• Brazilian Grand Prix - FP2

Hamilton beats Red Bulls to fastest times

Lewis Hamilton was the fastest man in Friday practice at Interlagos © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Brazilian Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Lewis Hamilton
• |
• Sebastian Vettel
• |
• Mark Webber

• Teams:
• McLaren
• |
• Red Bull

Lewis Hamilton topped the second practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix, beating Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull to the fastest time by 0.167s.

On his first run on soft tyres, Hamilton went to the top of the timing sheets with a 1:13.392 and remained there for the second half of the session. Vettel and Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber were within two tenths of the McLaren but appeared to have superior race pace when the cars ran on heavier fuel loads. Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest in the Ferrari and could be in the hunt this weekend with a time 0.206s off the pace of Hamilton.

Michael Schumacher was one of the first drivers to switch to the soft compounds and the four-time Brazilian Grand Prix winner was on fine form, just 0.331s off Hamilton. Ferrari's Felipe Massa and the second McLaren of Jenson Button were close behind in sixth and seventh, with Schumacher's team-mate Nico Rosberg in eighth.

Adrian Sutil also showed promising pace with a lap 0.752s off Hamilton and 0.663s faster than his team-mate Paul di Resta in tenth. The Renault pair of Vitaly Petrov and Bruno Senna were lurking outside the top ten with the Saubers, Toro Rossos and Williamses lining up two-by-two further down the order.

The session was relatively free of thrills and spills, although a number of drivers were visibly struggling for rear-end grip in the twisty infield. Sergio Perez ran wide at Juncao towards the end of the session and parked his car in the run-off area with a suspected gearbox problem, but apart from that the marshals had no need to unravel the yellow flags.

At the very back of the field it was business as usual with the Lotuses, Virgins and HRTs lining up in that order. However, a new DRS rear wing on the Lotus shifted Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen closer to the back of the midfield pack.

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