(Reuters) – Formula One statistics for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix at Brazil’s Interlagos circuit, round 21 of the 24-race championship:
Lap distance: 4.309km. Total distance: 305.879km (71 laps)
2023 pole position: Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Red Bull one minute 10.727 seconds
2023 winner: Verstappen
Race lap record: Valtteri Bottas (Finland) Mercedes
1:10.540 seconds (2018)
Start time: 1700GMT/1400 local
BRAZIL
Brazil first hosted a grand prix at Interlagos in 1973.
Three current drivers have won in Brazil: Lewis Hamilton (2016, 2018, 2021), Verstappen (2019, 2023), Russell (2022).
The flowing anti-clockwise circuit is named after Brazilian driver Jose Carlos Pace, who won in 1975 and died in 1977, and is the second highest at 800 metres. It is also the fourth shortest after Monaco, Zandvoort and Mexico.
Hamilton clinched his first title in Brazil with McLaren in 2008 following an overtake on the last corner of the final lap.
Sunday will be the 41st world championship grand prix at Interlagos.
Michael Schumacher won a record four times at the Sao Paulo circuit.
There is no Brazilian driver on the starting grid, although Hamilton is an honorary Brazilian. The country has produced six race winning drivers and three world champions.
There is a high chance of a safety car. The track and pitlane has been resurfaced, making it an unknown factor for drivers with only one free practice session due to it being a sprint weekend.
WINS
Seven-times world champion Hamilton has a record 105 career victories from 352 starts, Verstappen has 61 from 205.
Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes have all won races this season.
Seven drivers have triumphed, the most in a single season since 2012 when there were eight.
Red Bull, who won all but one race last year, have now gone 10 without a win.
Verstappen has won seven times this season. McLaren and Ferrari five each and Mercedes three.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz won in Melbourne and Mexico, McLaren’s Lando Norris in Miami, the Netherlands and Singapore, Leclerc in Monaco, Italy and Texas, Mercedes’s George Russell in Spain, Hamilton in Britain and Belgium and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in Hungary and Azerbaijan.
Ferrari top the all time list with 248 F1 wins, McLaren have 188, Mercedes 128 and Red Bull 120.
SPRINT
Verstappen has won all four sprint races this year, with two remaining (Brazil and Qatar). He has won 11 of the 16 sprints to date.
Interlagos is the only circuit to have held a sprint every year since 2021 when the format was introduced.
POLE POSITION
Verstappen has had eight poles this year but last did so in Austria in June.
Leclerc took pole in Monaco, Belgium and Azerbaijan. Russell was fastest in Canada and Britain. Norris took the top spot in Spain, Hungary, the Netherlands, Italy, Singapore and Texas. Sainz was on pole in Mexico.
Hamilton has a record 104 poles, his most recent in Hungary in July 2023.
PODIUMS
Verstappen has 110 career podiums, Hamilton a record 201.
Verstappen and Norris have both been on the podium 12 times this season, Leclerc 11, Piastri and Sainz seven each.
CHAMPIONSHIP
Verstappen leads Norris by 47 points with four rounds remaining and a maximum 120 points still to be won. The championship cannot be won in Brazil.
McLaren are 29 points clear of Ferrari.
MILESTONE
Red Bull can equal the second longest scoring streak in F1 history in Brazil if they take a 64th successive top 10 finish.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ed Osmond)
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