14:35 The clouds parted earlier this morning and Sao Paulo has enjoyed the sunshine for the first time in several days.
 
Throughout the morning and early afternoon some cloud has built up, with a chance of showers during the race still keeping the teams glued to their radar screens.
 
The maximum air temperature this afternoon is higher than at any point during the weekend at 24 degrees Celsius.

70 minutes later qualifying two was resumed to a conclusion with another shock in store. Jenson Button stayed out on the drying circuit with full wet tyres when conditions began to favour intermediate rubber. He starts 14th.

Briatore takes FIA to court over life ban
 
(AFP) – 38 minutes ago
 
PARIS — Former Renault chief Flavio Briatore announced on Sunday he was taking legal action challenging the life ban he received from the FIA for his role in the Nelson Piquet junior crashgate affair.
 
In a statement Briatore described last month's punishment as "a legal absurdity" and expressed confidence that the High Court in Paris would find in his favour and quash the FIA's ruling.
 
The flamboyant Italian stood down as Renault team principal in mid-September, days before motorsport's governing body kicked him out of Formula One for his role in ordering Piquet junior to crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix to help fix the race for teammate Fernando Alonso.
 
Confirming a report that had appeared in a French Sunday newspaper Briatore said he was starting legal proceedings in the Paris Tribunal de Grande Instance (High Court) on Monday.
 
Spelling out the main grounds for his action Briatore listed the FIA's "deliberate breach of rights of the defence, a breach of the rules of natural justice and the FIA's manifest excess and abuse of power".
 
Briatore plans to challenge what he claimed was the FIA's lack of impartiality and the disproportionate and illegal nature of an indefinite boycott.
 
He added: "In this case the FIA has been used as a tool to exact vengeance on behalf of one man.
 
"This decision is a legal absurdity and I have every confidence that the French courts will resolve the matter justly and impartially."
 
Briatore, who is also seeking damages estimated in the French press at between 500,000 and one million euros, felt the full brunt of the FIA's disciplinary might in the September 21 hearing.
 
The inquiry also handed out a five year suspension to Renault chief engineer Pay Symonds while the team itself received a two-year suspended ban from the sport.
 
Alonso was cleared of any wrongdoing.
 
Briatore's ban for conspiring to fix the Singapore race was described at the time as excessive by F1 rights holder Bernie Ecclestone but was defended by FIA president Max Mosley.
 
Mosley, speaking after the Renault hearing, commented: "Briatore's problems were that he denied and continued to deny it even when it had become clear that he was implicated."
 
"He can no longer be associated with a team, with a championship. He can no longer get into the paddock of a FIA event. He can no longer be a driver's manager," added Mosley of Briatore who had management contracts with Alonso, Heikki Kovalainen, Mark Webber, Romain Grosjean and Piquet Jnr.
 
"It's sad to see a career end like that, but what else could we do?" added Mosley after the hearing.
 
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved.

15:33 Replays show that something fell off Vettel's Red Bull as he braked at Juncao on his out lap to the grid.

15:34 Vettel has pitted the Red Bull and the team are looking over the car to see what that problem was.

15:36 The sky is clouding over above the circuit and conditions are beginning to turn overcast.