Hamilton pulls further ahead in second practice

2012 Brazilian Grand Prix second practice

Posted on

| Written by

Lewis Hamilton completed a successful Friday by setting the fastest time for the second practice session in a row.

Hamilton produced a 1’14.026 which put him half a second clear of most of his rivals. Only Sebastian Vettel got substantially closer with a 1’14.300.

Mark Webber was third ahead of the two Ferraris. Next were the two Mercedes who appeared to benefit from running without their Coanda exhaust.

Jenson Button, Romain Grosjean and Paul di Resta completed the top ten. Kimi Raikkonen, 12th, said his tyres were overheating during his high-fuel run at the end of the session.

As in the first session HRT limited their running, both drivers completing fewer than half the laps of most other runners. Charles Pic also missed some running after pulling over with less than half an hour of the session remaining.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
14Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’14.02640
21Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’14.3000.27440
32Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’14.5230.49737
46Felipe MassaFerrari1’14.5530.52737
55Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’14.5920.56637
67Michael SchumacherMercedes1’14.6540.62836
78Nico RosbergMercedes1’14.6690.64340
83Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’14.8630.83735
910Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’14.9940.96837
1011Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’15.1291.10339
1112Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’15.1311.10540
129Kimi RaikkonenLotus-Renault1’15.3711.34539
1319Bruno SennaWilliams-Renault1’15.4321.40645
1415Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1’15.5421.51635
1514Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’15.8391.81343
1616Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari1’15.9021.87639
1718Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault1’15.9531.92747
1817Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari1’16.0482.02240
1921Vitaly PetrovCaterham-Renault1’16.1262.10039
2020Heikki KovalainenCaterham-Renault1’16.6552.62942
2122Pedro de la RosaHRT-Cosworth1’17.2443.21815
2224Timo GlockMarussia-Cosworth1’17.6753.64942
2325Charles PicMarussia-Cosworth1’18.1274.10131
2423Narain KarthikeyanHRT-Cosworth1’18.1394.11315

2012 Brazilian Grand Prix

Browse all 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix articles

Image © Red Bull/Getty images

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

47 comments on “Hamilton pulls further ahead in second practice”

  1. Hm, from what I have seen, I think another Hamilton win might be on the books. Vettel did look a little bit rugged out there, so I am already looking forward to an exiting and close qualifying between those two.

    1. It’s amazing how the threat or reality of being fired tends to bring out better results, who knew it could work when you fired the team!

      1. Hamilton’s been driving consistently brilliantly all season.

        1. +1

          Loved every minute watching Lewis this year. Felt the pain of the losses, the frustration at the early pit stops. Such an almost year but yeah, Lewis absolutely on it with few mistakes.

          A stint in a difficult car and new team will be the making of the complete driver.

  2. I think Hamilton will do the God Chalem this week. 1st every prac, 1st every Q, lead every lap, flap and round it up with a victory at the end,

  3. He’s a man on a mission!
    Can’t wait for Sunday!
    ’nuff said!!

  4. It’s obvious, what’s gonna happen is Hamilton will get pole, but will get held up by Karthikeyan, allowing Vettel to pass.

    1. Good one! :D

    2. @alfie Ha! :D I like it :P

  5. Next were the two Mercedes who appeared to benefit from running without their Coanda exhaust.

    Surely this can’t be the main reason why the W03 has been such a pig of a car recently? While the Coanda exhaust does adversely impact engine power output, the difference in Mercedes’ relative pace is startling. Should we see a return to the Mercedes car that won the Chinese GP and secured “pole” in Monaco, I would say Hamilton’s chances for 2013 just improved.

    1. And Schumacher just regretted going into retirement :P

      1. @oople – it wasn’t really his choice: Mercedes wanted Hamilton more than Schumacher.

        1. It seems they started looking only after Schumacher couldn’t yet confirm whether he wanted to stay over the summer, didn’t they @vettel1? That’s what I recall at least.

          1. I think they must have wanted to replace MS all along, because I find it hard to imagine that with Brawn and MS being long-time friends, MS would just let Brawn hover in limbo, and/or Brawn would not plead (if it had to come to that) with his friend for an answer (and get one) so as to know how to proceed driver-wise, and not put him (RB) in a difficult spot. I can’t imagine these two not having the necessary talks well before anything uncomfortable had to happen.

            That said, I did also wonder why, if they were on the same page all along, MS would not have wanted to, or been afforded the opportunity to, announce his retirement first ahead of the LH announcement, thus saving any chance of embarassing words like ‘ousted’ or ‘replaced’ etc being used.

            Strange.

          2. And then as I sit and watch today’s practice session on Speed that I had PVR’d, Steve Matchett was just talking about MS and his second retirement and how he saw LdM approach MS to hug him after his final race of his first retirement, and MS basically shoved him away. “MS’s body language was horrific” was Matchett’s quote. They were suggesting that MS was forced to retire.

            Strange.

  6. ALso, Caterham seem to suddenly be on it again, after many long weeks spentg fighting Marussia and HRT. You know what, if this is a race of attrition, Caterham may yet snag 10th place away from Marussia.

    1. I’m a bit torn over this. I think Marussia have been the better team this season and deserve the 10th more. I think the injection of cash along with their attempts to build their staff could at least get them in touch with STR next year.

      On the other hand, Caterham need the money to keep Heikki on the grid. It would be a shame to lose him.

