Brazilian GP: Hamilton pips Bottas to top second practice – F1

Lewis Hamilton pipped Mercedes Formula 1 team-mate Valtteri Bottas to the fastest time in second practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The four-time world champion clocked a 1m09.515s on the super-soft Pirelli tyres to finish 0.048 seconds clear of Bottas at Interlagos.

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo offered the greatest threat to Mercedes, finishing 0.228s adrift in third with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel a further tenth back.

Hamilton led the way early in the session with the Briton clocking a 1m09.742s on the soft tyres, a tenth clear of team-mate Bottas.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was third, 0.433s off the pace with Kimi Raikkonen three tenths further back in fourth.

Raikkonen was the first driver to fit the super-softs for his qualifying simulation, but could only improve to third while team-mate Vettel’s attempt was still a tenth off Hamilton’s leading time on the softs.

Bottas moved to the top of the times with his first lap on the super-softs with Hamilton backing out of his first low-fuel run when he made an error in the middle sector.

Next time around, Hamilton had a cleaner lap on the same set of super-softs and promptly went quickest, his lap time just a quarter of a second quicker than his best on the softs.

Verstappen was fifth quickest, just over a tenth slower than team-mate Ricciardo, with Raikkonen sixth and Force India’s Esteban Ocon seventh.

Felipe Massa was eighth quickest on home soil, with Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso completing the top 10.

Alonso’s session was disrupted when he was recalled to the pits so Honda could investigate a problem it detected on the engine.

The Spaniard was able to get back out on track and do a low-fuel run before turning his attention to gathering long-run data for Sunday’s race.

His McLaren team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne, who spun out of the Senna S before continuing, was 13th quickest, two tenths slower.

Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson had a frustrating session, losing his car at the fast downhill left-hander at Pinheirinho, skidding across the run-off and tapping the barriers.

He recovered to the pits but took no further part in the session, ending up 19th quickest, a tenth slower than team-mate Pascal Wehrlein.

Antonio Giovinazzi borrowed Kevin Magnussen’s Haas for FP2 and was 20th and last.

FP2 times