Practice One - title rivals start as they mean to go on

Practice One - title rivals start as they mean to go on

Championship contenders Felipe Massa and Lewis

Hamilton set the pace as practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix opened in Interlagos on Friday morning in windy, overcast but dry conditions.

Hamilton was fastest for much of the session in his McLaren, before Massa slipped ahead with a lap of 1m 12.305s in the final third for Ferrari. Hamilton’s 1m 12.495s left him second, only 0.190s adrift, and they were followed by the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen (1m 12.507s), BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica (1m 12.874s) and McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen (1m 12.925s). Raikkonen spun once in Turn Two, and that was the sole incident of an otherwise relatively quiet session.

The next 13 cars were covered by eight-tenths of a second, as Fernando Alonso recorded 1m 13.061s for Renault and was chased by Red Bull’s Mark Webber (1m 13.298s), Renault’s Nelson Piquet (1m 13.378s), BMW Sauber Nick Heidfeld (1m 13.426s), Toyota’s Timo Glock (1m 13.466s) and Jarno Trulli (1m 13.600s), Williams’ Nico Rosberg (1m 13.621s), Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais (1m 13.649s), Honda’s Rubens Barrichello (1m 13.676s) and Jenson Button (1m 13.766s), Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima (1m 13.806s), Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel (1m 13.836s) and Red Bull’s David Coulthard (1m 13.861s).

The weekend, of course, marks Coulthard’s final F1 race, and to commemorate that his Red Bull RB4 has been decked out in a startling new livery to support the Wings For Life spinal injuries charity.

At the back, Adrian Sutil again had the upper hand over Force India team mate Giancarlo Fisichella, with respective times of 1m 14.704s and 1m 14.821s.


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