F1: Fear, Fury and Fun as Formula One's SOP continues in Sao Paulo

Sao Paulo is famous for fun, frolics and for having its Interlagos circuit built worryingly close to some of the most violent and lawless districts of one of the world's largest (by population) cities. It's a strange juxtaposition of wealth, glamour and flamboyance on the one hand and desperate poverty, crime and dirt on the other.

The fact that the Formula One circus continues to make Brazil its only South American stop is a source of pride to Sao Paulo. Their track is one of the last of the old-style circuits, built into the landscape rather than imposed upon it: so much so that, when it rains, the landscape takes over and the track "between the lakes" becomes, in part, a river joining the two.

Every year, Brazil provides excitement in buckets. Some years, those buckets are full of rain and when it is hurled at the track, it is more than a simple leveller - it is a breaker of reputations and a sinker of hopes.

We have seen a terrible crash bring a confused end to a race where the result was certain - and then changed; a dying car snatch the championship from a driver who was celebrating with his family and crew and now we've seen a car and driver, both needed good news even more than other teams need a championship, snatch a pole position by such a margin that everyone else can do nothing but wonder.

Brazil is traditionally the place where end-of-term announcements are made. And, as we noted previously, Lotus has announced its no-surprise deal to use Renault engines along with the Red Bull transmissions previously announced.

But the announcement sparked off controversy and caused Tony Fernandes, usually Mr Polite (well, the words he says are even if the things he says are not) to get close to spitting the dummy.

It all began a few weeks ago when Fernandes announced that he had done a deal with David Hunt to use the name "Team Lotus" from next year onwards. Group Lotus, which is quietly building a racing team of its own, took umbridge and decided to seek an injunction to protect the name. Fernandes pointed out that the name was bought outright by Hunt with absolutely no rights reserved to Group Lotus when Team Lotus went bust 15 years ago. If Group Lotus had wanted it, he said, they had had 15 years to negotiate for it. Group Lotus only wants it now, he alleged at the time, because Lotus Racing - wrong name, wrong badge and no one outside the team actually calls it that - has proved both more successful than expected and been provided with waves of love that Group Lotus - and even more importantly its parent Proton - can only dream of.

Fernandes is Malaysian and the owner of AirAsia. He is in constant conflict with the Malaysian government over its support of Malaysia Airline System (MAS), a government-linked company. He complains that the actions of the Malaysian airports authority which allocate long-haul slots are designed to favour MAS and to stifle competition. Fernandes is not as loud-mouthed as, say, Ryanair's Michael O'Leary but he's not by any means a shrinking violet.

With both sides called to a meeting with former prime minister Mahathir, an adviser to Proton - also a government-linked company - Fernandes was effectively gagged over the issue when Mahathir reportedly told them to keep the spat out of the media.

When Lotus announced its deal with Renault, one word was conspicuous by its absence. That word was "Lotus."

And so, as the cars - having had no new aero parts for half the season struggled to find grip in the not-wet-enough-for-wets and not-dry-enough-for-slicks conditions, being constantly baulked on the scaled up go-kart track that is Interlagos, Fernandes finally lost his cool after being asked one-too-many times about the team name.

And in doing so he appeared to suggest that he has already resigned himself to losing at least a part of the team he has built from scratch and which didn't exist a year ago.

"Much said about our name. Too many people reading too much into it. We are Lotus Racing this season. Next season we are still Lotus," he grumped. Then he went on "Makes sense for racing team and Group to be reunited. How and whether it will and in what form will form discussions over next few months."

Soon, as the Lotus struggled amongst the cars for whom even being in the doldrums seemed a far-away hope for much of the season, all eyes turned on the middle of the grid. For, as qualifying came to an end, something quite marvellous was happening.

Jenson Button was not having a marvellous day: he had what appeared to be a dismal run, finishing in 11th spot but that might proved to be an inspired choice for he now has a free choice of tyres for the race. Qualifying was run in conditions in which no one had a clue what was going to happen to the track for more than five minutes ahead. So long as the race is declared a dry race (and the teams all agree that that is the most likely scenario) the top ten will start on soft tyres having changed to them in the dying minutes of the final qualifying session. They have all done at least three laps on those soft tyres. Button has two choices: new hard tyres and looking to jump the front runners as they pit after about 20 laps - and even to make up a few places in the opening two or three laps as his brand new tyres give more immediate grip. His alternative is to use a new set of soft tyres and rely on the fact that his tyres have at least three laps more in them than those ahead and with "new tyre" advantage off the line, he may make up several places in the first lap.

