Nico Rosberg led another Mercedes one-two in second practice, lapping two-tenths of a second faster than team mate Lewis Hamilton.
But the session was interrupted by red flags on no fewer than three occasions. The first came when Jean-Eric Vergne’s car stopped suddenly on his sixth lap as he was entering the Subida do Lago.
The red flags came out twice more during the final half hour of running. Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari began producing smoke on the Reta Oposta straight, and flames appeared at the exhaust after he came to a stop.
Once that was cleared up there was only time for three minutes of green flag running before Esteban Gutierrez’s Sauber came to a stop close to where Alonso’s car had packed up. This was the last in a series of failures he experienced in both sessions.
The spate of breakdowns may have been related to the punishing temperatures during the afternoon session. The air temperature reached 30C and track surface temperature exceeded 55C, the latter giving several drivers problems with tyre degradation.
Kimi Raikkonen had a couple of off-track excursions but got closest to the Mercedes with a 1’12.696. Daniel Ricciardo was next, followed by the two Williams drivers.
Sergio Perez failed to set a time due to the damage his car suffered when Daniel Juncadella crashed it during first practice.
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Car | Best lap | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’12.123 | 36 | |
| 2 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’12.336 | 0.213 | 36 |
| 3 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’12.696 | 0.573 | 32 |
| 4 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-Renault | 1’12.956 | 0.833 | 24 |
| 5 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1’13.035 | 0.912 | 31 |
| 6 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1’13.099 | 0.976 | 27 |
| 7 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’13.122 | 0.999 | 20 |
| 8 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’13.254 | 1.131 | 35 |
| 9 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’13.333 | 1.210 | 28 |
| 10 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’13.479 | 1.356 | 33 |
| 11 | 13 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus-Renault | 1’13.497 | 1.374 | 33 |
| 12 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1’13.714 | 1.591 | 37 |
| 13 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1’13.882 | 1.759 | 32 |
| 14 | 21 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’13.902 | 1.779 | 25 |
| 15 | 99 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’14.204 | 2.081 | 36 |
| 16 | 22 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’14.209 | 2.086 | 31 |
| 17 | 25 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’17.171 | 5.048 | 5 |
| 18 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 0 |
Image © Daimler/Hoch Zwei
SennaNmbr1 (@)
7th November 2014, 17:40
“Kimi Raikkonen had a couple of off-track excursions but got closest to the Ferraris with a 1’12.696.”
I would hope he got closest to the Ferraris, considering he was in one! :)
hobo (@hobo)
7th November 2014, 17:43
It’s been a bad year.. :)
David (@ringridder)
7th November 2014, 17:44
I wonder how the Abu Double will turn out, there were a lot of technical failures already in this practice session. It seems al the more a lottery.
Himmat
7th November 2014, 17:50
Abu Double? What an amazing name sire!
David (@ringridder)
7th November 2014, 17:56
I cannot take credit, as I found it in some comments on this site :-)
@HoHum (@hohum)
7th November 2014, 19:48
I’m wondering how they will allocate the starting order from the pit-lane.
Julian (@julianwins)
7th November 2014, 20:03
I believe it’s whoever is there first.
hobo (@hobo)
7th November 2014, 17:49
Here’s a crazy question. It is not based on any rumors or anything, just thinking of scenarios. Considering how dominant Mercedes is and that we’ve seen drives from both HAM and ROS from the absolute back of the field, would it be worth getting a new engine and starting from the pit late a la Vettel?
It doesn’t seem so for ROS because, in my opinion, his best hope is to win Brazil and if HAM comes second then it opens possibilities in Abu Dhabi. Yes, HAM would need to be third or worse in Abu Dhabi, which is highly unlikely, but it’s something. Or if HAM finished third or later in Brazil then that would also open options in Abu Dhabi. Point being that it doesn’t seem to be worthwhile for ROS to get a new engine.
However, if HAM did, he could still drive to second in Brazil and then would have an engine with one race distance on it for Abu Dhabi. Less power loss, could push it harder. So if ROS was suddenly more competitive (say the track suits him better or something) in Abu Dhabi, HAM would have more power options.
I know, the team would probably not allow it, and maybe it’s still too risky given that a HAM win in Brazil would also be beneficial for his chances. I’m just wondering if this strategy has crossed anyone else’s mind.
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
8th November 2014, 11:29
I don’t think we will see Lewis or Nico starting from the pit lane. That would just be too much of a risk, even if it would mean to get a fresh engine and have fresh tyres for Sunday.
There is always the possibility to get involved into a collision or to get stuck in traffic.
I hardly think that Lewis, Nico or the team would consider that option.
Mayank (@mjf1fan)
7th November 2014, 17:52
So we had a time of 1:12.458 by Hamilton in 2012 as fastest q3 time and here we are, in FP2 with fastest time of 1:12.123. These cars have certainly become faster than there predecessors within one season. With the loss of downforce compared with earlier seasons this is a good achievement.
Also, this time could have been improved as Rosberg only did 1 flying lap with the soft tyres. Hamilton was able to improve his lap times after 3 flying laps.
Interestingly, FI are usually good around here but they seem to fall back in the development race and now even Lotus are faster then them. I don’t think they can catch Mclaren , no matter how much they say that they can overhaul them. :(
manu
7th November 2014, 18:34
Hamilton made a big mistake in the first lap so improving wasn’t too difficult. But he also had another lap where he could have topped the table but went into the pits so maybe the time could have been a bit lower. However given the track is a new tarmac, and less bumpy the teams can run lower and stiffer cars and therefore go a bit quicker. So the speed difference from 2012 isn’t completely clear given those the changes to the track
KaIIe (@kaiie)
7th November 2014, 18:19
Interestingly Räikkönen seems to be really on it this weekend. With everyone complaining about understeer I thought he would probably suffer more than other drivers, but looks like he has just found some more speed.
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
7th November 2014, 18:44
Interlagos suits Kimi’s smooth drivingstyle. Not many heavy-braking areas, a lot of medium-speed corners. Finally, Kimi seems to feel comfortable in his Ferrari (despite a couple of incidents, where he just got on to the grass with his right front and rear tyres).
Mark Backes (@markf1)
7th November 2014, 19:21
Don’t you worry, if his car doesn’t fail him in Q3, Perez will take him out in the race.
No but really, I think this just highlights the fact that Kimi requires a car which fits his style of driving. If he has one, he’s right up there for sure.
Lari (@lari)
7th November 2014, 20:43
Coincident that suddenly Kimi is up there (yes, this is practice, very little meaning) when Alonso is leaving Ferrari…hmm..
Tim M (@tim-m)
7th November 2014, 21:04
I guess this is Fernando’s best year…so much so that he’s on fire this weekend!
juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
7th November 2014, 21:51
The Willies are unusually near the top in FP1 and FP2. Maybe they’ve changed their practice methods (i.e. not full of juice) or they might be very fast here…
Deej92 (@deej92)
7th November 2014, 22:03
I had to laugh at Raikkonen’s little excursion. I thought he was going to take his 2012 detour at Juncao but there’s a fence there now!