Maintaining appropriate levels of friction interface temperature is important for the overall operating effectiveness of modern friction brakes, and implicitly the safety of the vehicle. Measurement and prediction of the distribution and magnitude of brake friction interface temperatures are difficult. A thermocouple method with an exposed hot junction configuration was used for interface temperature measurement, and the magnitude and distribution of the friction interface temperature were investigated in this study. Using a designed experiment approach, the factors affecting the interface temperature, including the number of braking applications, sliding speed, braking load and type of friction material were studied. It was found that the number of braking applications had the strongest effect on the friction interface temperature. The real contact area between the disc and pad, i.e. pad regions where the bulk of the kinetic energy is dissipated via friction, had a significant effect on the braking interface temperature. For understanding the effect of real contact area on local interface temperatures and friction coefficient, finite element analysis (FEA) was conducted, and it was found that the maximum temperature at the friction interface does not increase linearly with decreasing contact area ratio. This finding is potentially significant in optimising the design and formulation of friction materials for stable friction and wear performance.