Hamilton leads Vettel at Interlagos

2011 Brazilian GP second practice

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Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, Interlagos, 2011

The drivers who shared the front row of the grid for the last race were quickest in the second practice session in Brazil.

Lewis Hamilton headed the times in an uneventful session. He was followed by Sebastian Vettel, with the other Red Bull of Mark Webber in third.

Hamilton led the running early in the session on the harder tyres. Michael Schumacher briefly took over at the top of the times after switching to the soft compound.

Hamilton quickly returned to the top but Schumacher’s best effort remained within three-tenths of a second of the McLaren.

The Red Bull drivers were unable to beat Hamilton’s best time and Fernando Alonso took fourth.

Behind Schumacher were Felipe Massa, Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg. The two Force Indias completed the top ten, Adrian Sutil ahead of Paul di Resta.

Shortly before the end of the session Sergio Perez came to a stop at Juncao, telling the team he had a gearbox problem.

Pos.CarDriverCarBest lapGapLaps
13Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’13.39235
21Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’13.5590.16741
32Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’13.5870.19541
45Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’13.5980.20635
57Michael SchumacherMercedes1’13.7230.33138
66Felipe MassaFerrari1’13.7500.35839
74Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’13.7870.39536
88Nico RosbergMercedes1’13.8720.48042
914Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’14.1440.75241
1015Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’14.8071.41548
1110Vitaly PetrovRenault1’14.8561.46438
129Bruno SennaRenault1’14.9311.53937
1317Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1’14.9701.57832
1416Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’15.0191.62745
1518Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’15.2641.87244
1619Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’15.3881.99641
1712Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth1’15.6792.28743
1811Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’15.9032.51140
1921Jarno TrulliLotus-Renault1’16.2982.90636
2020Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault1’16.3382.94648
2125Jerome D’AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth1’18.0314.63939
2224Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’18.0514.65945
2322Daniel RicciardoHRT-Cosworth1’18.3674.97542
2423Vitantonio LiuzziHRT-Cosworth1’18.4765.08442

Image © McLaren

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Keith Collantine
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28 comments on “Hamilton leads Vettel at Interlagos”

  1. it’s depressingly symmetrical

      1. Only MSC (slightly too quick) and JB (too slow) are off their theoritical spots. The rest of the grid is organized by pairs of cars.

    1. good position from P9 to P24 :D

    2. The Noah’s Ark grid, as I think Brundle – who else? – once called it.

      1. Brundle:
        The Force Indias are line astern.
        The Renault are line astern.
        The Sauber are line astern.
        The Torro Rosso are line astern.
        The Williams are line astern.
        The Lotus are line astern.
        The Virgins are line astern.
        The HRT are line astern.

  2. Normally Vettel will show his talent (or his great car performance) in qualifying

    1. Shows his talent in every session he participates in,He’ll need to give detailed feedback or ‘talent’ you may refer to it to setup his car(Optimum Balance,Ride height,Sway bar etc) to

      show his talent (or his great car performance) in qualifying

      1. @younger-hammii @PresidenAlonsista Of course. Being able to drive is one thing, knowing how to drive your own car is another. Remember, Webber is in the same car.

  3. Doesn’t amount to anything as Vettel is usual saving the best for the last.

  4. Seems as though RB have got the slight edge on race pace over the McLarens,who might have been Heavier on Fuel than RB.In addition,It looks as though the lap time difference between the Options & Primes is less than a Second IMO but most certainly reduced compared to the previous two races probably due to the track being shorter.i

    But Everyone would agree with me that its early days & the Track is evolving so Interesting to see what happens in FP3 tomorrow

    1. if we look back and reverse engineer the past FP sessions; (kind of comparing their quali simulations vs actual quali performance, and their long runs vs race laps) Red Bull usually run heavier in the quali lap simulations; and run a bit lighter in the race simulations.

      1. or maybe Seb just runs lower tyre pressure to improve in qualifying, though he may have hit the limit with that trick.

        1. EVERYONE runs a lower tyre pressure in qualifying. I can assure you 100% that would be the case. Don’t forget tyre pressures are not governed under Parc Ferme. You can change them between qualifying and the race.

  5. Want to see new pole seater. tired of vettel pole, and the yes,yes,yes thing hope Ham grab pole.

    1. To be fair you can’t really blame him. There were some races where you could see that the McLaren was the faster car; and they made mistakes, or Vettel was just the better qualifier. Hungary; Abu Dhabi; Monaco; Malaysia; Suzuka come to mind.

      1. Monaco, Suzuka and maybe even Malaysia to an extent when he locked up at the Penultimate corner,Hamilton made Mistakes not McLaren

        1. What I meant was, a McLaren should have been on pole, had it not been for the driver’s mistake the McLaren would’ve been. Not in terms of the McLaren team making a mistake…

          Ok maybe not in Malaysia, but in the other races.

    2. Seeing Hamilton finally win at Interlagos would be even better, he’s usually performed very average to poor here: 2007, very bad start, losing the title; 2008, nervy race and almost losing the title; 2009, excellent race to 3rd but starting from 18th (!!); 2010 mediocre qualifying and race.

      1. @david-br basically he’ll do fine as long as there isn’t a title at stake :P

        1. …which sadly there isn’t. Off-hand I can’t remember another track where Hamilton has seemed unable to dominate at least in one race. Maybe there are too many tensions surrounding the race (end of the season, association with Senna etc.) As far as I can tell, he’s one of the most popular drivers in Brazil, it’d be a good place for him to produce a great drive – maybe in the rain!

    3. Want to see same pole seater, tired of west screaming “hope Ham get pole” thing. Hope Vettel grab pole.

      (Hamilton isn’t even a very new pole sitter, if you want a “new” or “unpredictable” pole sitter, at least go for Buttton, Alonso, or anyone else not called Sebastian, Lewis or Mark).

      1. Why not Massa for a comeback pole? That would be awesome. OR Schumi for that matter.

  6. Good to see Team Lotus (Caterham, whatever…!) close up to the tail end of the midfield. The depressing fact is, that team, Williams, are three tenths off the next best place team.

    Unless Williams are making a Frakenstein of a car for next year, would Raikkonen to Williams be a sensible move for either party?

    1. Apparently the move is almost certainly off now anyway.

    2. @JamesF1 Certainly not. I would have loved Raikkonen back, but not with Williams.

  7. Hm, interesting that the times seem to be quite a bit slower than last year in FP

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