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Brazilian GP: Bottas and Mercedes in command of FP2

It was a small edge - just 0.003s - but one which allowed Valtteri Bottas to top Friday's second free practice session in front of team mate Lewis Hamilton.

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel was third, just 0.073s behind the afternoon's leader, while Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen rounded off the top-five.

2018 Brazilian Grand Prix Free Practice 2 times

Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:08.846s 48
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:08.849s + 0.003s 43
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:08.919s + 0.073s 42
4 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:09.164s + 0.318s 44
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:09.339s + 0.493s 28
6 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:09.412s + 0.566s 42
7 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:09.769s + 0.923s 44
8 Charles Leclerc Sauber 1:09.943s + 1.097s 44
9 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:10.007s + 1.161s 39
10 Esteban Ocon Force India 1:10.159s + 1.313s 45
11 Sergio Pérez Force India 1:10.320s + 1.474s 23
12 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso 1:10.330s + 1.484s 44
13 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:10.332s + 1.486s 36
14 Carlos Sainz Renault 1:10.458s + 1.612s 48
15 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:10.532s + 1.686s 44
16 Sergey Sirotkin Williams 1:10.569s + 1.723s 46
17 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 1:10.596s + 1.750s 26
18 Lance Stroll Williams 1:10.662s + 1.816s 44
19 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso 1:10.734s + 1.888s 46
20 Nico Hülkenberg Renault 1:11.674s + 2.828s 6

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was first to leap into action when the green light came on at the start of the second Friday free practice at the Autodromo José Carlos Pace.

His first lap on mediums stopped the clock at 1:10.587s, and while he trimmed a tenth off the next time around he was soon displaced by team mate Sebastian Vettel's 1:09.990s.

Daniel Ricciardo nipped in front by 0.093s but the Red Bull was swiftly eclipsed by Valtteri Bottas, the Mercedes driver opening his post-lunch account with a lap of 1:09.668s that was itself quickly beaten by Vettel's latest effort which put the Ferrari a tenth of a second back in front.

Meanwhile, in the Red Bull garage, FP1's fastest runner, Max Verstappen, was in waiting mode as his mechanics tended to an oil leak on his RB14. "The oil tower has developed a crack," Christian Horner told Sky Sports F1, admitting that it had probably happened in Mexico and it was fortunate that it hadn't cost Verstappen his victory there.

Just ten minutes into the session, proceedings were abruptly halted by red flags when Renault's Nico Hulkenberg ran wide and crashed heavily at Turn 13, sparing himself any injuries but severely damaging his R.S.18

Once the wrecked chassis had been swept up and dispatched back to pit lane, the session resumed with most drivers keen to get back to work.

Not among them was Vettel, who had reported "there's something loose between my legs, apart from the obvious!", quickly adding: "I'd be proud if it was what you think it is but it's not!" before anyone else could. The Ferrari engineers went to work, fearing a possible issue with the suspension.

Out on track, Raikkonen was back up to speed and topping the timing screens with his latest effort of 1:09.508s despite a little lock-up along the way.

Lewis Hamilton responded and punched in a lap of 1:09.245s on a fairly old set of soft tyres, which survived early supersoft challenges from Vettel and Bottas.

Eventually Vettel found some extra time and went top with 1:08.919s - the fastest time of the day so far despite increasingly windy conditions.

However he remained happy with the car, reporting over the team radio that "there’s still something lose, jumping back and forth" and the pit crew once again went to work searching out a suspected errant piece of debris that had found its way into the cockpit.

Bottas took the opportunity to pop in front of the Ferrari by 0.073s. When Hamilton eventually made his own supersoft run he was just three thousandths of a second off his team mate's time.

Repairs over, Verstappen finally joined the fray and was soon up to sixth place on the timesheets on a set of soft compound tyres.

However, with rain threatening to move in, teams started to switch to long distance runs rather than qualifying simulations.

Twelve laps into a long run on softs, Hamilton reported over the radio that "Something just doesn't feel right". But a pit stop resulted in a quick check before he was sent back out, problem apparently solved, although he would later complain about the rear of his W09 "not working".

Among the heavy runners in FP2 was Sauber's Charles Leclerc, the Ferrari-bound driver putting himself comfortably in the top-ten, a performance that bodes well for a run in the points come Sunday.

In the closing stages of the session, Romain Grosjean and Carlos Sainz enjoyed a feisty squabble into the first corner, with both men perhaps forgetting that it was free practice-Friday rather than the last lap on race day.

The skies remained menacing but the rain failed to appear, the session concluding with the Silver Arrows duo of Bottas and Haùmilton in command.

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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.

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