Alain Prost);

• The Toro Rossos have never made it into the top ten: their best result is an 11th place in 2006 recorded by Scott Speed;

• Toyota's best result came on their first visit to the Interlagos track back in 2002, when Mika Salo finished sixth. In the following editions, their best effort produced an eighth place, both in 2005 and 2007;

• The Williams team recorded their last win to date on October 24th 2004 with Juan-Pablo Montoya. That was also the last time a Williams car qualified inside the top ten in Brazil (Juan-Pablo Montoya second and Ralf Schumacher seventh);

• In the 58 editions of the world championship run so far, only once has a driver won the title in his home grand prix: in 1950, when Nino Farina won at Monza. Felipe Massa is in the position to repeat that;

• This is the fourth straight year the championship has been decided at Interlagos, while before this the Brazilian track had never been the title decider. The track that has held the most deciders is Monza (12) followed by Suzuka (10);

Anniversaries of the race weekend

November, 1, 1998. Japanese Grand Prix, Suzuka: Mika Hakkinen clinched his first world championship, beating Michael Schumacher. The German stalled and had to start from the back. He then suffered a puncture that put him out of contention.

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