(Merceds AMG PETRONAS F1 Team)
The Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team's Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton set the pace on Friday as the on track action got underway at the Interlagos circuit ahead of Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix. The Mercedes duo completed a combined total of 134 laps to end the day half a second clear of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen. Speaking following the action Nico Rosberg stated:
'That was a good day and we are very quick again at this circuit. The track has a new surface which made it quite tricky. It’s smooth and not quite so bumpy as it has been in the past – but the tyres were blistering because of the high temperatures and the new asphalt. That was a bit worrying, but we are expecting it to be a bit cooler over the weekend. I’m looking forward to tomorrow – it should be a great battle.'
Lewis Hamilton who goes into this weekend's penultimate race in Brazil with a 24 point lead over Rosberg stated:
'The car felt good today. There are a few improvements we can make but I just didn’t manage to put a lap together out there. That’s not a big issue, though.
It’s just practice so that’s what we’re out there trying to do. I’m not sure how many laps we’ll get out of the tyres as there were quite a few red flags at the end so we didn’t get the best opportunity for long runs but that’s the same for everyone. It’s hard to tell where the tyres are compared to 2013 with the different compounds as we didn’t have any dry running until the race last year. Otherwise the circuit felt good.
It’s nice and smooth and the grip is good. It’s different every time we come here and you never know what the weather is going to do. But that’s what makes this such an exciting race. '
Mercedes Executive Director (Business) Toto Wolff stated:
'It looked like a pretty normal day in terms of performance, with Nico and Lewis trading fastest times during the two sessions, but the temperatures were much higher than we are expecting for the rest of the weekend. So we will have to anticipate how to develop the set-up in the right way.
It was also an interrupted day, with several red flags, which made it a challenge for the boys to get into their rhythm. I would like to compliment the promoters on the job they have done with the new track surface. We have heard good feedback, likewise on the safer pit entry, and the higher grip level has also cut lap times to levels we have not seen for a number of years, which is great for the fans here in Brazil.
Mercedes Executive Director (Technical) Paddy Lowe commented by saying:
'We managed to follow our normal programme today, running two sets of prime tyres in the first session on low and high fuel, followed by the prime and option in second practice, also on low and high fuel loads. Mechanically, it was a trouble-free day and the newly resurfaced circuit proved much quicker than expected and, although the tarmac was dirty early in the day, it soon cleaned up. The tyre behaviour shifted during the day: in the early runs, they were not really in their working window, while towards the end of the afternoon, when we saw some of the highest track temperatures of the season so far, we saw some heavy blistering.
The major difficulty now will be that the weather predicted for tomorrow and Sunday is much cooler than what we saw today, so our long runs will not have been particularly representative. That will make it all the more important to anticipate the evolution in conditions and make the correct set-up decisions this evening.
While Kimi Raikkonen had a great day for Ferrari ending the afternoon session in third place in contrast his team mate Fernando Alonso was forced to stop on track following a fire at the rear of his F14-T.
Infiniti Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo was fourth fastest for the day after ending the morning session in 10th place. Speaking following the session the Australian stated:
'It was a really good Friday for us and I think we learnt a lot, so a positive day. It’s a lot smoother on the track now, it was slippery this morning, but once it cleaned up the grip is really good and it’s a good surface. In dry conditions,
I think we’re good enough for the second row and if it rains, then who knows – maybe the front row can be possible.'
After finishing the opening session in third place for Toro Rosso Daniil Kvyat finished the afternoon session in 8th place.
The Williams Martini Racing Team had a great afternoon session as Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa finished the session in 5th and 6th place respectively. Speaking following the session Bottas stated:
'It was an interesting day; the track felt quite different with the new surface but it seemed to have a decent amount of grip and was cleaning up quickly.
There was a bit of graining on the option tyres but not nothing major and they seemed to be lasting better than last year because of the smoother track surface. We still have work to do with the car balance but the initial feeling is pretty good. In dry conditions we seem competitive and on the pace, but the weather is looking very variable over the weekend so we need to be good at adapting to it. '
Felipe Massa heads into this weekend's race hopeful of a great result for the Grove based outfit at his home race in Sao Paulo. Speaking following the days running Massa stated:
'Today was about understanding the car and its balance on the new asphalt. The grip was actually pretty good and felt better than it has been in recent years, but because it is brand new, quite dirty and the temperatures were very high, it was difficult to get a real understanding of the car’s balance on the long runs.
The car is feeling pretty good so we are starting from a good base, and as the track keeps improving I hope we can follow that progression with the handling to make sure we are in the hunt for tomorrow’s qualifying. '
Fresh from being announced as a Sauber F1 Team driver for the 2015 Formula One season Felipe Nasr was back behind the wheel of a Formula One car as he stood in for Valtteri Bottas and finished the session in 12th place completing 22 laps. Speaking following the session the Brazilian stated:
'The track has a new surface so there was quite low grip available at the beginning of the session, but as normal it started to improve and on the whole I think the car is looking good around this circuit so the team should be optimistic that it can have a good weekend.
The medium compound tyres were lasting fine, but the softer compound were not lasting very long and you could only get one big lap from them, so making sure you look after the tyres will be very important this weekend.'
The Williams Martini Racing Team head into this weekend's race in Brazil in third place in the championship 42 points ahead of Ferrari and speaking following Fridays running Williams Martini Racing Head of Performance Engineering Rob Smedley stated:
'We had two fairly busy sessions today with three red flags interrupting the running, but I’m optimistic for the weekend with the car responding well on low and high fuel loads.
We found that the rear option tyres were graining but this is normal in these very high temperatures and seemed to affect everyone, with no such issues with the prime tyre.
We expect the weather to be very different over the weekend so we need to take what we have learned today on board but be completely prepared for a very different track tomorrow.
This was Felipe Nasr’s last FP1 session for us and he did another good job, providing very good feedback and completing the test programme diligently so a thank you to him for his hard work this year. '
Despite his car catching fire in the closing stages of second practice Fernando Alonso managed to finish the afternoon session in seventh place having finished the opening session in fourth place with both he and team mate Raikkonen showing that the Italian team could be on for a good result this weekend. It is expected to rain in Sao Paulo over the course of the weekend which could play into Ferrari's hands.
Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel who is taking part in his penultimate race for Infiniti Red Bull Racing finished the day in 9th place just behind the man who is replaceing him at Red Bull next season Daniil Kvyat. Speaking following the session Vettel said:
'The day overall was okay, I had some issues and we didn’t get that much running today, but that was mostly due to the red flags which was the same for everyone.
The grip seems fairly high on the new asphalt and they made the track smoother apart from the main straight. If it’s wet then I think it brings things closer to us, but even in the dry if we get everything right we should be in a reasonable place, it’s a short lap so it will be quite tight.'
McLaren's Kevin Magnussen finished the day in 10th place while the Lotus F1 Team;s Pastor Maldonado fresh from scoring his first points for the team finished the day in 11th place having finished the opening session in seventh place. Following the on track action the Venezuelan stated:
'The car felt pretty good today, like it did in Austin so that gives me a positive outlook ahead of the rest of the weekend. The new surface is quite slippery so we had the usual battle to find grip but I’m happy that the tyre allocation was changed. It was good to end FP1 in the top ten so that has to be the target for qualifying tomorrow.'
The Lotus F1 Team's Romain Grosjean who is expected to announce his 2015 Formula One plans this weekend finished the day just behind Maldonado having ended the opening session of the day in 15th place. Speaking following the track action Grosjean stated:
'There was quite a lot to think about today and conditions weren’t the easiest to make progress as the temperature changed a lot during the day.
There were also quite a few red flag interruptions to the afternoon session. Looking at the timesheets, we seem to have reasonable potential here so I’ll be working very closely with my engineers to see what improvements we can make ahead of tomorrow.'
The Enstone outfit go into this weekend's race in eighth place in the championship on ten points and the outfit's Trackside Operations director Alan Permane stated:
'We had a reasonably busy day trying to learn the best set-up for this new track surface with the added challenge of the surface being around 20°C hotter in the afternoon than it was in the morning.
We completed a good number of laps today, with positive aero work in the morning and solid tyre work in the afternoon. We have a lot of data to analyse plus the potential for rain tomorrow so it will be a busy engineering team ahead of FP3.'
Sahara Force India's Nico Hulkenberg finished the afternoon session in 13th place having completed 32 laps while in the morning session the German finished in 13th place. Speaking following the session the Hulk stated:
'Most forecasts said it would be cloudy and wet, but the opposite was the case and it was very hot and sunny. We even saw track temperatures of 58ºC, which made it a challenge to manage both tyre compounds this afternoon.
It might be cooler over the weekend, so we need to be careful about what conclusions we make tonight and the approach we take tomorrow. Apart from that it was a pretty straightforward Friday on my side of the garage and we just need to make the usual performance tweaks overnight.'
The Sauber F1 Team's Esteban Gutierrez finished the opening session at the bottom of the times while in the second session the Mexican who has been replaced by Marcus Ericsson for next season finished in 14th place. Speaking following the sessions he said:
'“For me it was an unfortunate day, because we were having trouble the whole day. On the other hand, I was able to run for at least a few laps to get a feeling for the track and the new surface. It was also important to see how the tyres behaved and to see how the car’s balance was. We did not have a lot of time to find the best set-up today. We will try our best to catch up tomorrow.'
After finishing the opening session in eleventh place for the Sauber F1 Team Adrian Sutil was left disappointed in the afternoon as the German ended the day in 15th place. Speaking following the days running he said:
'It was a good day. We chose a different set-up to Esteban in order to make a comparison. In the morning everything went well due to the lower temperatures, whereas the weather conditions changed completely during the afternoon session. The asphalt temperatures were quite high, so the grip got less and, therefore, the lap times were in general slower.
We had to choose another set-up for the car, which was not easy. Tomorrow it will depend on the weather. We will probably have cooler conditions, which means we need to find a different set-up. It will not be an easy weekend.”
The Sauber F1 Team's head of trackside engineering Giampaolo Dall'Ara commented saying:
'For Adrian it was a good day. He was quite happy with the car in the morning. However, in the afternoon things were significantly more difficult with higher temperatures. Nevertheless we believe it should be easier tomorrow, because the forecast predicts colder condtions.
But today was definitely challenging, especially with the softer compound. Otherwise no problems for Adrian, and he was able to complete his planned programme. Esteban on his side had a very difficult day. He lost most of the morning session due to what we initially thought was an MGUK issue, and which we were not able to fix.
In the afternoon we at least managed to drive by using some extra procedures, but then towards the end of the session Esteban had to stop out on track due to what we think was an electrical problem. However, we need to investigate this issue further.'
It was an extremely difficult day for McLaren's Jenson Button as the 2009 world champion was forced to sit out the opening session of the day due to a ERS problem during his installation lap in Free Practice 1. However in the second session he completed 31 laps to finish the day in 16th place just ahead of the Toro Rosso of Jean Eric Vergne.
Sahara Force India test and reserve driver Daniel Juncadella drove in place of race driver Sergio Perez in the opening session who Dr Vijay Mallya confirmed will remain with the team next season after they activated an option on the Mexican. Speaking following his outing for the team where he crashed the car and finished the session in 16th place completing 17 laps the Spaniard said:
'It’s always good to be back in the car, but it’s a shame to end the session with an accident. It was the strangest crash I ever had and I was not expecting it at all.
The track was evolving very quickly because there is new asphalt and there was only one racing line with grip. On that lap I went a bit wider on the kerb, which was a bit too optimistic because I had a moment and had to catch the car.
There was no room in the run-off area so I damaged the front of the car. I’ve apologised to the team and I’m sorry that it caused Sergio to miss track time, but hopefully he can still have a strong weekend.'
Sergio Perez had no track time on Friday and speaking at the end of the day the Mexican said:
'It’s disappointing not to run today and what happened with Daniel is bad luck. This is how things are in Formula One and sometimes you just have to accept that it’s not going to be your day. Final practice will be even more important now but hopefully I can get up-to-speed before qualifying.'
The final free practice session gets underway at 1PM (UK time) and is LIVE on Sky Sports F1 HD
© Ben Johnston 2014
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