2007 Brazilian Grand Prix

The 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix (officially the Formula 1 Grande Prêmio do Brasil 2007 ) [ 1 ] was a Formula One motor race held at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in São Paulo, Brazil on 21 October 2007. The 71-lap race was the seventeenth and final race of the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship .

This was the first time since the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix that Rubens Barrichello failed to finish his home Grand Prix. It was also the first double retirement for both Honda since the 2006 French Grand Prix and Renault since the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix , and Heikki Kovalainen 's first retirement in his Formula One career.

For the event, the largest-scale repairs in the last 35 years were carried out at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace , to fundamentally solve problems with the track surface. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] The existing asphalt was entirely replaced. [ 4 ] At the same time, the pit lane entrance was enhanced to improve safety. [ 5 ] To facilitate the work, the circuit was closed and no events were held in the five months immediately preceding the race. [ 6 ] On 17 October, Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos (CP...

Alexander Wurz retired from Formula One at the end of the Chinese GP . He was replaced at Williams - Toyota by the Japanese driver Kazuki Nakajima , son of former F1 driver Satoru . As a result, three Japanese drivers were entered into a Grand Prix for the first time since the 1995 Japanese Grand Prix . Prior to the race, championship leader Lewis Hamilton (107 points) was four points ahead of second placed driver, Fernando Alonso (103 points). Kimi Räikkönen (100 points) was seven points behind...

Stewards fined McLaren, Honda and Super Aguri €15,000 each for tyre rule infringement. Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Takuma Sato used two sets of wet tyres, more than the one set permitted during the first practice. In addition, each driver had to surrender one set of wet tyres to avoid gaining any advantage. [ 17 ]

In session two, the two Hondas of Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button and the two Toro Rossos of Sebastian Vettel and Vitantonio Liuzzi went out along with Giancarlo Fisichella in his last race for Renault and Ralf Schumacher in the last race of his career in the Toyota .

Nico Rosberg made the top ten for Williams, and qualified on row 5 alongside Red Bull's David Coulthard . They lined up just behind Jarno Trulli in the Toyota and Robert Kubica 's BMW Sauber . Kubica's teammate Nick Heidfeld was sixth, and Mark Webber took 5th in the second Red Bull. McLaren took 2nd and 4th, with championship leader Lewis Hamilton ahead of Fernando Alonso . With his twelfth front row start, Hamilton set the record for most front row starts in a debut season. [ 18 ] Their fellow...

Only 21 cars were aligned on the grid, because of problems on the Spyker of Adrian Sutil , who started the race from the pit lane. At the start, the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Räikkönen were faster, with the Finn passing Lewis Hamilton on the outside. At the third corner, Fernando Alonso passed Hamilton on the inside and then, on the Reta Oposta, defended himself from the attack of the Briton by taking the inside line. Hamilton locked up his brakes and went off the track while trying to r...

Hamilton was trying to make up for the positions he lost: on lap 2 he passed Trulli and went into seventh, and four laps later he passed Nick Heidfeld to take sixth place. Just minutes later, he suffered a gearbox problem: on the Reta Oposta, he failed to find gears and slowed down, to be passed by most cars on the track. After going slowly for about 30 seconds, Hamilton managed to reset the computer of his car, and get it going again: he was in 18th place by then, and with the Ferraris pulling ...

At the front no position was changed: by lap 15, the Ferraris were almost 12 seconds ahead of Alonso, third. By that lap, Hamilton climbed to eleventh, having passed Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher , Anthony Davidson , Takuma Sato and Kazuki Nakajima , and having taken advantage from the retirement of Mark Webber , who was running in fifth position.

After 20 laps, the front runners began stopping for the first time: the first was Robert Kubica , who went for three stops; on the same lap Massa entered the pits. Räikkönen pitted on lap 22, carrying a bit more fuel than his teammate, to try to overtake him after the second stop. Alonso, Trulli, Vettel and Hamilton pitted on lap 22, with the Spaniard keeping hards, while Hamilton switched his strategy to a three-stopper (a rather risky strategy on the track which features the longest pit lane o...

After the first round of pit stops, Massa was leading with 3.3 seconds on Räikkönen, followed by Alonso, 17 seconds behind. Hamilton was 13th, again behind Barrichello, 50 seconds behind Massa. On lap 32, Nakajima entered the pits for his first stop, but he ran wide while entering his stand, injuring two mechanics in the process. They suffered no serious injuries.

23°42′13″S 46°41′59″W  /  23.70361°S 46.69972°W  / -23.70361; -46.69972