About two weeks after his successful title defense, Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton narrowly missed the fastest time of the second free practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix. The Briton missed on the autódromo José Carlos Pace 0.003 seconds on his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas.
The race takes place on Sunday (18.10 clock, TV: RTL, live ticker SPIEGEL ONLINE). Then it's still about winning the constructors' championship for the duo.
Sebastian Vettel and his Ferrari colleague Kimi Raikkonen have to make up at least 13 points on Hamilton and Bottas in still 86 points to be awarded in Interlagos alone, otherwise the team title goes to Mercedes for the fifth time in a row. Vettel finished third in the day, Raikkonen was sixth.
"The biggest worry we had was a small screw that had loosened and was between my legs, but in the end we found it," Vettel said. "We still have to improve the car because it does not feel good yet."
Max Verstappen was forced to watch after his best time in the first practice session. His Red Bull had to be repaired because of an oil leak, only after 45 minutes was the 21-year-old on the track. For Verstappen it was still enough to position five.
For Nico Hülkenberg, the working day was prematurely ended. After just under ten minutes in the second round crashed the Renault driver, who had brought in 2010 in Interlagos his only career pole, in the guardrail. The right front was demolished, the car had to be recovered with a crane.
Formula 1 season 2018
- Drivers & teams
- World Cup ratings
- Results & dates
- Live Scores
- racetracks
- databases