F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Hamilton and Bottas stay top of the class in Brazil

Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas topped the times in the second free practice session for the Brazilian Grand Prix in Interlagos.

Hamilton's time of 1:09.515s was some three tenths slower than the track record pace he had set in the morning. A brief light rain shower prevented any significant improvements in the final minutes of the session.

The top two were two tenths faster than Daniel Ricciardo in third for Red Bull, with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel next best ahead of Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen.

Brazilian Grand Prix - Free Practice 2 results

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:09.515s		42
2	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:09.563s	+ 0.048s	45
3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:09.743s	+ 0.228s	37
4	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:09.875s	+ 0.360s	48
5	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:09.886s	+ 0.371s	38
6	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:10.117s	+ 0.602s	45
7	Esteban Ocon	Force India	1:10.306s	+ 0.791s	49
8	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:10.373s	+ 0.858s	42
9	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault	1:10.396s	+ 0.881s	39
10	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:10.655s	+ 1.140s	31
11	Carlos Sainz	Renault	1:10.685s	+ 1.170s	42
12	Sergio Pérez	Force India	1:10.695s	+ 1.180s	43
13	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	1:10.902s	+ 1.387s	38
14	Lance Stroll	Williams	1:11.064s	+ 1.549s	44
15	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:11.300s	+ 1.785s	39
16	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	1:11.422s	+ 1.907s	44
17	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	1:11.821s	+ 2.306s	54
18	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber	1:11.857s	+ 2.342s	43
19	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:11.989s	+ 2.474s	17
20	Antonio Giovinazzi	Haas	1:12.417s	+ 2.902s	37

Despite forecast threats of rain, conditions for the start of second practice remained dry and bright, with track temperatures up to 49C. However, despite plenty of blue skies, the clouds were also building up as Haas' Romain Grosjean was the first to head out on track.

In an unusual move, the team had opted to deploy their development driver Antonio Giovinazzi in the afternoon rather than the usual FP1 appearance. He joined Grosjean in getting straight to work, sitting in for regular driver Kevin Magnussen for the 90-minute session.

Also quick to get to work was Toro Rosso's Brendon Hartley, following an engine issue before lunch had cost him almost all of his morning running. Team mate Pierre Gasly soon emerged from the garage to head out as well.

Everyone started their session on soft compound tyres. Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel swiftly took control of the timesheets with a first lap of 1:10.993s on the soft compound tyres. He and his team mate Kimi Raikkonen traded the top spot back and forth.

Eventually their cosy arrangement was broken up first by Red Bull's Max Verstappen and then Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas. After 20 minutes, Lewis Hamilton deposed his team mate from the top of the timesheets with a time of 1:09.792s. He quickly chiselled another tenth of a second with his next effort.

After half an hour, drivers started to switch to the supersoft tyres. That enabled Bottas to find some more time to go in front, Hamilton soon responding with a lap of 1:09.515s.

That proved decisive, as teams started turning their attention from flying lap to long distance runs. Hopes for any final qualifying runs were thwarted when a large black cloud materialised overhead and light rain was briefly reported on pit lane.

Earlier, Marcus Ericsson had compromised his session when he ran wide into the fast downhill left-hander at turn 11. He skimmed along the barrier with some force. Although his Sauber was clearly damaged, he was able to get underway and return to the pits for the engineers to start lengthy checks and repairs.

Other drivers had also been finding the limits of what they could do at Interlagos. Even Hamilton and Bottas both had minor run-offs and lock-ups early in the session.

Midway through the session, Stoffel Vandoorne spun in the McLaren going through turn 2. Ten minutes later Grosjean had a spin of his own at the end of the back straight. In both cases no harm was done and the drivers were quickly back underway.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.