FP2: Hamilton claims Friday double

There was no letting from Lewis Hamilton as he set the pace on Friday afternoon at the Interlagos circuit, leading home a Mercedes 1-2.

Despite the forecast thunderstorms for late in the session, there wasn’t the expected mad dash as Friday’s second practice got underway at the Interlagos circuit.

Ferrari were the first of the big boys to come out to play with Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel into the 1:10s on the soft tyres.

The duo, though, lost out to Mercedes and Red Bull as first Max Verstappen, then Valtteri Bottas, and then Lewis Hamilton went quickest. A 1:09.742 for the British racer on the soft Pirellis.

Another hot lap and Hamilton lowered the benchmark to a 1:10.742 to extend his advantage over Bottas to 0.118s.

Swapping to the supersoft tyres, Bottas went quickest with a 1:09.563 while Vettel slotted into third place.

However, it was again all-change as Hamilton went quickest with a 1:09.515 despite aborting his first attempt when he got it a bit wrong at Turn 8.

That time handed Hamilton the Friday double while Bottas finished second, 0.048s down.

Daniel Ricciardo was third ahead of Vettel, Verstappen and Raikkonen – the top six separated by 0.602s.

Esteban Ocon was best of the rest ahead of Felipe Massa, who is saying farewell to his Brazilian fans this weekend, Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso.

Marcus Ericsson had the only notable incident of the session as he got it wrong going down the hill and whacked the barriers with the right side of his Sauber. The car survived and he returned to the pits.

There was a slide for Stoffel Vandoorne and a spin for Romain Grosjean.

Times
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:09.515
2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:09.563 0.048
3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:09.743 0.228
4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:09.875 0.360
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:09.886 0.371
6 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:10.117 0.602
7 Esteban Ocon Force India 1:10.306 0.791
8 Felipe Massa Williams 1:10.373 0.858
9 Nico Hulkenberg Renault Sport 1:10.396 0.881
10 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:10.655 1.140
11 Carlos Sainz Renault Sport 1:10.685 1.170
12 Sergio Perez Force India 1:10.695 1.180
13 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 1:10.902 1.387
14 Lance Stroll Williams 1:11.064 1.549
15 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:11.300 1.785
16 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso 1:11.422 1.907
17 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso 1:11.821 2.306
18 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber 1:11.857 2.342
19 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:11.989 2.474
20 Antonio Giovinazzi Haas 1:12.417 2.902