  7. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    23rd November 2012, 18:18

    Massa ahead of Alonso again! Of course the team order will be to try to go ahead and block Vettel advvance someway, especially if Hamilton is on the lead. It’s going to be a sad show for Brazilian fans, knowing that he can’t even dream with a podium unless he is behind Ferrrr

    1. Massa’s been pretty mighty in Brazill since really, always…

    2. Massa ahead of Alonso again!

      Yes, Massa has been ahead all season long, but he was constantly put back by Ferrari team orders. Now looks like Ferrari are bored with Alonso and have unleashed Massa.

      1. I wonder how long it takes before an argument…

    3. Ferrari can allow Massa to win the GP if Vettel has a DNF and Alonso can finish on 2nd or 3rd position……….OR……….Alonso has no chance of winning the WDC and Massa can be race winner.

  8. Well, the long run pace of all 3 top teams seems close! Gonna be an exciting race! Can’t wait!

  9. Hamilton: that guy´s fast! it seems like he´s driving a completely different machine than Button.

    1. Because he was :)
      Button drove a low-downforce wing, which gave them better tyre deg & longrun pace compared to Hamiltons, also it has to be said that on one lap it is the wrong choice. But I think its a false route, if it rains on Sunday, tyre life wont matter that mutch and you would be happier with more downforce in the rain. Maybe it was a test for 2013.

      1. @bag0 depends really. In the heat, you’d want less downforce to help with tyre life. But if it’s cold – you’d want more downforce to help with tyre life.

    2. He was driving with a different rear wing, actually.

  10. Alonso is going to need HAM, Massa and button behind him to win the WDC. By the look of the time sheets, the Ferrari’s are not too far off Vettel and the mclaren seems the fastest of the bunch. So there is hope!

    1. Ofcourse Button and HAM would need to move over for Alonso, but considering how much they dislike Vettel, I’m sure they could go wide by mistake or something.

      1. Well, Button preferred Alonso to win, so I guess that leaves Hamilton. Not sure what Alonso could promise him though to keep him from just fighting for his last win for what probably will be a while!

      2. Why not return the favour from back in 2008 in the last corner in the rain(if I remember right) when Hamilton overtook Vettel.

        1. @suka Vettel overtook Hamilton with a couple of laps to go, which put Hamilton in a position where he was going to lose the championship. Hamilton regained the position he needed when he overtook Timo Glock (see here).

          1. Thanks, thanks…I appologize, obviously I forgot. Yes it was Glock.

        2. Hamilton never overtook Vettel in 2008, he overtook Glock.

      3. @infy I find it astonishing that some people make this preposterous claim that one or both of the McLaren drivers would want to sacrifice a win to a Ferrari driver. Never mind that Hamilton and Button will both want to put one over the other before they go their separate ways. Never mind the McLaren management would never tolerate them doing it. Never mind the hundreds of McLaren workers they would enrage by doing it.

        After the last race McLaren made a point of telling the world how they’ve now won more races than Ferrari since they entered the sport in 1966. And you think they’re going to give that up just to make Alonso happy? I find it a baffling and totally unrealistic proposition.

        1. @keithcollantine Luckily I dont care what someone like you thinks. Its ironic that you yourself have hinted that Ferrari/Alonso _might_ do something unethical at numerous points over the years (due to their history), yet when someone else makes a jokey comment about Mclaren doing it (who have a larger cheating record than Ferrari with Spygate) you go on a complete offensive.

          1. @infy Never mind that if you were joking then you should have used an lol, or a wink or something, and then Keith probably wouldn’t have gotten worked up and bothered with a response. Never mind ‘someone like you’ is the father of this site that you enjoy. Never mind that you are comparing two starkly different concepts, those being Ferrari’s inter-team orders and their ethical implications throughout history to, jokey or not, two Mac drivers giving themselves their own team orders (because the team certainly wouldn’t abide by it) to let FA go by, out of a hate for Vettel, which is ridiculous and preposterous.

          2. And talking of going on a complete offensive…

        2. +1 Hamilton will be much more concerned to win at Interlagos, his last McLaren race and at a circuit he’s never won, complete with Senna curves! And I can’t see Button that bothered about who wins the championship compared to the delight of winning the race.

        3. your’e right ..neither HAM nor BUT will give way to anybody

  11. Anyone else noticed that since last weekend in USA, the red colours on the cars look like they are more orange?? At least from the TV pictures anyway!

    1. Might be something to do with NTSC to PAL conversion, and from what I remember, Brazil has always looked a bit weird on TV.

      1. All I know is that the PAL supernintendo looks better then the NTSC supernintendo

        1. Drop Valencia!
          24th November 2012, 3:21

          Pal has a higher frame rate, that helps with the supernintendo, but no difference with modern digital broadcasts.

          1. Oh no I was just speaking about the appearance of the machines themselves not the image quality. I should have been a bit clearer about that.

            I’ve still got mine at home and it still works :)
            But anyways I’ll stop with the off topic nostalgia…. For now ;)

  12. A motivated Hamilton in a competitive car is hard to beat. Going for Lewis pole and win whatever the weather conditions.

  13. You would have to be mad to believe Hamilton or Button letting Alonso past, McLaren is competing with Ferrari for the second spot in the constructor championship. There`s a lot of money at stake here.
    Furthermore I don`t think any driver in F1 would sacrifice a win or even a podium for the sake of any other driver than his team mate. And even then the said driver would only do it if it was for the bebefit of the team.

    F1 wins are hard to come by, even the best drivers have to put in supreme performances to win. If you give away a win there`s no telling when your next chance comes.

Comments are closed.