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Brazilian GP: Lewis Hamilton pips Vettel in second practice

Lewis Hamilton continued his strong start to his McLaren swansong weekend as he went fastest again in second practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix

Formula 1 championship leader Sebastian Vettel was second, three places ahead of title rival Fernando Alonso.

Both Vettel and Alonso had spells on top during the afternoon, but Hamilton moved comfortably clear in the closing stages when the field switched to the softer tyres.

It was Alonso's Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa who held sway at first, before being usurped by Vettel's Red Bull after 12 minutes.

Vettel's 1m15.226s was good enough to keep him on top for nearly half an hour, although Jenson Button came within a few fractions of displacing him.

It was Alonso who eventually did push the champion off the top, putting in a 1m15.150s.

That was the last benchmark time of the hard-tyre period, with Romain Grosjean becoming the first frontrunner to try the medium compound shortly afterwards. The Lotus did not need long to beat Alonso.

There followed a frantic spell in which Nico Rosberg, Massa and then Hamilton held the top spot within two minutes.

But once back in front, Hamilton would stay there. His 1m14.026s lap was half a second clear of the field at that stage, and the closest anyone could get was Vettel's 1m14.300s.

Mark Webber completed the top three in the second Red Bull, ahead of the Ferraris of Massa and Alonso.

Mercedes was near the leaders throughout the session, with Michael Schumacher and Rosberg ending up sixth and seventh, followed by Button and Grosjean.

Paul di Resta pipped Force India team-mate Nico Hulkenberg by just 0.002s to grab the final top-10 spot.

At the back, HRT again completed significantly less mileage than its rivals, while Charles Pic had to park his Marussia with what the team believes was an alternator problem.


Pos  Driver                Team                  Time               Laps
 1.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes      1m14.026s           35
 2.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m14.300s  + 0.274  40
 3.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m14.523s  + 0.497  37
 4.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m14.553s  + 0.527  37
 5.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m14.592s  + 0.566  37
 6.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes              1m14.654s  + 0.628  36
 7.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m14.669s  + 0.643  40
 8.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m14.863s  + 0.837  40
 9.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         1m14.994s  + 0.968  37
10.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m15.129s  + 1.103  39
11.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes  1m15.131s  + 1.105  40
12.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault         1m15.371s  + 1.345  39
13.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault      1m15.432s  + 1.406  45
14.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari        1m15.542s  + 1.516  35
15.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari        1m15.839s  + 1.813  43
16.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m15.902s  + 1.876  39
17.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault      1m15.953s  + 1.927  47
18.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m16.048s  + 2.022  40
19.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault      1m16.126s  + 2.100  39
20.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault      1m16.655s  + 2.629  42
21.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth          1m17.244s  + 3.218  15
22.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth     1m17.675s  + 3.649  42
23.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth     1m18.127s  + 4.101  31
24.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth          1m18.139s  + 4.113  15

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