The penultimate round of the 2022 season in Brazil will be remembered for two ‘firsts’ in Formula 1 in the careers of two drivers: on Friday, on the day valid for qualifying for the Sprint Race, Kevin Magnussen’s pole position surprise came to fruition, thanks to this result it also brought the first joy of its kind to the Haas team. Two days later, however, the even greater excitement was experienced with George Russellat his first success in the Circus. A victory celebrated with the emotion on the podium of the 24-year-old British, 113th different driver to conquer an affirmation in Formula 1. The number 63 of Mercedes therefore enters this special classification reserved for the winners, doing it in Brazil, a nation present continuously in the calendar of F1 from 1973 to today (even if the last two editions are known as the GP of San Paolo), with the sole exception of 2020 for the COVID-19 emergency.
In all these years, therefore, it will have happened that other riders have won theirs first career victory in Brazil, besides Russell? The answer is yes, and even in more than one case. The first of these was all in a green-gold sauce, and also has a direct connection with the present: this happened in 1973, two years after the consecutive successes of Emerson Fittipaldi in the first editions, which, however, had already won other career victories before the successes at home. It was to triumph José Carlos Paceeven in that circumstance on the circuit of Interlagos and at the wheel of the Brabham, right in front of fellow countryman Fittipaldi. That was therefore his first victory, but also his only one. In 1977, while his career was still in progress, Pace tragically died in a plane crash near Sao Paulo. In his memory of him, in 1985, the circuit on which he won was named after him.
It was different what happened in 1980, once again at Interlagos before moving to Jacarepaguà for the rest of the 1980s. The party, then, was not entirely Brazilian, but French: the first to cross the finish line, and for the first time in Formula 1, was in fact René Arnoux, moreover at the wheel of the Renault. The future Ferrari driver finished ahead of the late Elio De Angelis, who on that occasion set the new record for the youngest driver on the podium at the age of 21 years and 10 months.
Speaking of Italians, the last parenthesis of the first career successes in Brazil (before Russell) was completed in 2003, moreover in very strange circumstances. Under a violent downpour, the rest of the race unexpectedly rewarded Giancarlo Fisichellawhich he found himself struggling with Kimi Raikkonen for victory. However, with less than 20 laps to go, Mark Webber’s Jaguar crashed on the starting straight and lost debris on the track, including a tire. This was hit in full by Fernando Alonso, who also hit the barriers at high speed.
The violence of the crash pushed Race Direction to stop the race, just at a moment when Fisichella had started the 56th lap. However, for a error in the timing systemthe FIA did not calculate the passage of Physicist and, following the sporting regulations, the final ranking was drawn up on the basis of the classification two laps earlier (lap 53), when Raikkonen was in the lead. Consequently, the McLaren Finn was initially declared the winner ahead of Fisichella but, once the mistake was identified, the FIA relied on the 54th lap order, when the Roman driver was in command. For this reason, the winner’s trophy was given to the standard bearer of the Jordan (team at its last success in F1) by Raikkonen himself before the free practice of San Marino GPnext appointment of the world championship.
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