Mercedes bounced back in the second practice session of Formula 1 Brazil GP with Valtteri Bottas leading Lewis Hamilton at Interlagos from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
The session started on a dramatic note when Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg crashed in the final part of the circuit when he ran too wide on the kerbs and hit the barrier which broke his front and rear right suspension.
The race director red flagged the session to clear the debris with the German only able to complete six laps to finish last with a 1m11.674s. At the front though, Bottas (1m08.846s) edged out teammate Hamilton (1m08.849s) by just the 0.003s.
They were closely followed by Vettel (1m08.919s) in third with the German only 0.073s adrift of Bottas’ time. The Red Bull Racing duo Daniel Ricciardo (1m09.164s) and Max Verstappen (1m09.339s) were fourth and fifth respectively.
The Dutchman’s started late in the session after the team found an oil leak in the car between the two sessions. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen (1m09.412s) was sixth with Haas’ Romain Grosjean (1m09.769s) again ending up as the best of the rest in seventh.
Sauber’s Charles Leclerc (1m09.943s) in eighth was sandwiched by the Haas drivers with Kevin Magnussen (1m10.007s) in ninth while Racing Point Force India’s Esteban Ocon (1m10.159s) was rounded out the Top 10.
Despite not running in the middle of the session due to an issue, Racing Point Force India’s Sergio Perez (1m10.320s) did well to be 11th from Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly (1m10.330s) and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso (1m10.332s).
With his teammate already out, Renault’s Carlos Sainz was left to do more work as he completed 48 laps which was the most in the session along with Bottas. The Spaniard was only 14th but spent time on long runs.
Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson (1m10.532s) was 15th with Williams’ Sergey Sirotkin (1m10.569s) doing well in 16th from McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne (1m10.596s), Williams’ Lance Stroll (1m10.662s), Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley (1m10.734s) and Hulkenberg.