Ferrari on the “second row”

Sebastian Vettel: “Overall it was a difficult day."

Interlagos – The penultimate race weekend of the season got underway at Interlagos this morning with the first free practice session. On a Paulista track which still needs rubbering in to provide better grip, Sebastian Vettel was third fastest for Ferrari in 1.14.168, behind the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton (1.13.543) and Nico Rosberg (1.14.062.)

The German worked on race preparation, trying different mechanical set-ups to adapt the car as well as possible to the track, while team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, fifth in 1.14.549, did some aero testing, using flow measurement tools, to gather data that can also prove useful for next season.

Seb and Kimi round out the lead quartet in FP2

Sebastian Vettel was third fastest, in 1.13.345 and Kimi Raikkonen was fourth with a lap in 1.13.500, in the second free practice session for the Brazilian Grand Prix. Quickest was Nico Rosberg who posted a 1.12.385 in the Mercedes, ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton (1.12.843.)

The Ferrari men shared a workload based around set-up work and a comparison of the two tyre compounds, ending with long run testing. Once again, the data gathered was compromised by tyre graining caused by the track conditions. Bad weather had been predicted, although rain fell at Interlagos only at the start and end of the session, so that some parts of the track were wet, but it had no effect on the work plan.

Kimi Raikkonen: “In general, the two sessions were quite confusing: a lot of things happened and I don’t think we have got a clear picture. In the morning we spent the first half an hour to do some aero testing, then we had one run followed by a small issue with the set up and I spun off. In the afternoon a lot of things kept happening, always when we went out. We had some laptimes but it was quite messy in all ways. I haven’t seen what the others did in the long run, our race pace felt ok but we’re still struggling a bit. Now we have to look at what we did today and then try to fix certain issues for tomorrow. For sure we have some work to do.”

Sebastian Vettel: “Overall it was a difficult day. We didn’t get the best timing for our run, so now we look forward to the analysis of our laps. Hopefully we can make a step forward for tomorrow and improve the car. Today everybody struggled quite a lot with the tires: they seem even more tricky than last year, but then I think it was slippery for everyone. I tried to do the best I could, but maybe I wasn’t quick enough. The car was moving around and sliding quite a lot. Hopefully tomorrow we will be in better shape.”