Lewis Hamilton began his Brazilian Grand Prix weekend on the right foot by leading the first practice session.
His closest competitor on the time sheets was not championship rival Nico Rosberg but Max Verstappen. The Red Bull driver set the early benchmark time on soft tyres, partly aided by the slipstream from another car on the climb towards the pit straight.
The team mates of the top two followed them on the times sheets, Rosberg just over two-tenths off his team mate. As always around the short Interlagos lap the difference in times was small.
A quartet of Mercedes-powered cars followed them, led by Valtteri Bottas with the two Force Indias separating him from team mate Felipe Massa. Neither Ferrari driver set a time on the soft tyres and the pair ended the session at the bottom of top ten. Sebastian Vettel spun at Mergulho a few minutes before the chequered flag came out.
The Toro Rosso pair came next, Carlos Sainz Jnr ahead of Daniil Kvyat. The latter was delayed by a right-rear puncture which developed at the exit of Subida do Lago. Kvyat’s quick reactions kept his car pointing the right way and he brought the car back to the pits.
Renault test driver Sergey Sirotkin also had a brief session after a problem developed on his car.
First practice visual gaps
Lewis Hamilton – 1’11.895
+0.096 Max Verstappen – 1’11.991
+0.230 Nico Rosberg – 1’12.125
+0.476 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’12.371
+1.234 Valtteri Bottas – 1’13.129
+1.394 Sergio Perez – 1’13.289
+1.398 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’13.293
+1.423 Felipe Massa – 1’13.318
+1.672 Sebastian Vettel – 1’13.567
+1.674 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’13.569
+1.816 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’13.711
+2.195 Daniil Kvyat – 1’14.090
+2.401 Fernando Alonso – 1’14.296
+2.612 Romain Grosjean – 1’14.507
+2.736 Felipe Nasr – 1’14.631
+2.759 Marcus Ericsson – 1’14.654
+2.932 Esteban Ocon – 1’14.827
+3.013 Jolyon Palmer – 1’14.908
+3.053 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’14.948
+3.496 Charles Leclerc – 1’15.391
+3.905 Sergey Sirotkin – 1’15.800
Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.
Gxzero
11th November 2016, 13:38
Are the mercedes’s on different setups?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cw-9nMZXgAA_3WR.jpg
Maybe Rosberg is betting on wet weather with more downforce?
krxx
11th November 2016, 13:42
Game on
JackL
11th November 2016, 13:47
Anyone notice that his helmet is noticeably more Yellow?
Ninjenius (@ninjenius)
11th November 2016, 13:51
He is using a Senna helmet design.
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
11th November 2016, 13:59
Ferrari not looking at all sharp here. Mercedes vs Red Bull battle is ON.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
11th November 2016, 14:01
@chrischrill – Ferrari did all their runs on the medium (white) tyres, unlike the others who also ran softs in the last 60 minutes. See tyres used in stints here
Tristan
11th November 2016, 14:15
The beauty of Motorsports Manager is after every practice session there’s always some fan on social media saying “he’d be worried about that performance” and every single time I’m quietly grinning to myself knowing I’ve just spent the time perfecting the setup for the race…
ben (@djdapimp)
11th November 2016, 14:51
hey hows the game honestly?
Tristan
11th November 2016, 15:16
Incredibly fun, have hardly put it down, but not a full-blown simulation by any stretch of the imagination – it took a few races at least to get out of the “treat it like it’s real” mindset. There’s a real lack of team management and serious team politics, bar a few key personnel in each drivers engineer and a reserve driver, the upgrade paths are very one dimensional with little strategy involved as you’ll want/get them all eventually any way, and it’s full of mini-games like in practice with the setup adjustments and qualifying with getting the car up to temp or even just scouting for new personnel and offering contracts in general.
Besides all that which I hope comes across of constructive criticism the rest is an absolute blast. Making the tyre and fuel(depending on series) strategies on race day is absolutely as compelling as expected. Using your second car wisely to back up the field or take a chance on the alternate long strategy makes for real compelling gameplay, and when you get that race win you’ll find yourself as happy and relieved as Totto or Christian looks after a hard fought race.
All the graphics and gameplay options are of quality expected from a AAA title and bugs are rarely seen, beyond what may or may not be bugs in drivers asking for / complaining about incorrect strategies or setup options. The interface is also incredibly polished. I really recommend it even as an extremely frugal gamer who rarely (if ever nowadays) pays full price for a game, I was half expecting to have to refund and wait for a sale but I’m really really surprised at how high the quality is.
Hopefully the developer will continue to update it (or provide DLC’s) over time beyond what would be assumedly possible from the workshop support release as I think it could really benefit from more in-depth systems as opposed to just content. If only F1 races were as action packed as the driver AI/scripting makes these, I don’t think declining popularity would ever be a concern.
For a longer read be sure to check out F1Fanatic’s review, it’s pretty spot on.
STR2016
11th November 2016, 16:06
i bet there are a lot of Ham fans who loved MV in the mix. But don’t forget; he will go after Ham too if the weather gives him the possiblity :-)
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
11th November 2016, 16:12
5th is unusually high for Williams, especially in a practice session where they usually don’t show their true pace.