2011 Brazilian Grand Prix Results
The 2011 F1 Season’s last race, took place at the Autódromo Jóse Carlos Pace, in São Paulo. The Brazilian Grand Prix is always the crowning race of the season, with the die-heard Brazilian racing fans crowding the stands. All eyes were on Brazilian hopefuls, Felipe Massa and Bruno Senna – a home race win would send the crowds into a frenzy! However, it wasn’t meant to be, with Australian Mark Webber taking the chequered flag, followed by Drivers’ Championship winner, Sebastian Vettel in second place and Jenson Button in third place. It was team Red Bull’s third one-two finish this season!
It was a great season finisher for Webber, who won his first race of the season, as well as posting the fastest lap! For Vettel, he took his 15th pole position of the season in Brazil, overtaking Nigel Mansell’s record of 14 pole positions in a season – this record held for 19 years! This is quite an impressive feat for Vettel. The Brazilian Grand Prix closes off the season, with Vettel winning the Drivers’ Championship title with 392 point and Red Bull takes home the Constructors’ Championship title with a whopping 650 points. It was a fantastic season for Vettel and team Red Bull!
Practice session started under dark clouds, but the rain stayed at bay and drivers had nice dry conditions. Vettel pretty much dominated both the practice and qualifying sessions. All drivers qualified within the 107 time limit. Vettel took pole position on the grid, followed by team-mate Webber, then Button, Hamilton and Alonso – the usual top five suspects.
Rain was forecast for the race, but luckily it stayed dry. Vettel took a big lead right off the bat, with other drivers scrambling for position – Alonso overtaking Hamilton, to take fourth position. Lap 10 sees contact between Michael Schumacher and Bruno Senna, forcing Schumacher to pit with a tyre puncture. Alonso is looking good, overtaking Button in an amazing manoeuvre on lap 11. Lap 22 sees the first retirement of the race, as Timo Glock’s tyre pops off right after his pit stop. By lap 26, Vettel is reporting gearbox problems to his engineers and this is what allows Webber to eventually win the race – lap 30 allows Webber to overtake Vettel. The last 20 laps see the top five drivers are duking it out: Webber, Vettel, Alonso, Button and Massa. The ranking remain unchanged from lap 51 onwards. Lap 47 sees Hamilton out of the race with gearbox trouble. The final retirement of the race is Vitantonio Liuzzi at lap 61, with alternator failure.
This closes the Drivers’ Championship standings with the following point scores: Vettel 392 points, Button 270 points, Webber 258 points and Alonso 257 points. Webber’s win in Brazil allows him to take third place in the Drivers’ ranking, no doubt frustrating for Alonso, who slips to fourth place with just a one point difference!
Team Red Bull has won the Constructors’ Championship title with 650 points – a 153 point lead over second place McLaren-Mercedes, with 497 points. This place goes to Ferrari with 375 point and Mercedes in fourth place with 165 points. Three teams finish the season with zero points: Lotus, Virgin and HRT-Cosworth.
Full Race Results
- Mark Webber (Red Bull-Renault) 1:32:17.434s
- Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing-Renault) +16.9s
- Jenson Button (McLaren-Mercedes) +27.6s
- Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) +35.0s
- Felipe Massa (Ferrari) +1:06.7s
- Adrian Sutil (Force India-Mercedes) +1 lap
- Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) +1 lap
- Paul di Resta (Force India-Mercedes) +1 lap
- Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber-Ferrari) +1 lap
- Vitaly Petrov (Renault) +1 lap
- Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) +1 lap
- Sebastian Buemi (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) +1 lap
- Sergio Perez (Sauber-Ferrari) +1 lap
- Rubens Barrichello (Williams-Cosworth) +1 lap
- Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) +1 lap
- Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus-Renault) +2 laps
- Bruno Senna (Renault) +2 laps
- Jarno Trulli (Lotus-Renault) +2 laps
- Jerome d’Ambrosio (Virgin-Cosworth) +3 laps
- Daniel Ricciardo (HRT-Cosworth) +3 laps
- Vitantonio Liuzzi (HRT-Cosworth) retired, lap 61
- Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) retired, lap 46
- Pastor Maldonado (Williams-Cosworth) retired, lap 26
- Timo Glock (Virgin-Cosworth) retired, lap 21