Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, Interlagos, 2011

Hamilton leads Vettel at Interlagos

2011 Brazilian GP second practice

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Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, Interlagos, 2011
Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, Interlagos, 2011

The drivers who shared the front row of the grid for the last race were quickest in the second practice session in Brazil.

Lewis Hamilton headed the times in an uneventful session. He was followed by Sebastian Vettel, with the other Red Bull of Mark Webber in third.

Hamilton led the running early in the session on the harder tyres. Michael Schumacher briefly took over at the top of the times after switching to the soft compound.

Hamilton quickly returned to the top but Schumacher’s best effort remained within three-tenths of a second of the McLaren.

The Red Bull drivers were unable to beat Hamilton’s best time and Fernando Alonso took fourth.

Behind Schumacher were Felipe Massa, Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg. The two Force Indias completed the top ten, Adrian Sutil ahead of Paul di Resta.

Shortly before the end of the session Sergio Perez came to a stop at Juncao, telling the team he had a gearbox problem.

Pos. Car Driver Car Best lap Gap Laps
1 3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1’13.392 35
2 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1’13.559 0.167 41
3 2 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1’13.587 0.195 41
4 5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1’13.598 0.206 35
5 7 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1’13.723 0.331 38
6 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1’13.750 0.358 39
7 4 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1’13.787 0.395 36
8 8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1’13.872 0.480 42
9 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1’14.144 0.752 41
10 15 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1’14.807 1.415 48
11 10 Vitaly Petrov Renault 1’14.856 1.464 38
12 9 Bruno Senna Renault 1’14.931 1.539 37
13 17 Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1’14.970 1.578 32
14 16 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1’15.019 1.627 45
15 18 Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1’15.264 1.872 44
16 19 Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1’15.388 1.996 41
17 12 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1’15.679 2.287 43
18 11 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1’15.903 2.511 40
19 21 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1’16.298 2.906 36
20 20 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1’16.338 2.946 48
21 25 Jerome D’Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1’18.031 4.639 39
22 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1’18.051 4.659 45
23 22 Daniel Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth 1’18.367 4.975 42
24 23 Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1’18.476 5.084 42

Image ?é?® McLaren

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Keith Collantine
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28 comments on “Hamilton leads Vettel at Interlagos”

  1. it’s depressingly symmetrical

      1. Only MSC (slightly too quick) and JB (too slow) are off their theoritical spots. The rest of the grid is organized by pairs of cars.

    1. good position from P9 to P24 :D

    2. The Noah’s Ark grid, as I think Brundle – who else? – once called it.

      1. Brundle:
        The Force Indias are line astern.
        The Renault are line astern.
        The Sauber are line astern.
        The Torro Rosso are line astern.
        The Williams are line astern.
        The Lotus are line astern.
        The Virgins are line astern.
        The HRT are line astern.

  2. Normally Vettel will show his talent (or his great car performance) in qualifying

    1. Shows his talent in every session he participates in,He’ll need to give detailed feedback or ‘talent’ you may refer to it to setup his car(Optimum Balance,Ride height,Sway bar etc) to

      show his talent (or his great car performance) in qualifying

      1. @younger-hammii @PresidenAlonsista Of course. Being able to drive is one thing, knowing how to drive your own car is another. Remember, Webber is in the same car.

  3. Doesn’t amount to anything as Vettel is usual saving the best for the last.

  4. Seems as though RB have got the slight edge on race pace over the McLarens,who might have been Heavier on Fuel than RB.In addition,It looks as though the lap time difference between the Options & Primes is less than a Second IMO but most certainly reduced compared to the previous two races probably due to the track being shorter.i

    But Everyone would agree with me that its early days & the Track is evolving so Interesting to see what happens in FP3 tomorrow

    1. if we look back and reverse engineer the past FP sessions; (kind of comparing their quali simulations vs actual quali performance, and their long runs vs race laps) Red Bull usually run heavier in the quali lap simulations; and run a bit lighter in the race simulations.

      1. or maybe Seb just runs lower tyre pressure to improve in qualifying, though he may have hit the limit with that trick.

        1. EVERYONE runs a lower tyre pressure in qualifying. I can assure you 100% that would be the case. Don’t forget tyre pressures are not governed under Parc Ferme. You can change them between qualifying and the race.

  5. Want to see new pole seater. tired of vettel pole, and the yes,yes,yes thing hope Ham grab pole.

    1. To be fair you can’t really blame him. There were some races where you could see that the McLaren was the faster car; and they made mistakes, or Vettel was just the better qualifier. Hungary; Abu Dhabi; Monaco; Malaysia; Suzuka come to mind.

      1. Monaco, Suzuka and maybe even Malaysia to an extent when he locked up at the Penultimate corner,Hamilton made Mistakes not McLaren

        1. What I meant was, a McLaren should have been on pole, had it not been for the driver’s mistake the McLaren would’ve been. Not in terms of the McLaren team making a mistake…

          Ok maybe not in Malaysia, but in the other races.

    2. Seeing Hamilton finally win at Interlagos would be even better, he’s usually performed very average to poor here: 2007, very bad start, losing the title; 2008, nervy race and almost losing the title; 2009, excellent race to 3rd but starting from 18th (!!); 2010 mediocre qualifying and race.

      1. @david-br basically he’ll do fine as long as there isn’t a title at stake :P

        1. …which sadly there isn’t. Off-hand I can’t remember another track where Hamilton has seemed unable to dominate at least in one race. Maybe there are too many tensions surrounding the race (end of the season, association with Senna etc.) As far as I can tell, he’s one of the most popular drivers in Brazil, it’d be a good place for him to produce a great drive – maybe in the rain!

    3. Want to see same pole seater, tired of west screaming “hope Ham get pole” thing. Hope Vettel grab pole.

      (Hamilton isn’t even a very new pole sitter, if you want a “new” or “unpredictable” pole sitter, at least go for Buttton, Alonso, or anyone else not called Sebastian, Lewis or Mark).

      1. Why not Massa for a comeback pole? That would be awesome. OR Schumi for that matter.

  6. Good to see Team Lotus (Caterham, whatever…!) close up to the tail end of the midfield. The depressing fact is, that team, Williams, are three tenths off the next best place team.

    Unless Williams are making a Frakenstein of a car for next year, would Raikkonen to Williams be a sensible move for either party?

    1. Apparently the move is almost certainly off now anyway.

    2. @JamesF1 Certainly not. I would have loved Raikkonen back, but not with Williams.

  7. Hm, interesting that the times seem to be quite a bit slower than last year in FP

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