Lewis Hamilton was the man to beat in first practice at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Brazil, setting the fastest time of the session.
Going into the penultimate race of the 2016 season, Hamilton sits 19 points behind teammate Nico Rosberg in the race for the F1 drivers’ title. A third straight win at Interlagos will give Rosberg his maiden title. The second Mercedes was third fastest, two-tenths off the pace.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was an impressive second fastest in the RB11, just 0.096s off Hamilton’s benchmark. The Dutchman was consistently quick in the tricky, middle sector but was losing out in the final sector, which is just a long straight.
Daniel Ricciardo was three-tenths down on his teammate’s time but was well clear of Williams’ Valtteri Bottas in fifth place. The Force India duo of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg were just behind in sixth and seventh respectively ahead of home hero Felipe Massa, who will be racing in front of his home crowd for the final time in his F1 career.
Both Ferraris opted not to use the soft tyres and were just inside the top 10, Sebastian Vettel leading Kimi Raikkonen.
The Toro Rosso duo of Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat were just outside the top 10 in 11th and 12th respectively.
Jenson Button led Fernando Alonso, Romain Grosjean, Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson.
Newly-signed Force India driver for 2017, Esteban Ocon, was ahead of Manor teammate Pascal Wehrlein whilst Charles Leclerc and Sergey Sirotkin were given practice outings for Haas and Renault respectively. They finished 21st and 22nd fastest.
