"Brazil is a great place to end the year because the Brazilians are verypassionate about Formula One and they will have a lot to shout about thisyear with Felipe Massa still in the running for the World Championship.
"The track is a good challenge for the drivers. You are in seventh gear asyou cross the start-finish line and you brake for Turn 1 at about 317kph(197mph). This corner is banked and has a blind apex, which makes thebraking quite interesting. You can brake very late, which makes it a verygood overtaking place.
"You then dive downhill into a right-hander and you're up into fourth gearby the exit. To help get the car turned in, you need a little lift here andyou need to be wary of a bump on the entry, which destabilises the car. It'squite a difficult corner and it will be even harder to get right this yearwithout traction control. Turn 3 is a long left-hander, which should beflat.
"You then shoot along the back straight towards Turn 4, where the brakingarea is very bumpy. You arrive in seventh gear and brake at 90 metres. Youcan carry a lot of speed around this left-hander if you're not forcing thecar, so you need to be very smooth; just let the car roll through the cornerand get onto the power as early as possible. You cannot afford to miss theapex kerb because that will slide you wide at the exit.
"Turn 5 is just a kink and you then come up the hill into a double-apexright-hander, Turns 6 and 7. There is a lot of lap time to be had throughhere because the apex is very long and it's not easy to get right becausethere is a crest in the middle which makes the rear of the car go light. Younever have a good balance through here and it's a good challenge.
"You're then into the slower part of the lap. Turn 8 is a second-gearright-hander, where you go fully over the kerbs on the inside. They arequite bumpy, but you have to use them because you gain so much lap time. Atthe start of the weekend the kerb is very slippery and by the end of therace there's lots of grip, so you have to judge how much rubber is down atany given moment.
'You then go over another little crest before throwing the car into the apexof the next left-hander. To be quick, you have to turn into the cornerquicker than you think is possible, but there's a compression in the middleof the corner that gives extra grip and turns the car in. It's a nicecorner, especially on low fuel, and you then have a short burst ofacceleration towards the hairpin at Turn 10. It's very slippery underbraking here, so it's easy to lock a front wheel and you have to bedisciplined behind the wheel.
"Turn 11 is a flat-out downhill left-hander and you then come to Turn 12,which is the most important corner on the track. It is second or third gear,depending on your ratios, and you carry your exit speed all the way up thehill towards the start-finish straight. You have to brake late, otherwiseyou lose too much time, but you can't out-brake yourself because it's vitalthat you make a good exit. You can jump the kerb on the inside, but not toomuch because your wheels will be in the air and you'll lose exit traction."
