1997 Brazilian Grand Prix

The 1997 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at Autódromo José Carlos Pace near Interlagos, Brazil on March 30, 1997. It was the second race of the 1997 Formula One Season.

Pre-Race
Between the Australian and Brazilian grands prix, Mastercard withdrew their sponsorship from the Lola team. This meant that sponsorless cars were shipped to Brazil. However, they were forced to stay in the garage for the weekend as there was no longer any money for the team. After the race the team officially resigned from the championship.

Qualifying
Jacques Villeneuve took his second consecutive, and his career fifth, pole position after a 1:16.004, over half a second faster than Michael Schumacher in second. Gerhard Berger and Mika Häkkinen completed the second row.

Race
The race was red-flagged after several incidents at the original start. As in Australia, Jacques Villeneuve went off the track at the first corner. Behind this, an incident involved several drivers including Damon Hill, Eddie Irvine, Giancarlo Fisichella and Jan Magnussen. Irvine took some blame for the incident. Additionally, Rubens Barrichello's car failed on the line, and the track blockage was what ultimately caused the red flag. Barrichello took the restart in the spare Stewart, causing Magnussen to miss the race.

The race was restarted with all 72 laps still remaining. Villeneuve had a clean start, as did the rest of the field. At the end of the first lap Villeneuve passed Michael Schumacher to retake the lead. Later before the first pit stops Berger would also pass Schumacher down the pit straight into the first corner. Damon Hill was once again affected by reliability issues, his engine failing with four laps remaining. He was running in fourth place at one point, but had slipped down the field before retiring in the pits, the engine aflame. The winner of the previous race, David Coulthard, was off the pace and finished in 10th place.

Standings after Grand Prix

 * Drivers'  Championship standings


 * Constructors'  Championship standings


 * Note:  Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.