2011 Brazilian Grand Prix
Race 19 of 19 in the 2011 Formula One World Championship ← Previous race Next race →
Race details
Date	27 November 2011
Official name	Formula 1 Grande Prêmio Petrobras do Brasil 2011
Location	Autódromo José Carlos Pace, São Paulo, Brazil
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.309 km (2.677 miles)
Distance	71 laps, 305.909 km (190.083 miles)
Weather	Fine Air Temp 24 °C (75 °F) Track Temp 43 °C (109 °F)[1]
Pole position
Driver	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault
Time	1:11.918
Fastest lap
Driver	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing-Renault
Time	1:15.324 on lap 71
Podium
First	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing-Renault
Second	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault
Third	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes
Lap leaders

The 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix (formally the Formula 1 Grande Prêmio Petrobras do Brasil 2011) was a Formula One motor race held on 27 November 2011 at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace, Interlagos, in São Paulo, Brazil. It was the nineteenth and final round of the 2011 Formula One season. The 71-lap race was won by Red Bull Racing driver Mark Webber taking his only win of the season. Sebastian Vettel, Webber's teammate finished in second place to complete Red Bull's third 1–2 of the season; Jenson Button finished in third position, to complete the podium for the McLaren team.

It was the 326th and final race for 11-time Grand Prix winner and most experienced Formula One driver at that point in history, Rubens Barrichello, and the 256th and last race for Jarno Trulli. This would also prove to be the final Grand Prix for Vitantonio Liuzzi, Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari, as well as the last race for Renault until the 2016 Australian Grand Prix.

Report

Background

After replacing Jaime Alguersuari during the first Friday practice session in South Korea and Sébastien Buemi during the same session in Abu Dhabi, Formula Renault 3.5 runner-up Jean-Éric Vergne once again drove for Toro Rosso on Friday morning, after a statement announced he would take the place of "whichever of the Toro Rosso drivers has the least points";^[2] Vergne ultimately replaced Buemi.^[3] Having completed the sufficient amount of mileage in order to acquire an FIA Super Licence at the Young Driver Test in Abu Dhabi, Jan Charouz took part in first practice for HRT, replacing Vitantonio Liuzzi.^[3][4] Romain Grosjean drove in the place of Vitaly Petrov at Renault, while Luiz Razia replaced Jarno Trulli at Lotus and Nico Hülkenberg drove Adrian Sutil's Force India.^[3] With Liuzzi and Trulli on the sidelines, the first practice session became the first time since the 2005 United States Grand Prix that an Italian driver had not taken part in a timed session.

The circuit included one Drag Reduction System (DRS) zone, located along Reta Oposta.^[5] The detection point was located in the middle of the second corner, with the activation point 70 metres (230 ft) beyond the exit of Curva do Sol, creating a DRS zone of 600 metres (2,000 ft). According to FIA race director Charlie Whiting, Reta Oposta was chosen for the DRS zone because "the main straight usually gives a good enough opportunity to overtake anyway, [and] we don't want to make it too easy [to pass]".^[5]

After experimenting with a new compound of soft tyre during free practice in Abu Dhabi, Pirelli announced that the tyre would be used for the race in Brazil.^[6]

Qualifying

Vettel took pole position, his fifteenth of the season, breaking Nigel Mansell's record from 1992, for the number of pole positions in a season. Webber qualified in second place, just one tenth of a second slower than his Red Bull teammate. The two McLarens took over the second row of the grid, with Button ahead of Hamilton. Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg were on the third row of the grid, separated by half a second. Felipe Massa, Alonso's Ferrari teammate, qualified seventh ahead of Adrian Sutil, Bruno Senna and Michael Schumacher (who didn't set a time).

Race

Vettel lead the race after the start, but conceded the lead to Webber when his gearbox started causing him trouble. Vettel remained second in the race though, while Webber took his first, and only, win of the season. None of the other teams could match the pace of Red Bull in the race. Button managed to complete the podium with third position after being overtaken by Alonso early on in the race, but repassing him near the end. Alonso eventually finished fourth whilst Hamilton retired with a gearbox issue. Massa completed the year with a fifth-place finish. Sutil, Rosberg, di Resta, Kobayashi and Petrov completed the points scoring positions.^[7]

Bruno Senna received a drive through penalty after colliding with Michael Schumacher at the entry of the "Senna S" on lap 10.

Post-race

Jenson Button's podium meant that he stayed second in the Drivers' Championship, while Webber's victory meant he overtook Alonso to become third. Despite both their drivers finishing well inside the points scoring positions, Force India did not manage to overturn Renault's points total to take fifth place in the standings, and were left just four points behind. Kamui Kobayashi scored two points for Sauber to ensure that they kept seventh place in the standings as well.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Part 1	Part 2	Part 3	Grid
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:13.664	1:12.446	1:11.918	1
2	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:13.467	1:12.658	1:12.099	2
3	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:13.281	1:12.820	1:12.283	3
4	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:13.361	1:12.811	1:12.480	4
5	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:13.969	1:12.870	1:12.591	5
6	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:14.083	1:12.569	1:13.050	6
7	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:14.269	1:13.291	1:13.068	7
8	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:13.480	1:13.261	1:13.298	8
9	9	Bruno Senna	Renault	1:14.453	1:13.300	1:13.761	9
10	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:13.694	1:13.571	no time	10
11	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:13.733	1:13.584		11
12	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1:14.117	1:13.801		12
13	19	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:14.225	1:13.804		13
14	18	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:14.500	1:13.919		14
15	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1:13.859	1:14.053		15
16	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:14.571	1:14.129		16
17	17	Sergio Pérez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:14.430	1:14.182		17
18	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	1:14.625			18
19	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	1:15.068			19
20	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	1:15.358			20
21	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	1:16.631			21
22	22	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT-Cosworth	1:16.890			22
23	25	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	1:17.019			23
24	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1:17.060			24
107% time: 1:18.410
Source:[8]

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing-Renault	71	1:32:17.464	2	25
2	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	71	+16.983	1	18
3	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	71	+27.638	3	15
4	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	71	+35.048	5	12
5	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	71	+1:06.733	7	10
6	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	70	+1 Lap	8	8
7	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	70	+1 Lap	6	6
8	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	70	+1 Lap	11	4
9	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	70	+1 Lap	16	2
10	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	70	+1 Lap	15	1
11	19	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	70	+1 Lap	13
12	18	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	70	+1 Lap	14
13	17	Sergio Pérez	Sauber-Ferrari	70	+1 Lap	17
14	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	70	+1 Lap	12
15	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	70	+1 Lap	10
16	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	69	+2 Laps	19
17	9	Bruno Senna	Renault	69	+2 Laps	9
18	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	69	+2 Laps	20
19	25	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	68	+3 Laps	23
20	22	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT-Cosworth	68	+3 Laps	22
Ret	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	61	Alternator	21
Ret	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	46	Gearbox	4
Ret	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	26	Spin	18
Ret	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	21	Wheel	24
Source:[9]

Championship standings after the race

• Bold text and an asterisk indicates the World Champions.

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 Sebastian Vettel* 392 2 Jenson Button 270 1 3 Mark Webber 258 1 4 Fernando Alonso 257 5 Lewis Hamilton 227 Source:[10]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos. Constructor Points 1 Red Bull Racing-Renault* 650 2 McLaren-Mercedes 497 3 Ferrari 375 4 Mercedes 165 5 Renault 73 Source:[10]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.