Perhaps one of the drivers more favoured tracks towards the end of this season, Interlagos is known for its unpredictable weather, fantastic wheel to wheel racing and now it seems its newly named 'butt plug' corner, courtesy of our commentator DavidLOLFace. With just 4 races to go of the championship after this, drivers knew it was crunch time and they couldn't afford any mistakes.
QUALIFYING
Surprisingly, qualifying ran uninterrupted (we'll get to this later) and we were treated to 3 sessions of glorious hot laps around this tight and unpredictable track.
It was more Q1 pain for MonkeyboyCurt97, having not been out in Q1 all season before Mexico, he fell to back to back eliminations at the first hurdle, once again missing the cut off and starting only 17th for the race
aliFerrari5 was serving a qualifying ban in this event, so would start right from the back of the field for this race, how high can he get from that starting position?
Perhaps the biggest shocks during qualifying were in the Q2 session. With a hesitance to start on the soft tyre, AG Passi, HurshS2004 and our winner of the two previous races RSF1 Easton were caught out by the soft runners and would start P14, P13 and P12. This fast trio starting mid pack would surely provide some entertainment for the viewers watching.
That left Q3 without its usual suspects and a chance for some new faces to the session to impress. AltijdDean, after putting hours of practice in on his new wheel, found himself P6 for the AlphaTauri team, brilliant from him and a testament to the preparation he put in.
ObjektFungus165 turned up in qualifying with a solid P2 on the grid, his best grid slot in many weeks. Shots2drippy however, became the first victim of 'butt plug' crashing on the way up into the wall, meaning he would start from 10th for the race.
But the biggest shout of the session has to go to JacobE66. What a performance in Q3 to demolish the field by nearly 6 tenths in his first qualifying in FPRL. His single lap advantage proving massive over the chasing pack, could he translate this into elusive race pace?
Here was the grid for the start of the race
RACE
Unfortunately for the league, the racers and the viewers, codemasters fantastic game once again played a part in determining the outcome of the race after numerous glitches and connectivity issues affecting drivers caused a restart of the race just a smattering of laps in.
It would be aliFerrari5 however, who completed literally a last to first challenge in the league with a fantastic drive to take the maximum amount of points for his championship fight, absolutely crucial given that he missed next weeks race in Australia with a race ban. He kept it clean throughout. He had an electric start, helped by penalties for drivers for jump starting, and was up to 4th by the end of lap 5 from 20th on the grid. Allowing him to be fighting the leaders of the race from the off.
Spare a though for AltjdDean, after all of his practice, was taken out off the line due to a game glitch for BrookyNaniMessi which meant his race was over a split second after it got underway. Also RSF1 Shaine was involved in an incident with CollateralAds94 at turn 3 which meant they both were out of the race, with the latter receiving a 10 second time penalty at his next race for the incident in question.
SwiftJoey, drafted in minutes before the start of the race, took a solid second place in his first FPRL race coming ahead of HurshS2004, the championship challenger who had a rather quiet race, putting in a solid performance to stand on the podium. ObjektFungus165 secured 4th to keep him in touch at the top of the standings, both drivers will be looking to capitalise on aliFerrari5's race ban at Australia.
Monkeyboycurt97 demonstrated his fine race craft, even if his qualifying performances haven't been up to the same standard recently, to take a solid 5th for Williams. Following the no points score for Shots2drippy in his Williams, these points were huge for the team in maintain a point scoring streak in their constructors challenge.
Twinzzz managed to sneak a point in 10th having started 16th on the grid. Silverside boi also put in a great performance to wrap up 2 points for himself. His performance was solid after serving that drive through at the start, and perhaps he could have found himself higher had he stayed out of the race day stewards bad books.
Our race winner from USA and Mexico RSF1 Easton was an unfortunate retirement along with AG Passi. It would have been really interesting to see where they could have finished from the midpack given their typical pace in this division.
But none of those points compare to perhaps the biggest heartbreak of the season so far. JacobE66, who absolutely dominated qualifying and continued to dominate in the race, managing tyre wear whilst keeping a healthy gap to those behind, suffered connectivity issues. Meaning his AI was left to drive the car for him until the end of the race. With the AI choosing to pit on his behalf not once but twice (for some odd reason) he would only pick up 8th in the final standings.
However, he certainly had already made his impression on the league before this unfortunate incident, and many may be worried going in to the next few races, that he may continue to dominate as he did here. With championship leader aliFerrari5 banned for the notoriously difficult race around Albert Park this week, his championship rivals must seize this opportunity to plug the gap, and perhaps many secretively have their fingers crossed that JacobE66 isn't available to race this week, so they have maximum chance to secure that full 26 points.
Here is an exclusive interview with championship leader aliFerrari5 following this weeks race.
Biddle: What were your thoughts starting last from your quali ban? Did you really think the win was possible?
aliFerrari5: I expect some people to spin or lose a wing in the first corner so I weren't too concerned about starting last but I didn't expect myself to win because we have some rapid drivers like Jacob and Easton until I found myself in 4th after the 5th lap.
B: How do you feel about your race ban next week and what it means for your championship?
A: As for the championship if hurshS2004 doesn't win at Australia then that means that I will be still in the lead of the championship and the upcoming races at imola and portimao are tracks that suit me well so I would expect myself to do well at these tracks.
B: Some people have suggested you were lucky to serve your ban next week at Australia rather than this week in Brazil, do you share that opinion or does it make no difference to you?
A: In my opinion yes I was kinda lucky because overtaking at brazil is much easier than Australia so I was more than happy to take my ban at Australia.
If there's one thing you can guarantee, one way or another, this weeks race is going to be perhaps the biggest chapter in the championship yet.
Join us LIVE on Thursday 9th December @ 8PM UK time for the latest instalment in this thrilling tier 1 championship around Albert Park, Australia. This is one not to be missed.