2010 Brazilian Grand Prix

The 2010 Brazilian Grand Prix (officially the Formula 1 Grande Prêmio Petrobras do Brasil 2010 ) was a Formula One motor race held at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in the city of São Paulo on 7 November 2010 before 157,582 spectators. It was the 18th round of the 2010 Formula One World Championship and the 38th Brazilian Grand Prix to be held as part of the series. Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel won the 71-lap race starting from second. His teammate Mark Webber finished second and Ferrari 's ...

Entering the event, there were five drivers in contention to win the World Drivers' Championship while Red Bull led McLaren by 27 points in the World Constructors' Championship . Nico Hülkenberg for the Williams team took the first pole position of his career by recording the fastest lap time in the qualifying session. Vettel and Webber overtook Hülkenberg for the first two positions at the start of the race. Vettel was able to maintain the lead until his first pit stop to switch tyres and Webbe...

Some Formula One pundits suggested the Red Bull team would adopt a strategy in which Vettel would help Webber's title bid. [ 12 ] Webber courted controversy when he suggested Red Bull would support his teammate Vettel over him: "It's obvious isn't it? Of course when young, new chargers come onto the block, that's where the emotion is. That's the way it is." [ 13 ] His team principal Christian Horner believed Webber's words were taken out of context and that the driver was supported by the team a...

The Grand Prix was entered by 12 teams (each represented by a constructor ) and 24 drivers participated, [ 16 ] with one pre-race driver change. [ 17 ] The day before the first practice session, Hispania Racing for unexplained reasons announced Christian Klien would drive in lieu of Sakon Yamamoto whom Klien had also deputised for at the Singapore Grand Prix two months prior. [ 17 ] Force India cancelled a first practice session outing for third driver Paul di Resta because the team wanted to pr...

Rain briefly fell in São Paulo on the night of 5 November and returned the next morning. Weather forecasts suggested more rain would fall, albeit not to the same intensity than in qualifying in Japan and Korea. [ 29 ] This created a damp track, prompting drivers to use wet-weather tyres. Several drivers tested their cars to see how they would behave in qualifying with five minutes to go. [ 30 ] Kubica used the intermediate tyres to lap fastest at 1 minute, 19.191 seconds, three-tenths of a secon...

Williams driver Nico Hülkenberg ran more front wing angle than Barrichello, [ 1 ] and used super soft tyres earlier than the fastest teams. [ 33 ] [ 34 ] His final lap of 1 minute, 14.470 seconds earned him the first pole position of his career and the Williams team's first since the 2005 European Grand Prix . [ N 3 ] [ 36 ] He was joined on the grid 's front row by Vettel and Webber took third after traffic slowed both drivers. [ 1 ] Hamilton qualified fourth because he could not extract temper...

Button was the fastest driver not to progress to the final session after Massa demoted him to 11h in the closing seconds of the second session; [ 32 ] a lack of grip on a set of damaged intermediate tyres and brake and tyre temperature slowed him. Tyre wear left Kobayashi 12th. [ 1 ] [ 33 ] [ 38 ] Rosberg set the 13th-fastest lap and was slower than his teammate Schumacher for the fourth time in 2010, attributing the result to Buemi slowing his fastest lap. [ 32 ] [ 37 ] Alguersuari was the fast...

After the session, Buemi and Sutil each took a five-place grid penalty because the stewards deemed them to have caused separate collisions with Glock and Kobayashi at the preceding Korean Grand Prix. Both drivers were required to start from 20th and 22nd, respectively. This moved Heidfeld to 15th, Liuzzi 16th, Glock 17th, Trulli 18th, Kovalainen 20th and di Grassi 21st. [ 37 ] Rosberg reported Buemi impeding him in the second session to the stewards, who rejected the complaint after scrutiny. [ ...

The fastest lap in each of the three sessions is denoted in bold .

Notes:

Behind the first four drivers, Schumacher fell to tenth due to a driver error putting him onto the grass. [ 1 ] Kubica moved from seventh to sixth and Button advanced from eleventh to ninth. [ 43 ] Petrov made a slow start, mounting a kerb at the exit of the Senna S Chicane to avoid colliding with Alguersuari and fell to 22nd. [ 1 ] [ 44 ] Towards the end of lap one, Hamilton was slow out of Junção turn, allowing Alonso to challenge him on the main straight, but Hamilton retained fourth place at...

At the start of lap four, Alonso steered right to attempt to overtake Hülkenberg; the latter blocked Alonso into the Senna S chicane; [ 47 ] Hülkenberg ran with his rear wing at a high angle, making him vulnerable to a pass and it required him to steer left and brake later than Alonso. [ 1 ] On lap five, Alonso again failed to pass Hülkenberg on the outside into the Senna S chicane. This allowed Hamilton to close up to Alonso, albeit not close enough to pass him. [ 40 ] [ 43 ] On the seventh lap...

On lap eight, Hamilton made an unsuccessful overtake on the outside of Hülkenberg for fourth into the Senna S chicane. [ 46 ] This was due to a lack of tyre grip, [ 48 ] and he sought to conserve his tyres since he did not want to overheat them in the aerodynamic turbulence created by the airflow over the rear of Hülkenberg's car. [ 43 ] In his first lap out of aerodynamic turbulence, Alonso was unable to close up to the Red Bull cars; [ 47 ] Vettel opted to avoid tyre strain and losing grip in ...

On lap 30, Button overtook the yet-to-pit Kobayashi on the inside into the Senna S chicane for fifth position. [ 40 ] Barrichello attempted to pass Alguersuari for 13th on the outside at the same corner five laps later and the two made contact. Barrichello sustained a front-left puncture and slowed en route to the pit lane for super soft tyres. He rejoined the race one lap behind Vettel. [ 46 ] Four laps later, Rosberg overtook Kobayashi on the inside into the Senna S chicane for sixth place. [ ...

Lap 51 saw the sole safety car deployment. [ 47 ] Liuzzi lost control of his car on a kerb to the outside of the second Senna S chicane due to a suspected front suspension failure. He crashed into a barrier to the track's inside at the bottom of a hill before the exit of the turn. [ 1 ] [ 40 ] [ 46 ] Liuzzi was unhurt; [ 43 ] a suspension rocker penetrated his car's left-front monocoque and touched his foot. [ 49 ] His car was deemed to be in a dangerous position and a recovery tractor moved it....

Racing resumed at the conclusion of the 55th lap when the safety car was withdrawn when Liuzzi's car was removed from the track. [ 40 ] [ 48 ] Vettel led as lapped drivers separated him, Webber and Alonso in second and third. The first three lapped faster than they had done before the safety car and prevented Hamilton and Button from gaining further positions. [ 1 ] Alonso managed the wear on his tyres to allow for a challenge to Webber, who was distanced by his teammate Vettel with a sequence o...

The top three drivers appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and spoke to the media in a later press conference. [ 4 ] [ 21 ] Vettel said it was important for him to pull away from Hülkenberg after he passed him: "The car felt fantastic. All throughout the race I was able to hold the gaps as I planned, so I could control the race from there. With the safety car in the end it was the right choice not to try to pull away too much, to have some tyres left." [ 51 ] Webber agreed the start ...

Afterwards, the Red Bull team celebrated their first World Constructors' Championship. [ 52 ] Christian Horner commented on how Red Bull was regarded as "a party team" after they purchased Jaguar in 2005: "In six years, this team has come from a team that no-one took seriously – that everyone thought was a party team – to the 2010 F1 constructors' champions. We have finished ahead of teams with far more experience and heritage than ourselves – we took them on and we won, thanks to the tremendous...

Drivers who scored championship points are denoted in bold .