The man who won last Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix should have been second. The man who finished second thought he was first. The man who should have won didn't even make the podium, and the man who did complete the podium found himself instead in an ambulance. Atlas F1's Richard Barnes reflects on one of the most chaotic and confusing races in F1 history

Editor's Note: the article was written before the news of the FIA investigation on the results of the Brazilian Grand Prix.

It will make an apt trivia question for motor racing fans in future - 'Which Grand Prix didn't run its full course, wasn't won by the driver who crossed the line first on the last racing lap, and featured a two-man podium celebration?' The answer, of course, is the Brazilian Grand Prix of 2003. If those had been the only quirks of the event, Sunday's race at Interlagos would have been memorable enough. Yet the post-red flag developments were just the finishing touch on what had been one of the most unpredictable, atypical and exhilarating races in living memory.

The man who won should have been second. The man who finished second thought he was first. The man who should have won didn't even make the podium, and the man who did complete the podium found himself instead in an ambulance. Of the rest, many thought with some justification that they either could or should have won. With the number of full course yellows and safety car appearances, television viewers could have been forgiven for thinking they'd accidentally tuned in to ChampCars instead of Formula One.

Yet, amidst the chaos and uncertainty, there were reassuring signs that, in Formula One, some things never change. The first signal was the continued miserable luck of Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello on home soil. When 'Rubinho' inherited the race lead courtesy of a slight Coulthard error, it was all too predictable that the Brazilian fans' rapture would be short-lived. Barely minutes later, Barrichello's Ferrari shut down on cue, pitching the Brazilian into his ninth successive DNF at his home Grand Prix. The last time Barrichello finished at Interlagos, it was also tragically the last home Grand Prix appearance of Ayrton Senna.

If Barrichello's bad luck applies to Interlagos, misfortune has been Giancarlo Fisichella's career teammate. If any driver can challenge Jean Alesi's status as the right driver in the wrong car at the wrong time, it's Fisichella. It remains one of F1's great unfathomables that Fisichella, whose talents are recognised throughout the sport, has never been given a ride by the Ferrari/Williams/McLaren hierarchy. After more than six win-less seasons in F1, but ten creditable podium finishes in markedly inferior cars, it seemed that Fisichella had finally broken his win drought.

While his eventual demotion to second was doubtless heartbreaking for the Italian, it wasn't purely due to bad luck. On the contrary, Fisichella was uncharacteristically lucky during the race. He narrowly missed being taken out of contention by his own teammate Ralph Firman's front suspension failure at the end of the main straight, and the red flag came just in time for his stricken Ford engine. He also managed to avoid the Russian Roulette lottery at the turn 3 skidpan. Without decrying the skills of those drivers who managed to keep it on the tarmac, it's more than driver error when a single corner claims so many victims, Michael Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya among them.

If any external factor dominated Sunday's race, it was the twin torrents streaming across the circuit at turn 3. Symbolically, the race represented stormy waters for the Ferrari/Schumacher reign of the F1 kingdom. There was nothing symbolic about the very real storm water hazards faced by the drivers at turn 3 for lap after lap. In F1, barely a year goes by without some aspect of the Brazilian circuit or race management taking flak. From the abnormally abrasive track resurfacing project in 2000, to Jean Alesi almost collecting a falling advertising board, to football legend Pele missing his cue with the chequered flag last year, Brazil always seems to attract controversy and criticism. This year's drainage problems at turn 3 merely continued the trend.

While it provided a thrilling and unpredictable spectacle for the fans, such poor drainage is not acceptable at a modern F1 facility. It resulted in Interlagos becoming effectively two circuits midway through the race - 99% of the track suitable for running dry grooved tyres, coupled with a few dozen metres at turn 3 which could only be negotiated safely on full wet tyres. The multiple spins and shunts may have cost the teams and drivers dear, but they will have long-term benefit if it causes the FIA to rethink its 'penny wise, pound foolish' approach to achieving parity in the sport.

On the other hand, if the FIA's new rules can be credited at all for contributing to the thrilling three races that 2003 has delivered so far, then they're obviously doing something right. To date, the three 2003 GP winners have started 11th, 7th and 4th on the grid for their respective victories. It is unprecedented to have race winners triumph regularly from such lowly grid spots, and is a welcome improvement in a formula obsessed with track position and difficulty in overtaking.

It's also fitting that McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen has benefited most from the regulatory shake-up of the new season, for the young Finn has shown a refreshing disregard for the PR and politics that frequently mar the sport. It might bother a young driver that his more experienced teammate had outqualified him at every race in the season so far. Raikkonen's focus and resolve is so intense that it doesn't seem to even register with him. However, it does pose the question of how long he can maintain his unruffled image.

It's relatively easy for a young driver to lead the Championship during the early stages of the season. When the Championship pressure intensifies later in the year, and the prospect of being WDC becomes ever more tangible, Raikkonen will be hard-pressed to continue his current streak of successes. Even if teammate David Coulthard doesn't haul him in, Ferrari's Michael Schumacher surely will.

Schumacher has always experienced streaky fortunes during the pre-European opening stanza of each season. In the last three Championship-winning years, he's arrived in Europe with a comfortable Championship lead. In the late 90s, he usually arrived in Europe with much ground to make up on the Championship leader. Usually, that was a result of Ferrari being slow out of the blocks, and only improving after extensive development work as the season progressed. This year he has only himself, and an uncharacteristic three successive driving errors, to blame. While Schumacher's race-ending spin could fairly be attributed to conditions rather than genuine driving error, the German holds himself to higher standards. If other drivers made it through unscathed, Schumacher will probably feel that he should have. In either case, it's a theoretical point. The practical implication, that Raikkonen put another ten points of daylight between himself and the German reigning WDC, is more important.

During each of his Championship-winning years, Schumacher won at least one race pre-Europe. This year, he's failed to record even a podium finish. The arrival of the 2003 Ferrari may lessen the task ahead but, as things stand currently, Schumacher will have to conquer uncharted territory to record his fourth straight WDC triumph.

Coulthard, too, will be hoping for a competitive new 2003 car to launch what may be his last legitimate Championship challenge. He'll also be hoping that the early stages of Sunday's race reflect the way the Championship struggle will develop - the young guns, Raikkonen and Montoya, leaping to an early lead while the older and wiser heads, Schumacher and Coulthard, assessed the conditions carefully before mounting their own challenge. Usually, the more conservative and mature approach will prevail over the course of a full Championship season. But Raikkonen has an aura of quiet intensity that will be unsettling to his older rivals, and should occupy much of their thoughts during preparations for the next Grand Prix at Imola.