Mark Webber claimed his second career victory at sunny Interlagos having started second behind Barrichello. The Red Bull racer shadowed the Brazilian veteran during the first stint of the race and while Barrichello was able to pull a three-second gap, his early stop cost him dearly as both Webber and Robert Kubica exited the pits ahead of the home-town hero.

Webber drove a flawless performance to add Brazil to his Nurburgring victory, taking the checkered flag eight seconds clear of Kubica in his BMW Sauber. Fittingly, the out-going champion Lewis Hamilton also put in a great performance from 17th position on the grid to finish in third position.

As Felipe Massa waved the flag on lap 71, Button crossed the line in fifth position and claimed the drivers’ championship for himself and the constructors’ championship for Brawn Mercedes.

Sunday Race Results:

Position (Points)	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gain/Loss
1 (10)	Webber	Red Bull Racing	71	1:32:23.081	+1
2 (8)	Kubica	BMW Sauber	71	1:32:30.707	+6
3 (6)	Hamilton	McLaren Mercedes	71	1:32:42.025	+14
4 (5)	Vettel	Red Bull Racing	71	1:32:42.733	+11
5 (4)	Button	Brawn GP	71	1:32:52.086	+9
6 (3)	Raikkonen	Scuderia Ferrari	71	1:32:56.421	-1
7 (2)	Buemi	Scuderia Toro Rosso	71	1:32:59.072	-1
8 (1)	Barrichello	Brawn GP	71	1:33:08.535	-7
9	Kovalainen	McLaren Mercedes	71	1:33:11.580	+7
10	Kobayashi	Toyota	71	1:33:26.405	+1
11	Fisichella	Scuderia Ferrari	71	1:33:33.746	+8
12	Liuzzi	Force India	71	1:33:34.469	+8
13	Grosjean	Renault	70	1:32:24.926	-
14	Alguersuari	Scuderia Toro Rosso	70	1:32:31.633	-2
15	Nakajima	Williams	30	41:25.793	-6
16	Rosberg	Williams	27	37:47.514	-9
17	Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	21	30:05.966	+1
18	Sutil	Force India	0	-	-15
19	Trulli	Toyota	0	-	-15
20	Alonso	Renault	0	-	-10

photo credit ©WRI2

The drama of final practice continued into qualifying for Sunday’s 71-lap Brazilian Grand Prix, with rain ensuring near lottery conditions early on for the 20 racers during qualifying at Interlagos on Saturday afternoon. Tonio Liuzzi had a big accident after aquaplaning on the pit straight, but by far the biggest scalp of the session is Sebastian Vettel, whose slim title hopes are in tatters after failing to graduate through Q1.

Nearly three hours after the start of qualifying, Barrichello crossed the line to claim pole position for his home race on a day when championship leader Jenson Button qualified 14th.

The opening practice session of the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend saw Mark Webber set the pace in his Red Bull Renault, four-tenths clear of the field. The 90-minute session was somewhat compromised by a light rain shower but Webber was able to move to the head of the timesheets late in the session to record a best lap of 1:12.463s.

Buemi and Button battled for the top spot for the majority of Practice 2, while Fernando Alonso top the top honor away in the closing moments of the session. The entire field, sans Fisichella, was covered by seven tenths of a second which lends one to think that qualifying will be a very close affair.

Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace video preview: