Practice report
Brazilian GP: Top 10 quotes after Friday free practice
Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time once again in the afternoon session, Nico Rosberg the second fastest.
Photo by: XPB Images
| Cla | Driver | Chassis | Engine | Laps | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Lewis Hamilton |
Mercedes | Mercedes | 41 | 1'12.271 | |
| “It's been a good day. We got through all of our run programmes and the car is feeling really good. It's pretty tough out here physically right now with the heat as high as it is. Not just in the car but for the guys in the garage too. Finding the right balance isn't easy either in these conditions as the tyres are getting really hot. But our long run pace seems to be strong so we can be happy with the start we've made today.” | ||||||
| 2 |  Nico Rosberg |
Mercedes | Mercedes | 40 | 1'12.301 | 0.030 |
| “It's been very hot out there today - more so than we expect it to be for the rest of the weekend. As a result, that makes it difficult to fully prepare for qualifying and the race. Other than that, it was a pretty normal Friday. Our car looks quick but Red Bull are definitely close. The Soft tyre is degrading quite a lot on the long runs, with blistering on the rears. There's a surprising amount of degradation on the Medium tyre too - but I think overall we've got decent pace on the long runs. Strategy-wise it won't be straightforward for the race. But, again, it's meant to get quite a lot colder so we could see something completely different on Sunday. It's great to be back in Brazil. It's a proper race track and it always feels special driving somewhere with so much history and tradition.” | ||||||
| 3 |  Valtteri Bottas |
Williams | Mercedes | 47 | 1'12.761 | 0.490 |
| “For a Friday, it was good. The balance was quite good in the first run, so it has just been fine tuning after that. The long runs were consistent, the car feels ok and the pace seems promising. But it’s only Friday so, like every weekend, we will need to find a lot more for tomorrow because everyone else will improve as well. I’m happy with today, but it’s tomorrow and Sunday that count. I think we can be more competitive than we were in the last race, but it’s difficult to say in detail after practice because everyone is trying different things.” | ||||||
| 4 |  Felipe Massa |
Williams | Mercedes | 43 | 1'12.789 | 0.518 |
| “It’s definitely been a good day. It’s always nice to see your name near the top of the leaderboard. I’m really looking for that competitiveness tomorrow and especially on Sunday. This is a track that I love and the people here really support me, which gives me so much more confidence. I hope we can stay up there this weekend. It won’t be easy but I will definitely try!” | ||||||
| 5 |  Daniel Ricciardo |
Red Bull | TAG | 43 | 1'12.828 | 0.557 |
| “Today it was really hot and you could feel the tyres were having a hard time, and it means we were not as quick as we’d like. On the long run today I didn’t feel we were that strong towards the end of it but I feel that once the track cools it’s going to be completely different. We are a bit closer to Mercedes than we probably expected, and there’s still a bit more to come from the car, but to really have a chance to win then I think we need some rain to help us. The rain would be fun just to change it up a little bit but even if it’s just cooler tomorrow and on Sunday as forecast it will be better on the tyres. Of course we will try and improve what we have done today but I think tomorrow will be another story.” | ||||||
| 6 |  Max Verstappen |
Red Bull | TAG | 45 | 1'12.928 | 0.657 |
| “First practice was really good this morning, we then made some changes for second practice which meant my short run pace wasn’t fantastic, along with the increase in track temperature. We went back on some of those changes and the long run in FP2 looked quite positive. I think we are happy with the pace over that distance, we just need to make some modifications for tomorrow to get the short distance pace back. Using both the soft and medium compound today meant we got a good understanding of how they will react around here, no real surprises to be honest. Mercedes are still too far ahead in my opinion but after them we are up there and competitive. I am hoping it will rain on Sunday as this will close the gap, give us a good shot at winning and add to the excitement. If conditions are like this then it will be a bit tougher for us to be up front.” | ||||||
| 7 | Sebastian Vettel |
Ferrari | Ferrari | 45 | 1'13.002 | 0.731 |
| “I think it was a tricky day. The track was very slippery, the temperature hot, and I think everybody was struggling with the tires. It was a bit difficult to find the rhythm. The long run was a bit better for us: I haven't seen what the others were doing, but I felt a bit more confident with more time and more laps in the car. So in total we tried a lot of things, and now we need to go and see what actually was best. Towards the end of the day it seemed to calm down a bit more, finding the rhythm, which wasn't the case for the short run, for the fast lap, where I wasn't very happy. The good news today are that the gaps were very close. Mercedes for sure, as expected, is a bit up front: but other than that, if it stays like this, it bodes well for tomorrow.” | ||||||
| 8 | Kimi Raikkonen |
Ferrari | Ferrari | 24 | 1'13.047 | 0.776 |
| “It was a pretty normal Friday: we tried different things to make it better for tomorrow. It was a bit tricky to find the balance, the set-up is not ideal yet, but we are going in the right direction. I only did a few laps with the Soft, it felt pretty ok and obviously it has the best grip. Unfortunately at the end of the second session we had an issue with one visor which obstructed the cooling duct: the brakes overheated and I had to stop.” | ||||||
| 9 | Nico Hulkenberg |
Force India | Mercedes | 42 | 1'13.299 | 1.028 |
| “It was a good Friday - just what you want from a day like this. We had two dry sessions and collected some very useful tyre information with two long runs. The car feels ok, but there is still a lot that can be done to improve the balance overnight. It’s a good starting point. It’s still too early to know just how competitive we are, but it feels like we have the potential for a strong weekend.” | ||||||
| 10 | Jenson Button |
McLaren | Honda | 19 | 1'13.440 | 1.169 |
| “On low fuel, the car didn’t feel too bad, it was relatively fun to drive. The balance still needs a bit of work on high fuel, but we didn’t get much running done because we had an issue with the exhaust temperatures and had to stop. Neither car did much long-running today, which is a pity because we need that information, particularly for our understanding of the Option tyre’s performance. Fortunately, the problem on my car should be very easy to solve; it’s just hurt today’s running. “Hopefully, we can get plenty of running in tomorrow – we need it. With the anticipated lower temperatures, qualifying should be fun – getting into Q3 will be tough, but that should be our aim. For the race itself, I’d like the weather to sort itself out and rain!” |
||||||
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