Lewis Hamilton has finished on top after the opening day of practice in Brazil. The 2008 Champion led the way from Sebastian Vettel, with Michael Schumacher moving into the top five for Mercedes. In a chiefly incident-free session, Sergio Pérez was the only driver to stop on-track as the weather stayed warm and dry.
After Mark Webber prevented a McLaren one-two result this morning, it was the Woking team which ended Friday fastest, with Hamilton delivering a 1:13.392 lap time; this edged out Vettel by a tenth, with the Red Bull duo split by three hundredths of a second. Notably, only seven and a half tenths covered the first nine runners.
Felipe Massa avoided contact with Jarno Trulli and was the highest-placed Brazilian in sixth, with Bruno Senna and Rubens Barrichello 12th and 18th respectively. After taking too much kerb at the Laranjinha hairpin, Pérez adopted a wider line but was forced to park his Sauber on the uphill gradient after Junçao due to a gearbox issue, with the downshift problem having caused the Mexican to overshoot the corner.
Force India enjoyed a positive day, with both drivers featuring in the top ten for the two sessions. Team Lotus made the most of a new, more DRS-effective rear wing to move to within half a second of Williams and 1.7 seconds ahead of Marussia Virgin. Curiously, team-mates are locked together in the final classification from ninth position to the tail end of the field.
- Post-practice feelings from pace-setter Lewis Hamilton
Third and final practice starts at 11am local time (GMT -2) on Saturday and can also be followed through the GPUpdate.net live report
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  L. Hamilton | McLaren | 01:13.392 | 35 |
| 2. | S. Vettel | Red Bull | 01:13.559 | 41 |
| 3. | M. Webber | Red Bull | 01:13.587 | 41 |
| 4. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 01:13.598 | 35 |
| 5. | M. Schumacher | Mercedes | 01:13.723 | 38 |
| 6. | F. Massa | Ferrari | 01:13.750 | 39 |
| 7. | J. Button | McLaren | 01:13.787 | 36 |
| 8. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 01:13.872 | 42 |
| 9. | A. Sutil | Force India | 01:14.144 | 41 |
| 10. | P. di Resta | Force India | 01:14.807 | 48 |
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