Looking ahead to this weekend's Heineken Grande Premio de Sao Paulo, the eighteenth rounds of the 2021 season.

This week the F1 circus heads to Interlagos for the Brazilian Grand Prix, or rather, under the terms of its new contract, the Grand Prix of Sao Paulo.

As was the case last week in Mexico, F1 returns following a one year absence due to the pandemic.

Last time out, in 2019, Max Verstappen led home Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard wasn't present on the podium because at the time Lewis Hamilton was credited with third, however a subsequent time penalty for causing a collision with Alex Albon saw the world champion demoted to seventh.

The Interlagos win marked the last victory for the increasingly souring Red Bull-Renault partnership, the French manufacturer not returning to the top step of the podium again until Esteban Ocon's surprise win in Hungary ahead of the summer break this year.

Like Mexico City, Interlagos is considerably above sea level, and consequently is expected to favour the Honda power units. With Honda-powered cars filling three of the tops spots last week, Mercedes will be feeling wary heading into the weekend.

Verstappen loves Interlagos and other than his 2019 win has given some impressive performances here, however, Hamilton is a two-time winner and is equally at home on the classic track which first played host to F1 in 1972.

This weekend sees the third Sprint of the year, which means qualifying on Friday and the Sprint 'event' - which decides Sunday's grid - taking place on Saturday afternoon.

A number of drivers, including the Haas duo and Yuki Tsunoda have never raced here before, therefore they will head into qualifying with just one hour's experience of the demanding track.

Verstappen heads into the weekend with a 19-point lead in the championship, while in the team standings Red Bull trails Mercedes by just 1 point.

Still hurting from last weekend, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has promised that his team will throw everything it has at this and the remaining races and you can rest assured that this is precisely when the Black Arrows will be doing.

That said, in recent weeks there have been clear signs the German team is feeling the pressure, for never in the hybrid era has it faced such relentless pressure.

With Sergio Perez finally establishing himself, following his Mexican misery Valtteri Bottas will be keen to make amends, as the two wingmen seek to aid their respective teammates.

Betway has Verstappen at 4/7, Hamilton 9/4 and Perez at 10/1, while Bottas is 20/1 and Sainz, Leclerc and Gasly all on 50/1.

In terms of teams, Red Bull is favourite at 4/11, while Mercedes is 2/1 and Ferrari - an 11 time winner - here is 25/1.

Other than the Red Bull/Mercedes battle however, we have the prospect of another hard fight between McLaren and Ferrari for the dubious honour of 'best of the rest', while Alpine and AlphaTauri are tied for 5th on 106 points. Don’t forget, it is the Constructors’ Championship that decides who gets what from F1’s might prize pot.

The short and intense lap is one of the few anti-clockwise layouts on the calendar, with a non-stop succession of corners that keep the tyres working hard. Furthermore, the short lap means that traffic is often an issue and there’s also a high probability of the safety car, so any sprint qualifying or race strategy needs to bear that in mind.

Apart from the long uphill Arquibancada left-hander, all 15 corners are reasonably short, meaning that the lateral loads on the tyres are contained and the energy demands quite low: it’s more about traction and braking.

The weather in Brazil at this time of year can range from intense heat to torrential rain, with some grooves having been cut in the asphalt to help drainage in the event of heavy rain. Rain is expected on all three days of the event, the worst of it anticipated on Friday and Saturday.

With 74% of the lap taken at full throttle, this and the extra demands of the high altitude will see the turbocharger spinning at a higher speed to generate the same power as a sea level event, rotating at close to its maximum.

Due to the long periods of full throttle, the MGU-H has ample opportunity to recover lost exhaust energy. However, energy recovery is not necessarily critical as fuel consumption is relatively low due to the high altitude and lower air density.

Interlagos rarely fails to produce a classic event - after all, who will ever forget 2008, when Lewis Hamilton won the title at the last corner on the final lap - and we expect this year to be no exception.

Indeed, with the threat of rain, the possibility of the Sprint mixing up Sunday's grid, not to mention the 19 point gap between the protagonists, this could be a thriller.