The weather didn’t improve much in the few hours since the opening practice session, with heavier rain dominating proceedings as Friday’s running at the Brazilian Grand Prix was brought to a close.
FP1 pace-setter Nico Rosberg again headed the timesheets, finishing up two-tenths of a second quicker than Sebastian Vettel, who is gunning for his ninth Grand Prix win in a row this weekend.
Mark Webber’s final Friday in F1 saw him endure yet another KERS failure, although he still ended up third-fastest behind teammate Vettel by a few hundredths of a second.
The Australian finished ahead of Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton, the latter of whom has seemed to struggle so far this weekend.
Drivers spent most of the session sat in their garages in order to save tyres in case they’re needed during the rest of the weekend, which is forecast to be impacted by rain. It wasn’t until the final twenty minutes when cars started to head out on the Interlagos track and post semi-representative lap times.
Kovalainen finished an impressive fourth-fastest, while Lotus teammate Grosjean was tenth.
The two Toro Rossos also showed well, continuing their fine form with both Jean-Éric Vergne (sixth) and Daniel Ricciardo (ninth) finishing inside the top ten.
Nico Hülkenberg again proved his worth, earning another top-ten result in his Sauber.
Contrastingly, there’s been nothing impressive out of the Force India garage this weekend so far. Adrian Sutil again finishing 15th-quickest while teammate Paul di Resta finished two places in front of him. The pair sandwiched the Williams of Pastor Maldonado.
The wet weather meant the no driver was able to head out on track with Pirelli’s prototype tyre that’s been brought to Brazil to gain data ahead of the major engine and chassis regulation changes next year. Quite how this will impact each teams’ final design work ahead of the 2014 pre-season remains to be seen.
2013 Brazilian Formula 1 Grand Prix – Free Practice 2 Session Times:
Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps | ||
1. | Nico Rosberg | ![]() |
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W04 | 1:27.306 | 12 | |
2. | Sebastian Vettel | ![]() |
Red Bull Racing Renault RB9 | 1:27.531 | + 0.225 | 10 |
3. | Mark Webber | ![]() |
Red Bull Racing Renault RB9 | 1:27.592 | + 0.286 | 18 |
4. | Heikki Kovalainen | ![]() |
Lotus F1 Renault E21 | 1:28.129 | + 0.823 | 13 |
5. | Lewis Hamilton | ![]() |
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W04 | 1:28.147 | + 0.841 | 9 |
6. | Jean-Éric Vergne | ![]() |
Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR8 | 1:28.405 | + 1.099 | 11 |
7. | Felipe Massa | ![]() |
Scuderia Ferrari F138 | 1:28.540 | + 1.234 | 9 |
8. | Nico Hülkenberg | ![]() |
Sauber Ferrari C32 | 1:28.560 | + 1.254 | 20 |
9. | Daniel Ricciardo | ![]() |
Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR8 | 1:28.739 | + 1.433 | 20 |
10. | Romain Grosjean | ![]() |
Lotus F1 Renault E21 | 1:28.891 | + 1.585 | 12 |
11. | Fernando Alonso | ![]() |
Scuderia Ferrari F138 | 1:28.928 | + 1.622 | 10 |
12. | Esteban Gutiérrez | ![]() |
Sauber Ferrari C32 | 1:29.049 | + 1.743 | 17 |
13. | Paul di Resta | ![]() |
Force India Mercedes VJM06 | 1:29.174 | + 1.868 | 11 |
14. | Pastor Maldonado | ![]() |
Williams Renault FW35 | 1:29.717 | + 2.411 | 13 |
15. | Adrian Sutil | ![]() |
Force India Mercedes VJM06 | 1:29.783 | + 2.477 | 7 |
16. | Valtteri Bottas | ![]() |
Williams Renault FW35 | 1:30.425 | + 3.119 | 15 |
17. | Sergio Pérez | ![]() |
McLaren Mercedes MP4-28 | 1:30.748 | + 3.442 | 8 |
18. | Jules Bianchi | ![]() |
Marussia Cosworth MR02 | 1:31.061 | + 3.755 | 18 |
19. | Giedo van der Garde | ![]() |
Caterham Renault CT03 | 1:31.118 | + 3.812 | 16 |
20. | Charles Pic | ![]() |
Caterham Renault CT03 | 1:31.165 | + 3.859 | 15 |
21. | Max Chilton | ![]() |
Marussia Cosworth MR02 | 1:31.211 | + 3.905 | 19 |
22. | Jenson Button | ![]() |
McLaren Mercedes MP4-28 | 1:31.770 | + 4.464 | 6 |
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Richard Bailey
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