The most likely is that he will use the harder tyre: during his qualifying stint, only about half-a-dozen laps shredded his front-right tyre, an intermediate. His complaining that the car would not turn in was clearly vindicated. For him, promised a slew of new parts for this weekend, the annoyance must be that, in the wet, his car handles exactly the same as it did in Korea when he slid to the back of the field.

Hamilton's car, on the other hand, turns in exactly where he points it and he, along with the other championship contenders, are near the front.

"Near" not "at" the front: that is reserved for one of those stories that, last year, were reserved for Button, Barrichello and Brawn: giant killing. As Force India's challenge to be the best of the mid-fielders evaporates, the team with the most need to get some good news is Williams. With RBS sponsorship disappearing next year, the team is still looking for a major sponsor. There is talk that Hulkenberg will lose his seat to anyone who can come up with the money to sit in the car. When teams need money, cash speaks louder than talent.

Maybe Williams might want to rethink that, at least a little. In conditions that saw World Champions and veterans struggle Hulkenberg, coming to the end of his maiden season in a car that everyone expects to be firmly in the middle of the pack, changed his tyres to slicks and drove out onto the track with time to get around twice before the flag signalled the end of qualifying. He almost sauntered down the pit lane, he drove cleanly but not especially fast around the track, having a few little slides as he tested the edges of the dry lines. Until he arrived in the acceleration zone before the penultimate corner. There he lined the car up for that corner which most of the top drivers take flat out in the dry, using it as a slingshot across the pit-entry line and up the hill, along the main straight before standing on the brakes for a 90 degree left. As he lined up the car, he pressed the throttle and it leaped forwards. Despite the best efforts of Vettel, Webber, Alonso and Hamilton all of whom had topped the timesheets by the odd couple of hundredths, Hulkenberg went two tenths ahead. And when he finished he just kept on going, crossing the start-finish line with just under four tenths of a second before the flag he barrelled down the main straight once more. Car after car crossed the line and failed to beat him. But Hulkenberg kept on going, faster and faster. And faster. A minute and a half -ish after getting his first pole position in F1, Hulkenberg crossed the line again: this time almost a full second faster than his previous time and more than a second faster than P2.

For sure, he will find the start daunting. For sure, he has (surely?) used the best of his tyres. Yet, for one glorious night, Hulkenberg and Williams are right up there at the top of the timesheets. P1. Pole position. Numero Uno or whatever they say in Brazil.

Button, on the other hand, saw his day go from bad to worse. Sao Paulo is a place where everyone except Rubens Barrichello travels around in a security blanket. With an armoured car provided by his team, Jenson Button, his father, manager and trainer were being driven to their hotel by a specially trained local policeman when, in traffic, their car was approached by a group of men with assault rifles. Some snappy driving by the policeman got the car out of danger without any injuries to anyone in the car: no information is as yet available as to whether there were any casualties amongst the crowd. McLaren said the driver "reacted swiftly and, using avoidance techniques, rapidly forced his way through the traffic, taking Jenson and the other occupants of the car immediately away from any danger and back to their hotel." There are no reports of shots being fired. Lucky the road car handles in the wet.

But back to Hulkenberg whose achievement should not be understated: he has gained Williams' first pole for more than 5 years; the first pole by a Williams Cosworth since the early 1980s. His qualifying time was 1m 14.470s; Vettel was second with 1m 15.519s.

Even if he gets bundled off at the first corner, he's done a fantastic job. As a spokesman for Ferrari said "Hulkenberg on pole is the biggest surprise of the season! Congratulations to him and Williams." On a day when the Italian team had only grumbles about their own performance, that was gracious indeed.

And, with the irony of the AirAsia logo on the rear wing of the Williams, Tony Fernandes at last had something to cheer him up.