Brazilian Grand Prix, November 7, 2010

Brazil for the last few years has decided the driver’s championship, but even with a Red Bull 1-2, the season is still going to go to the last race to decide how everything else will shape up. Fernando Alonso’s third place finish was enough to leave him on top of the driver’s championship with a still reasonable lead in the race. At this point, even Lewis Hamilton is still mathematically in there, but unless there are several DNFs, the title is basically the Ferrari driver’s to lose.

There was some decent on track passing this week and fortunately Sunday’s race was not the wash out that qualifying almost became. Hulkenberg put his Williams on the pole with a stunning hot lap, but pretty much slowly started moving back through the field after the first lap. The flash in the pan of Williams dramatic return to the pinnacle of motorsport was nothing more than a flash as he drifted back to eighth. We’ll soon see if it was enough for Hulkenberg to keep the ride. Fear of loosing one’s drive can still be a strong motivator.

Jenson Button may have already been knighted, but that didn’t help his chances during the race. The whiner did get lucky enough to avoid a car jacking on his way out of the circuit this weekend. Fortunately the team had hired an armored Mercedes with a police driver. One still needs to ask why the team was driving him out when THE status symbol in Sao Paulo has always been a helicopter.

The two Mercedes that weren’t armored finished in sixth and seventh with Rosberg ahead of Schumacher. Again. See a trend? Any bets before the powers that be behind the three pointed star asking what they are getting for their money? And before anyone defends him by saying that he can’t get the thrill anywhere else, I’ve even been able to experience -1 to +4g this year when I flew a Yak-52 for the first time. What is scarier is that I could afford that on my salary. And I make much much less than the GDP of most African countries. (You’re forgetting the wife-tax, which is considerably much more than the GDP of most African countries — COMBINED. Asst. Ed.)

Kubica finished in ninth and Kobayashi-san in tenth, both a lap down. Their parents noticed, not sure if other than the guy in timing and scoring that anyone else did.

The teams have less than a week to get all of their bits half way around the world to the gulf state of Abu Dhabi and back to the neighborhood where the season started. One title has already been awarded, but there is a 4 way race for the privilege of having #1 on the front of your car next year. If Bernie has his way, the race will be decided on the last corner of the last lap next weekend. Everyone else is just hoping that their favorite doesn’t DNF after a collision with a back marker, or a wandering camel.

Race Results

1	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	1h33m11.803s
2	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	+ 4.2s
3	ALONSO	Ferrari	+ 6.8s
4	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 14.6s
5	BUTTON	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 15.5s
6	ROSBERG	Mercedes GP	+ 35.3s
7	SCHUMACHER	Mercedes GP	+ 43.4s
8	HULKENBERG	Williams-Cosworth	+ 1 lap
9	KUBICA	Renault	+ 1 lap
10	KOBAYASHI	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	+ 1 lap
11	ALGUERSUARI	STR-Ferrari	+ 1 lap
12	SUTIL	Force India-Mercedes	+ 1 lap
13	BUEMI	STR-Ferrari	+ 1 lap
14	BARRICHELLO	Williams-Cosworth	+ 1 lap
15	MASSA	Ferrari	+ 1 lap
16	PETROV	Renault	+ 1 lap
17	HEIDFELD	BMW 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
NC	DI GRASSI	Virgin-Cosworth	+ 9 laps
24	LIUZZI	Force India-Mercedes	+ 22 laps, accident
Fastest Lap	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	1m13.851s

NOTE: Buemi and Sutil qualified 15th and 18th respectively, but had five-place penalties applied for causing collisions at the previous race.

Driver’s Championship Standings

1	ALONSO	Ferrari	246 Points
2	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	238 Points
3	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	231 Points
4	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	222 Points
5	BUTTON	McLaren-Mercedes	199 Points
6	MASSA	Ferrari	143 Points
7	ROSBERG	Mercedes GP	130 Points
8	KUBICA	Renault	126 Points
9	SCHUMACHER	Mercedes GP	72 Points
10	BARRICHELLO	Williams-Cosworth	47 Points
11	SUTIL	Force India-Mercedes	47 Points
12	KOBAYASHI	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	32 Points
13	HULKENBERG	Williams-Cosworth	22 Points
14	LIUZZI	Force India-Mercedes	21 Points
15	PETROV	Renault	19 Points
16	BUEMI	STR-Ferrari	8 Points
17	DE LA ROSA	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	6 Points
18	HEIDFELD	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	6 Points
19	ALGUERSUARI	STR-Ferrari	3 Points

Constructor’s Championship Standings

1	RBR-RENAULT	469 Points
2	McLAREN-MERCEDES	421 Points
3	FERRARI	389 Points
4	MERCEDES GP	202 Points
5	RENAULT	145 Points
6	WILLIAMS-COSWORTH	69 Points
7	FORCE INDIA-MERCEDES	68 Points
8	BMW SAUBER-FERRARI	44 Points
9	STR-FERRARI	11 Points