2014 Brazilian Grand Prix

Championship standings

Hamilton leads the Drivers’ Championship with 316 points, 24 ahead of Rosberg in second. Ricciardo has secured third despite being absent this weekend. Bottas is fourth with 155 points, Vettel fifth with 149. The double points available at Abu Dhabi mean the championship cannot be decided in Brazil.

Previous race

Hamilton won in Austin for his tenth victory of 2014 and the 32nd of his career, surpassing Nigel Mansell’s record for the most Formula One wins by a British driver. It was Hamilton’s fifth consecutive race victory. Rosberg finished second, Ricciardo third. After the race Ricciardo was mathematically eliminated from title contention.

Between-race developments

Caterham and Marussia have been granted dispensation to miss this race as well, leaving an 18-car field for the second consecutive event. Pérez carries a seven-place grid penalty for causing an avoidable collision with Sutil and Räikkönen in the United States.

Track changes

The Autódromo José Carlos Pace has been completely resurfaced to reduce bumpiness. The pit lane has been reprofiled with the entry moved forward off the racing line at the Arquibancadas corner, and a new chicane added within the pit lane to slow cars. The pit lane exit has been relocated further from the track to allow a run-off area to the left of turn two. In response to Bianchi’s crash in Japan, procedures around the location of recovery vehicles at the Senna S chicane have also been revised.

Tyre choices

Pirelli originally nominated the hard and medium compounds — as used here since 2012 — but has changed the selection to medium and yellow-banded soft following unanimous agreement from all eleven teams. With the circuit newly resurfaced, concern arose that the hard compound would provide dangerously low grip levels.

Practice

Rosberg was fastest in all three practice sessions. He led FP1 at 1:12.764, ahead of Hamilton. During the session Juncadella, replacing Pérez for Force India, lost control at turn six and hit the turn eight barrier — a red flag. Force India lost FP2 participation from Pérez after replacing engine hydraulic components. Alonso’s Ferrari caught fire on the straight between turns three and four during FP2, and he stopped to get a fire extinguisher before marshals arrived. Vergne stopped with a sudden engine power loss after 11 minutes in FP2; Gutiérrez stopped with an ERS failure near the end, both triggering session interruptions.

Rosberg topped FP3 at 1:10.446 on soft compound tyres. Hamilton spun under braking for the Senna S chicane.

The FIA also tested a revised Virtual Safety Car system in practice, satisfying drivers with the improvements made since the United States Grand Prix.