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"; Vergne ultimately replaced Buemi. 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. Luiz Razia drove in the place of Jarno Trulli at Lotus, while Romain Grosjean replaced Vitaly Petrov at Renault and Nico Hülkenberg drove Adrian Sutil's Force India. 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. The detection point was located in the middle of the second corner, with the activation point beyond the exit of Curva do Sol, creating a DRS zone of . 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]".

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.

Qualifying

Vettel took pole position, his fifteenth of the season, breaking Nigel Mansell's record from , 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.

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 24107% time: 1:18.410

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 23 Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 61 Alternator 21 3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 46 Gearbox 4 12 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 26 Spin 18 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 21 Wheel 24

Final championship standings

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

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

Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Bold text indicates the 2011 World Champions.

References

External links (archived)