Practice Two - Hamilton pips Vettel at Interlagos 25 Nov 2011
Lewis Hamilton’s rehabilitation continued in Brazil on Friday afternoon as he topped the second free practice session, but it was a close-run thing as the top eight drivers - from McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes - were bracketed by just 0.480s.
Hamilton lapped his McLaren in 1m 13.392s, 0.167s ahead of Sebastian Vettel on 1m 13.559s and 0.195s up on the latter’s Red Bull team mate Mark Webber, who recorded 1m 13.587s.
Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari was rejuvenated by an engine change between sessions (since it was still within his allocation of eight there will not be any grid penalty), and the Spaniard took it round in 1m 13.598s.
Behind him, Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher pushed up to fifth with 1m 13.723s, which was the fastest time for a while, with Ferrari centenarian Felipe Massa next on 1m 13.750s from McLaren’s Jenson Button on 1m 13.787s and Nico Rosberg on 1m 13.872s in the second Mercedes.
It was a relatively uneventful hour and a half, with only the late stoppage out on the track of Sergio Perez’s Sauber providing a diversion. Unfortunately it also left the track yellow for a chunk of the final ten minutes, so nobody really improved towards the end.
After the top eight the animals came two by two, with Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta completing the top 10 for Force India with 1m 14.144s and 1m 14.807s respectively. Vitaly Petrov and local hero Bruno Senna were close-matched at Renault, with 1m 14.856s and 1m 14.931s, and the Saubers were also inseparable with Perez on 1m 14.970s and Kamui Koyabashi on 1m 15.019s.
Sebastien Buemi had no ill effects of having to miss FP1 and was 15th for Toro Rosso on 1m 15.264s ahead of Jaime Alguersuari on 1m 15.338s, and Pastor Maldonado just beat Rubens Barrichello at Williams, 1m 15.679s to 1m 15.903s.
This time Jarno Trulli was Lotus’s lead runner on 1m 16.298s to Heikki Kovalainen’s 1m 16.338s, but closest of the lot were the Virgins, as Jerome D’Ambrosio lapped in 1m 18.031s to Timo Glock’s 1m 18.051s. Finally, Daniel Ricciardo posted 1m 18.367s in his HRT with team mate Tonio Liuzzi close on 1m 18.476s.
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