Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were separated by just 0.030s during second practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos.
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Championship leader Rosberg – who can win the title this weekend with victory in Brazil – closed the gap to Hamilton but it was the defending champion who topped the times at the end of both Friday sessions. Lap times were slower than in FP1, with Hamilton’s best lap of 1:12.271 some 0.4s slower than he had managed in the morning session.
The two Red Bull drivers were also slower than they had been in FP1 and Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen dropped to fifth and sixth respectively, with the Williams pair of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa jumping ahead of them, Bottas was third quickest, half a second slower than Hamilton, with his Brazilian team-mate just 0.028s adrift.
Williams did run the softs in FP1 but unlike Mercedes and Red Bull it improve in the afternoon session, although its long run pace was less competitive.
Ferrari ran the soft compound tyre for the first time having failed to do so in the opening session but remained in the lower reaches of the top ten, with Sebastian Vettel – who lost part of his front wing running over the kerbs late on – and Kimi Raikkonen both over 0.7s off the pace in seventh and eighth respectively, just behind the Red Bulls. Raikkonen was the last man within a second of Hamilton, with Nico Hulkenberg and Jenson Button rounding out the top ten.
Button’s running was limited to just 19 laps, with the 2009 world champion reporting three red lights on his dash before being kept in the garage for much of the second half of the session. Matters were even worse for McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso, who was told to stop on the outside of Turn 3 due to an ERS problem and had to jump clear of his car. With Alonso on the outside of the track, he spent the final 30 minutes of the session waiting by the barrier and kicking stones around as he waited for running to finish.
Alonso finished the session with the least mileage as he managed just 18 laps, finally finding a deckchair – as he had at the same circuit in 2015 – as he was handed the controls of a camera on the exit of Turn 2 and offered a few poor attempts at trying to follow a car.
Pascal Wehrlein only beat Alonso’s lap total late in the session after complaining of handling problems and spending much of the 90 minutes in the Manor garage. Wehrlein still ended up slowest overall, just behind Marcus Ericsson who had a spin at Turn 7 early on.
One incident being investigated after the session involved Carlos Sainz and Raikkonen, with the two running close together in the final sector. Raikkonen overtook Sainz – who was not at full racing speed – around the outside on the run towards the finish line before cutting across the front of the Toro Rosso to pit.
Romain Grosjean column: Time for Haas to raise its game
Chris Medland’s 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix
FEATURE: What Rosberg need to do to win the title in Brazil
INTERVIEW: Fernando Alonso: Why F1 is no longer just for heroes
TECHNICAL: Under the skin of the Ferrari SF16-H
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01
Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes
1:12.271
41
02
Nico Rosberg
Mercedes
1:12.301
40
03
Valtteri Bottas
Williams
1:12.761
47
04
Felipe Massa
Williams
1:12.789
43
05
Daniel Ricciardo
Red Bull
1:12.828
43
06
Max Verstappen
Red Bull
1:12.928
45
07
Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari
1:13.002
45
08
Kimi Raikkonen
Ferrari
1:13.047
24
09
Nico Hulkenberg
Force India
1:13.299
42
10
Jenson Button
McLaren
1:13.440
19
11
Fernando Alonso
McLaren
1:13.572
18
12
Daniil Kvyat
Toro Rosso
1:13.689
46
13
Carlos Sainz
Toro Rosso
1:13.801
47
14
Sergio Perez
Force India
1:13.918
38
15
Romain Grosjean
Haas
1:14.074
35
16
Kevin Magnussen
Renault
1:14.109
47
17
Felipe Nasr
Sauber
1:14.309
40
18
Esteban Ocon
Manor
1:14.317
46
19
Jolyon Palmer
Renault
1:14.436
43
20
Esteban Gutierrez
Haas
1:14.558
42
21
Marcus Ericsson
Sauber
1:14.695
21
22
Pascal Wehrlein
Manor
1:14.958
22