Brazilian Grand Prix: Nico Rosberg in front of Lewis Hamilton in FP2 at Interlagos

Nico Rosberg beat his Formula 1 teammate Lewis Hamilton to the top spot in the second practice session for the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos.

The German driver set a time of 1m12.385s halfway through the session, which ended up being quicker than Hamilton, who was quickest in FP1, by 0.458s.

Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen were third and fourth quickest for Ferrari, around a second slower than Rosberg’s fastest lap on the soft tyres. But the Scuderia’s drivers looked significantly closer to the Mercedes pair on longer runs.

Daniel Ricciardo, who is running a development Renault engine this weekend, was fifth quickest for Red Bull, just ahead of Valtteri Bottas in the Williams, despite the Finnish driver spinning at Turn 9 two thirds of the way through the session.

Romain Grosjean missed first practice, when he was replaced by Jolyon Palmer, but ended up seventh in FP2 for Lotus, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and Daniil Kvyat in P8 and P9.

Felipe Massa rounded out the top ten in front of his home fans, while Sergio Perez ended up 11th for Force India.

Pastor Maldonado, who baulked Will Stevens early on in the session much to the Manor driver’s irritation, was 12th, just ahead of the other Brazilian driver, Felipe Nasr.

Max Verstappen recovered to 14th place after a spin at Turn 8, just after he had told his team the car felt “very difficult to drive”, while his Toro Rosso teammate, Carlos Sainz, ended up 15th.

Jenson Button finished in P16 ahead of Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson and his McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso, who caused a red flag stoppage when his Honda power unit failed just 30 minutes into the session.