Vettel leads close Ferrari one-two with ‘untidy lap’

Sebastian Vettel led a one-two for Ferrari in the second practice session for the Brazilian Grand Prix despite not being satisfied with his fastest lap.

Vettel pipped team mate Charles Leclerc by 21 thousandths of a second. However he was sure he could lap quicker than his best effort of 1’09.217.

“It was not a very tidy lap,” said Vettel on the radio. “[But] I am OK there. Focus on the long run. I know what I can do with these tyres so don’t worry.”

Lewis Hamilton, fifth-fastest, might also have lapped faster had he not caught his team mate at the end of his first flying lap on soft compound tyres. Mercedes gave Valtteri Bottas a two-second warning before Hamilton caught him, but he remained on the racing line at the exit of Mergulho, forcing Hamilton to dodge around him.

“Valtteri was just sitting there,” complained Hamilton, who had set the fastest middle sector time before catching his team mate. Bottas set the fourth-fastest time, yet was just 0.154s off Vettel, with Max Verstappen separating him from the Ferraris.

It wasn’t the only time in the session that the Mercedes operation didn’t seem up to its usual well-oiled standards. Hamilton arrived in the pit box at one point to find Bottas already occupying it. “You should have told me Valtteri was in, I would have made space,” he said.

Kevin Magnussen was an encouraging sixth-fastest for Haas, though Romain Grosjean struggled to get a good lap in and ended up 10 places behind his team mate. Behind him Daniel Ricciardo’s Renault, Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo, Alexander Albon’s Red Bull and Carlos Sainz Jnr’s McLaren completed the top 10.

Toro Rosso endured a troubled session. Pierre Gasly came to a stop before the end with an apparent engine failure, and Daniil Kvyat caused a red flag which ended the session with five minutes left to run. His Toro Rosso appeared to shut down as he approached Juncao, sending him spinning off.

Robert Kubica triggered a red flag at the beginning of the session when he crashed on his second lap of the day, Nicholas Latifi having driven his FW42 in first practice. Kubica’s car snapped into an unprotected barrier at turn three, causing heavy damage.

Georgwe Russell as over a second slower than the next-slowest car on a tough day for Williams. “I’m really struggling,” he admitted. “Just no grip. Tyres are just not biting.”

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Pos.	No.	Driver	Car	Best lap	Gap	Laps
1	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1’09.217		30
2	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1’09.238	0.021	35
3	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda	1’09.351	0.134	33
4	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1’09.373	0.156	37
5	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1’09.440	0.223	39
6	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	1’10.143	0.926	38
7	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	1’10.194	0.977	32
8	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1’10.210	0.993	39
9	23	Alexander Albon	Red Bull-Honda	1’10.275	1.058	31
10	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	McLaren-Renault	1’10.310	1.093	38
11	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1’10.325	1.108	31
12	10	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso-Honda	1’10.352	1.135	26
13	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1’10.419	1.202	36
14	26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Honda	1’10.424	1.207	34
15	11	Sergio Perez	Racing Point-Mercedes	1’10.443	1.226	31
16	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	1’10.504	1.287	38
17	18	Lance Stroll	Racing Point-Mercedes	1’10.568	1.351	33
18	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Renault	1’10.700	1.483	41
19	63	George Russell	Williams-Mercedes	1’11.818	2.601	36
20	88	Robert Kubica	Williams-Mercedes

Second practice visual gaps

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

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