Brazilian GP: Rosberg pips Hamilton in final practice

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel led the chase, 0.2s down, ahead of teammate Kimi Raikkonen, and the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo. 

Story of the session

Wind and rain arrived just before the hour-long session started. “Not really wet, no standing water, just damp,” reported Vettel on his installation lap on full wets.

“It’s very dry out here, we should be on slicks,” said Hamilton six minutes into the session as the shower cleared. He rejoined the circuit on the soft-compound slicks 10 minutes in, and promptly locked up and took the run-off at Descida do Lago.

Hamilton lapped in 1m16.980s before returning to the pits. Valtteri Bottas was next to run on slicks for Williams, improving the fastest time to 1m15.048s.

An umbrella then blew on to the track at Turn 1, causing a yellow flag. After that was removed, Massa set a new P1 time of 1m13.848s – much to the crowd’s delight in his final Brazilian Grand Prix. Bottas then improved to 1m13.942s in P2.

That pace prompted a flurry of cars to take to the track as the track dried out, and Raikkonen took over at the top on 1m12.860s using softs, with Ricciardo taking P2 on 1m13.762s on medium-compound slicks.

Raikkonen improved to 1m12.530s on his second lap, as Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg briefly took P2 from Ricciardo on 1m13.615s. Vettel then grabbed second place with 1m13.198s, and improved to 1m12.661s as the track rubbered in – a tenth away from his teammate.

Verstappen leapt to third at the halfway point, a tenth up on his teammate Ricciardo.

The Red Bulls switched to the softs with 20 minutes remaining, and Ricciardo jumped to the top of the times on 1m12.287s, almost a quarter of a second clear of Raikkonen despite a brief lockup at Laranjinha.

Verstappen took the top spot with 1m12.077s, but hopes that Red Bull and Ferrari might lead the way were dashed by Rosberg’s 1m11.787s, 0.29s clear of Verstappen, who then improved to 1m11.740s.

Hamilton’s opener was 1m11.833s, 0.093s off Rosberg’s best. Raikkonen jumped back to third on 1m12.027s – despite a lot of traffic towards then end of his lap.

Vettel then took P3 from Raikkonen, breaking the 1m12s barrier with 1m11.959s, 0.219s off Rosberg’s fastest time despite hitting some traffic.

Verstappen retained fifth from Ricciardo, with Bottas seventh, Renault’s Jolyon Palmer an excellent eighth, ahead of Massa and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso.

Issues for some

McLaren’s troubled weekend continued: Alonso was again a bystander at the start of the session, with his mechanics working furiously on a gearbox problem as he watched from hospitality. He joined in just before the halfway point.

Jenson Button suffered a problem with eight minutes remaining, and was told “stop normally, stop normally – there’s a hole in the data” as he cruised back to the pits.

Romain Grosjean had a big spin at Descida do Lago towards the end of the session. “Something weird with the car, I lost the car with no real reason,” he said.

Palmer suffered a big lockup with his Renault into the first corner, which caused him issues later in the session as he couldn’t see his dashboard due to the vibration.

Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson required an engine change ahead of qualifying.

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	Mercedes	19	1'11.740
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	21	1'11.833	0.093	0.093
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	14	1'11.959	0.219	0.126
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	16	1'12.027	0.287	0.068
5	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	19	1'12.077	0.337	0.050
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	21	1'12.287	0.547	0.210
7	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	Mercedes	27	1'12.614	0.874	0.327
8	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	Renault	19	1'12.968	1.228	0.354
9	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes	26	1'12.990	1.250	0.022
10	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda	12	1'13.002	1.262	0.012
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	Mercedes	14	1'13.203	1.463	0.201
12	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	19	1'13.231	1.491	0.028
13	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	Renault	15	1'13.255	1.515	0.024
14	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	20	1'13.293	1.553	0.038
15	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	15	1'13.344	1.604	0.051
16	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	Ferrari	16	1'13.596	1.856	0.252
17	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	13	1'13.609	1.869	0.013
18	Jenson Button	McLaren	Honda	9	1'13.750	2.010	0.141
19	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	Mercedes	20	1'13.972	2.232	0.222
20	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	Ferrari	14	1'13.992	2.252	0.020
21	Esteban Ocon	Manor	Mercedes	21	1'14.222	2.482	0.230
22	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	1