Sao Paulo Grand Prix Is Up in a Few Days, Battle Rages On

Argentinian driver Carlos Reutemann won the first demo race at this venue back in 1972, but it was an all-Brazilian affair for the next three years. Emerson Fittipaldi took top honors for the first official F1 race there in 1973 and then in 1974 as well.

Carlos Pace was the fastest man to race at Interlagos in 1975, but Nikki Lauda would step in to claim that spot for the following season. Carlos Reutemann was still in the game, and he won the 1977 event just before the relocation to Jacarepagua.

This Grand Prix would have two more Brazilian victories, with Nelson Piquet rising to the top in 1983 and 1986. F1 returned to Interlagos in 1990, and the Brazilian Grand Prix has been held ever since. Ayrton Senna and Felipe Massa are the only two locals to have won the event in the past 30+ years.

And it may take a while until the trophy returns to South America. Even to this date, Alain Prost is still in the lead with six victories in Brazil. Michael Schumacher is right behind with four, while Vettel and Hamilton are tied with three each.

Speaking of constructors, McLaren's record of 12 victories hasn't been affected in the past decade, with Ferrari being the only team that could change that this upcoming weekend. Both Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 and Red Bull Racing are stuck behind Williams for now, but the difference between the teams is minimal.

But let's have a look at the previous races in the hybrid era of the World Championship. Mercedes have won five out of the past seven races, with Ferrari and Red Bull tied with one victory each.

The Silver Arrows have dominated qualifying as well, with the same five-to-seven ratio when it comes to pole position results. But it was Max Verstappen that set the fastest laps on Saturday for the last two events. It's worth noting though that Valtteri Bottas claimed P1 in the sprint qualifying session of 2021, as his Dutch opponent crossed the line slightly over one second later.

Ferrari hasn't had much luck racing in Brazil since Vettel's 2017 victory. Kimi Raikkonen was the last Scuderia driver to score a podium finish for the Italians, but that happened in 2018.

Drivers are once again in for a busy weekend. After an hour-long practice session on Friday, qualifying is up next. Saturday at noon they'll get one last chance to set up the cars and then we'll witness the final Sprint race of the season. This is the third one for 2022, as the other two took place at the Austrian Grand Prix and the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Verstappen won on both occasions, but Leclerc was always close behind. With the Sprint race on Saturday, this brings double the pressure for drivers, especially for those who are fighting for one of the top spots in the championship rankings.

As always, the winning driver will have an extra eight points added to his name. For Leclerc and Perez getting to that point would be amazing, as they would immediately rank higher than Perez and Hamilton going into the race on Sunday.

We might even see George Russell taking P3 at the end of the season if all goes well for the Britton. But that would also imply a poor performance by Leclerc, which is not likely to happen. The result of the Sprint race will determine the starting grid for Sunday, and you can't help but wonder if Verstappen will win this one too.

Drivers will have to race for 71 laps, which adds up to 190.06 miles (305.879 km). Valtteri Bottas still holds the record for the fastest race lap at Interlagos since 2018, when he was clocked at 1:10.540.

Still, we've seen lap times around the one-minute and seven seconds marker in qualifying before so there's no telling how things will go down on Sunday. As always, we'll report back with more information after each session. Until then, here's a virtual lap of Interlagos to give you an idea of what the layout looks like.