Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet (Brasília) consisting of Nelson Piquet and Johnny Cecotto. The event had been run in tandem with another promotional race held in Brazil, the 2 Hours Curitiba, which was held the weekend before the race in Brasilia. The following year the BPR Global GT Series became the FIA GT Championship, and the Brazilian races ultimately proved to be a one-off. There was discussion in 1997 about the possibility of Formula 1 returning to the circuit, with a proposal initiated by Nelson Piquet to move the Brazilian Grand Prix from Interlagos to Brasilia from 1999 onwards, but this proposal was short-lived. In 2006,
Nelson Piquet Jr. the race. In Spain he finished 12th. Later, at the 2009 German Grand Prix, Piquet out-qualified his teammate for the first time. However, following the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix, he still had not scored any points in the season. On 3 August 2009 Piquet confirmed that he had been dropped by Renault. He hit out hard at his former manager and team boss Flavio Briatore calling him his 'executioner' and questioning Briatore's general Formula One knowledge. Piquet also said the Renault boss favoured teammate Fernando Alonso. Renault's test and reserve driver Romain Grosjean replaced Piquet for the rest of the