Triple world champion Lewis Hamilton has never won the Brazilian Grand Prix and Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg intends to keep it that way for another year.
"With all due respect to his ambitions, I want to win there as well," said the German, last year's winner at Interlagos from pole position after he had lapped fastest in every practice session.
With Hamilton feeling sufficiently unwell to delay his flight to Brazil by a day on doctors' orders, Rosberg will fancy his chances of a Latin American double after his recent triumph in Mexico.
With both titles decided, Hamilton having wrapped up his third Formula One championship in Texas last month after Mercedes retained the constructors' crown in Russia, Sunday's race is all about the winner on the day.
Hamilton has now tried eight times to win in Sao Paulo, his best result coming last year when he was runner-up, and has only twice finished on the podium.
But he did clinch his first title there in 2008, when he finished fifth with a pass at the end of the last lap, and the race has a special place in his heart as home to his late boyhood idol Ayrton Senna.
"It was a dream of mine to race in Sao Paulo when I was younger and I always feel his presence when I'm there," the Briton said this week.
"It's amazing to think that it took Ayrton eight attempts to win this race and it's one of the few I haven't yet won myself," he added.
"If I can change that this weekend it would be a salute to him and another highlight to add to this amazing year, so I'll be going all out to make that happen."
Rosberg will again be the man to beat, the German chasing his fifth successive pole position to again deny Hamilton a career 50th, even if his team mate has no pressure on him.
The German said he was "pumped" after Mexico, where he completed his first career hat-trick of pole, fastest lap and victory.
"Last year was a good battle with Lewis, when I came out on top. Standing on the top step after a hard-earned win, following in the footsteps of so many great drivers who have won there and with the passionate Brazilian crowd cheering on -- that was a great feeling," he said.
"I'd love to experience that again, so the aim is to put on another good show for the fans and to carry my form from Mexico into this race."
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, who won in Brazil in 2013 and 2010, can still deny Rosberg second place in the championship and will be determined to finish strongly after both he and team mate Kimi Raikkonen retired in Mexico.
That failure ended a record run of 183 races with at least one Ferrari among the finishers.
Brazil will have two drivers in the race, with former winner Felipe Massa hoping to get back on the podium with Williams and Felipe Nasr making his home debut with Sauber.
Brazilian Grand Prix Stats & Facts
- Lap distance:4.309km Total distance: 305.909 km (71 laps)
- 2014 pole position: Nico Rosberg (Germany), Mercedes One minute 10.023 seconds.
- 2014 winner: Rosberg
- Race lap record: Juan Pablo Montoya (Colombia) 1:11.473, Williams 2004.
- Start time: 1600 GMT (1400 local)
- Tyres: Medium (white), soft (yellow).
- Mercedes have retained both titles, with the constructors' crown secured in Russia and Lewis Hamilton taking his third championship in Texas last month.
- Hamilton is the 10th driver with three or more titles.
- Mercedes have had 10 one-twos this season and won 14 of the 17 races so far.
- Hamilton (10) is the first driver to win 10 or more races in successive seasons. He won 11 last year.
- He can no longer equal the record, held by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel, of 13 wins in a season.
- Four-times world champion Vettel has won three races for Ferrari this season. That is the same number that Schumacher won in his first season at Ferrari in 1996.
- Hamilton has 43 career wins, putting him third in the all-time lists and pushing Vettel down to fourth with 42.
- Schumacher holds the record of 91, with Alain Prost on 51.
- Fernando Alonso has 32 wins, Kimi Raikkonen 20, Jenson Button 15 and Nico Rosberg 12.
- Ferrari have won 224 races, McLaren 182, Williams 114 and Red Bull 50. Mercedes have won 43.
- McLaren have not won for 55 races, a run that dates back to Brazil 2012.
- Hamilton has been on pole in 11 of 17 races this season, Rosberg five. The Briton has 49 career poles, Rosberg 20. Vettel has 46 career poles.
- Only two drivers in F1 history have had 50 poles or more: Schumacher (68) and Senna (65).
- Rosberg has been on pole in the last four races, winning only one of them (Mexico).
- Ten drivers from six teams have been on the podium in 2015: Hamilton, Rosberg (Mercedes), Vettel, Raikkonen (Ferrari), Valtteri Bottas, Felipe Massa (Williams), Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull), Romain Grosjean (Lotus) and Sergio Perez (Force India).
- Hamilton, Rosberg and Vettel have shared the podium in eight races.
- Rosberg has been second on seven occasions this season.
- Vettel has had 12 podium finishes so far this year, more than in his title-winning 2010 and 2013 seasons.
- Felipe Massa is the last Brazilian to have won his home grand prix, doing so in 2008 and 2006. Massa has not won since his last triumph at Interlagos.
- Felipe Nasr will be making his home debut with Sauber.
- Five of the current drivers have won in Brazil: Massa, Vettel, Raikkonen, Button and Rosberg.
- Rosberg won last year. The last driver to take back-to-back wins at Interlagos was Montoya in 2005.
- Brazil has been on the calendar since 1973, starting at Interlagos before moving to Rio de Janeiro and then returning to Sao Paulo, with the circuit named after the late Jose Carlos Pace.
- Hamilton has been on the podium only twice in Brazil and never won. However he did clinch his first title there in 2008.
- Pole position has translated into victory only 11 times in 32 races in Brazil, although the last two have gone with pole.
- Ferrari's failure to finish with either car in Mexico was their first such blank since Australia 2006 -- a record run of nine years and 183 races.
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