Mercedes flexed their muscles in the second practice session at Interlagos, with only one of their rivals’ cars able to get within a second of their pace.
Nico Rosberg turned the tables on Lewis Hamilton who he lagged behind in the first session. He ended up over four-tenths of a second ahead of his team mate, despite reporting a problem with his gear shifts at one point.
Only Sebastian Vettel lapped within a second of Rosberg, backed up by the other Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen less than two-tenths of a second behind. Daniel Ricciardo ensured the top five featured the same drivers as seen in first practice.
Valtteri Bottas was sixth-fastest following a spin at Pinheinho. He was one of few drivers to set his first time on soft tyres before the session was interrupted by a red flag.
The stoppage was due to the McLaren of Fernando Alonso coming to a smoky halt at the exit of Bico de Pato. His team mate Jenson Button was told a power unit problem was the cause.
Having given over his car to Jolyon Palmer as usual during first practice, Romain Grosjean got his car up to seventh place, despite being troubled with a braking problem at the beginning of the session.
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Car | Best lap | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’12.385 | 42 | |
| 2 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’12.843 | 0.458 | 39 |
| 3 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’13.345 | 0.960 | 41 |
| 4 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’13.500 | 1.115 | 43 |
| 5 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-Renault | 1’13.585 | 1.200 | 39 |
| 6 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1’13.603 | 1.218 | 37 |
| 7 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Mercedes | 1’13.634 | 1.249 | 45 |
| 8 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1’13.710 | 1.325 | 43 |
| 9 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull-Renault | 1’13.848 | 1.463 | 40 |
| 10 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1’13.870 | 1.485 | 42 |
| 11 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’14.056 | 1.671 | 34 |
| 12 | 13 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus-Mercedes | 1’14.124 | 1.739 | 42 |
| 13 | 12 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’14.134 | 1.749 | 44 |
| 14 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’14.226 | 1.841 | 35 |
| 15 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’14.326 | 1.941 | 45 |
| 16 | 22 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Honda | 1’14.644 | 2.259 | 37 |
| 17 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’14.772 | 2.387 | 38 |
| 18 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Honda | 1’15.129 | 2.744 | 10 |
| 19 | 28 | Will Stevens | Manor-Ferrari | 1’16.501 | 4.116 | 35 |
| 20 | 53 | Alexander Rossi | Manor-Ferrari | 1’16.787 | 4.402 | 35 |
Second practice visual gaps
Nico Rosberg – 1’12.385
+0.458 Lewis Hamilton – 1’12.843
+0.960 Sebastian Vettel – 1’13.345
+1.115 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’13.500
+1.200 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’13.585
+1.218 Valtteri Bottas – 1’13.603
+1.249 Romain Grosjean – 1’13.634
+1.325 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’13.710
+1.463 Daniil Kvyat – 1’13.848
+1.485 Felipe Massa – 1’13.870
+1.671 Sergio Perez – 1’14.056
+1.739 Pastor Maldonado – 1’14.124
+1.749 Felipe Nasr – 1’14.134
+1.841 Max Verstappen – 1’14.226
+1.941 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’14.326
+2.387 Marcus Ericsson – 1’14.772
+2.744 Fernando Alonso – 1’15.129
+4.116 Will Stevens – 1’16.501
+4.402 Alexander Rossi – 1’16.787
Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.
Jayd
13th November 2015, 17:52
It’s weird both drivers were so far behind each other in the respective sessions. Could they have been taking it in turns with aero upgrades or something like that or…?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
13th November 2015, 18:46
Turns out Hamilton was using the wrong engine settings.
Illusive (@illusive)
13th November 2015, 18:59
The commentators said Nico was held up in traffic in his hotlap in FP1 and in FP2 Nico pushed harder than Lewis in his soft tyres which resulted in higher deg, Lewis was faster in racesim since he was easier on his tyre.
BasCB (@bascb)
13th November 2015, 19:25
But weren’t Hamiltons tyres worn down more than Rosbergs in the morning session @illusive?
RogerA
13th November 2015, 17:56
so looks like another tyre management dominated race where everyone is cruising around several seconds off the pace for fear of damaging a tyre.
i wish we could just get back to drivers been able to push hard through a race again, watching these tyre management races with drivers so far off the pace is so boring because it makes the cars look so slow & the whole thing such a dull spectacle.
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
13th November 2015, 18:24
Another?! The only tyre-dominated race I can think of this season was Malaysia and that was a pretty entertaining one.
I’d rather have these “tyre-management-races” than the usual Mercedes-1-2-snorefest.
At least we’ll see some interesting battles and some on-track overtaking on Sunday.
Would you rather have a boring 1-stopper and everyone just following the car in front with no possibility to overtake?
RogerA
13th November 2015, 20:28
The number of pit stops in a race has zero to do with how good a race is or how much overtaking there is. After-all Russia was a 1-stop race & that was one of the best races of the season with a lot of close racing & overtaking through the field.
The problem with the tyre management races is that the drivers are having to drive so slowly & so carefully that the cars just look really slow & unspectacular & that has taken a lot of the thrill of the sport away.
In the past when you had the drivers able to push the tyres harder & driving closer to the limits of the car you saw them make mistakes, You saw them get out of the car looking like they had just been challenged & watching the cars driving looked spectacular because they looked fast & they looked like they were on the ragged edge. Drivers would get out of cars post race & look like they had just had a really hard time, Now they get out & look like they have just been out for a short walk because there driving so far off the pace to save the tyres that its no longer a real challenge physically or mentally & thats why so many of them complain about these crappy tyres, Until they were gagged by Bernie that is.
@HoHum (@hohum)
13th November 2015, 21:20
@rogera, Keep up the good work, it’s amazing how hard it is to convince people of the bleeding obvious.
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
14th November 2015, 0:07
I agree with you on Russia, but the other 1-stop-races this season were catastrophically boring.
Besides the fact that a lot of cars only stopped once at Sochi, it was still a tyre- and strategy-dominated race. Lots of different tyre strategies made it the great race it was. Without the SC it would’ve been another Mercedes-dominated snorefest.
I also agree on the fact that in the past, let’s say about 10 years ago, drivers could push a lot more and it looked fast and spectacular. There were definitely some great battles, but literally no on-track-overtaking. Almost everytime the battle was decided in the pits.
However, the problem with these modern F1-cars is that overtaking (following a car closely) is very difficult and tyres that are more consistent won’t necessarily improve the racing/solve this issue.
RaceProUK (@)
14th November 2015, 14:18
Why was my question about the BBC live text coverage deleted? I genuinely wanted to know if I was the only one who thought it was well below their usual standards.