Interlagos, 7 November – The Scuderia Ferrari drivers finished third and seventh in the second free practice session for the Brazilian Grand Prix. The afternoon session started with very high air and track temperatures and this made it harder to set good lap times. In the second part of the 90 minutes, the track temperature actually dropped and, even on the Soft tyres, the times got faster again.
The Scuderia drivers continued to work on set-up and a comparison of the Medium and Soft compounds brought here by Pirelli. In the afternoon, Kimi did 32 laps the quickest in 1.12.696 to secure third place on the time sheet. Fernando Alonso covered 20 laps, stopping the clocks in 1.13.122 to go seventh.
In the last third of the session, as usual, the team began working on long runs and with just over 20 minutes left, Fernando parked the car at the side of the track as the engine caught fire. His power unit, which had completed a high mileage, had failed and the incident brought out the red flags. When the session resumed, Esteban Gutierrez also parked on track in the Sauber. This compromised almost everyone’s long runs. Alonso’s power unit change does not involve a penalty. Once again, Nico Rosberg was fastest for Mercedes in 1.12.123, ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton. In between the two Ferraris came Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull and the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa.