We are almost at the end of the Formula One season and it has been a great learning experience for me.

The Interlagos circuit in Brazil is the only race in the F1 calendar that is run in South America. People in this part of the world love Formula 1 and come in large numbers to cheer and watch the race. The Brazilian fans are passionate and luckily for them they have been blessed with many great drivers.

The Interlagos circuit is one of the rare anti-clockwise circuits in the F1 calendar. As mentioned in my earlier articles, this nature of the track puts a lot of stress on our neck muscles. The body is not used to making so many left turns so by the end of the race, one has physically taken a lot of beating inside the car.

Another feature of this track is that it is very bumpy. It sort of gives you a headache after racing on this track for sometime. The G-forces felt on braking, and on turning really makes this one of the most physically demanding races.

Having said that, I am really looking forward to racing this weekend. Our new car has shown promise as can be seen from our result in the last race. It was one of my best finishes and my teammate finished in points.

I had a great race but was unlucky with my choice of tyre selection when I came in for my final pits. We took a gamble and tried the dry tyres, which proved costly since the track was still pretty wet. We had expected the conditions to dry up sooner but that didn’t happen and hence I finished a little lower than I should have.

I also had a good battle with Jacques Villeneuve for a position at Spa.

I had been chasing him hard and spotted an overtaking opportunity. We turned in to the corner together and I just didn’t have any place left on the track, which forced me to go over the grass. I came out in front of him and then I managed to pull away from him. Luckily for me I didn’t damage my car as it so easily could have.

My practice session on Friday was pretty reasonable. I think we have found the right tyres. Unfortunately on my flying lap in the second practice session, I had a car in front of me so my last sector was a bit slow. But apart from the traffic, I am relatively satisfied with my performance so far this weekend.

My car for this weekend will be on a different strategy than my teammates. It will be more of a race set-up and we are looking to have a good race and finish strong. There is again no match for the McLarens this weekend and they are just unbelievably quick, but I don’t think they will be able to stop Alonso from clinching his first world championship. TCM