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The name from the Portuguese for 'between the lakes' because the circuit was built in a natural bowl which had two small lakes in it. They partly dictated the layout of the 4.496-miletrack which was unusual in the it twisted in on itself.
It was built in 1954 close to Sao Paolo which was Ayrton Senna's home city. Though it had a winding layout, it had a wide range of corners, some very demanding indeed.
Interlagos hosted the Brazilian GP from the first non-Championship race in 1972 to 1980, with the exception of 1978 when Rio de Janeiro held the race.
In 1980, the first corner, Curva 1, which was one of the great bends on the Formula One calendar, was tightened and then the Brazilian GP went to Rio de Janeiro until 1989.
The race returned to Interlagos in 1990 with a new layout which retained the old section on both sides of the start/finish line. The infield kept the character of the original, but lap distance was shortened from 4.946 miles to 2.687 miles. Naturally, one of the new bends was named 'Senna's'.
The official name of the circuit is the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace in memory of the brilliant Brazilian who, in 1975, scored the only Grand Prix win of his brief career at Interlagos.
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