Brazilian GP 2018

NOVEMBER 9, 2018

Practice 2 Report - The smallest of margins

Valtteri Bottas, Mexican GP 2018
© RV Press

By Dan Knutson

Valtteri Bottas posted the fastest lap time in Free Practice 3 for the Brazilian Grand Prix by the smallest of margins as he beat his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton by a mere 0.003 of a second.

The line-up for the weekend was: Mercedes – Hamilton and Bottas; Ferrari – Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen; Red Bull TAG Heuer – Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen; Racing Point Force India Mercedes – Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon; Williams Mercedes –Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin; Renault – Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz; Toro Rosso Honda – Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly; Haas Ferrari – Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen; McLaren Renault – Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne; Sauber Ferrari – Marcus Ericsson and Charles Leclerc.

Verstappen was fastest in FP1 with a time of 1:09.011 on Pirelli's super soft slicks. The other compounds for the weekend were the medium and soft.

But all was not well for Verstappen as the Red Bull mechanic dismantled his car between the sessions. There had been an oil leak at the front of the engine.

Raikkonen went out first in FP2 on what was now a blustery day with a 40 percent chance of rain.

The ambient temperature at the start of the 90-minute session was 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 degrees Centigrade) and the track temperature was 93 degrees Fahrenheit (34 degrees Centigrade).

"This session is theoretically more representative of race and qualifying, although the Brazilian weather is usually capable of anything. Teams and drivers have to set their cars up to cope with bumps, a well-known feature of Interlagos," Pirelli tweeted.

Vettel, on the soft compound, set the early mark of 1:09.990 and then a 1:09.565.

Nine minutes into the session Hulkenberg ran wide and clobbered the barriers at Turn 13. He was unhurt. Out came the red flags to bring FP2 to a halt. But that only lasted a few minutes.

As things got underway again, Raikkonen went out on the super softs to try a qualifying simulation that yielded a 1:09.508 after losing time in the final sector. Vettel, meanwhile, was in the pits as the mechanics investigated something rattling around the footwell of the Ferrari.

Hamilton, on the soft compound, got down to a 1:09.245.

Vettel, saying something was still rattling, did a qualifying sim in 1:08.919. Bottas beat that with his 1:08.846.

Just past the 30-minute mark Ricciardo moved into third, a third of a second behind Bottas.

A few minutes later Hamilton tried his qualifying run on the super softs. He made some mistakes on his lap, and got second place, 0.003 of a second slower than Bottas.

Halfway through the session the order was: Bottas, Hamilton, Vettel, Ricciardo, Raikkonen, Grosjean, Leclerc, Magnussen, Ocon and Gasly.

And Verstappen was finally on track. He moved into seventh place using the soft tires rather than the super softs. Then he tried the super softs, but ran wide in one corner and then encountered traffic. So he was only fifth.

Soon most of the drivers began to do their long runs on full fuel tanks and worn tires.

"Something just doesn't feel right," Hamilton radioed. To which his engineer replied that the lap times were not too bad.

The top ten at the end of FP2 were: Bottas, Hamilton, Vettel, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Raikkonen, Grosjean, Leclerc, Magnussen and Ocon.