Red Bull took their customary positions at the head of the times sheets in the second practice session. Sebastian Vettel led Mark Webber by a tenth of a second.
However Romain Grosjean, who was quickest in the first session, never really got to show his potential as his run on the softer tyres was spoiled by a braking problem.
He had other problems during the session and pulled into the pits with eight minutes remaining.
Lewis Hamilton ended the session third quickest but was unhappy during his long run, concerned about the Mercedes’ pace and struggling to get free of traffic.
With Grosjean down in 12th, Kimi Raikkonen was the fastest of the two Lotuses in fourth place, and showed promising performance on his long run.
Both McLaren drivers were well in the top ten, separated by just four thousandths of a second, with Sergio Perez seven-tenths of a second off Vettel in sixth place.
The Ferrari drivers appeared to have better pace, both in the top ten, separated by Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber.
Some drivers experienced tyre problems during the session including Jenson Button and Paul di Resta, who both had punctures. Max Chilton also had a spin at the exit of turn one, without hitting anything.
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Image © Red Bull/Getty
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
1st November 2013, 14:53
YOU KNOW…you know Grosjean;s doing something right when he’s making headlines even when his car has problems..
TheBass (@)
1st November 2013, 15:02
And the universe makes sense again =P
Juzh (@juzh)
1st November 2013, 15:44
Raikkonen was super fast on race runs with very little or no degradation on softs. He was consistently faster in 2nd and 3rd sector than both RBs on mediums. Lotus 1 stopping for sure. RB on the other hand had a fair amount of tire deg on softs. They ran ~15 laps or smth like that on them and drop of was something like 1,5-2s. They had zero deg on medium, much like anyone else. 40 laps on a single medium set could be pushing it a bit for them so maybe OOP. Remains to be seen. Lotus is definitely the dark horse.
Broc Smith (@strifeforce)
1st November 2013, 15:56
Imagine the anarchy if Kimi passes Fred for 2nd in WDC by the end of the season….LOL
OmarR-Pepper (@)
1st November 2013, 19:06
if he finishes the 2 races @strifeforce, you may have already read the post about that.
Broc Smith (@strifeforce)
1st November 2013, 20:16
Good point lol. I posted that before i read about Lotus epically failing to pay him…
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
1st November 2013, 16:06
In FP1, Kimi was in the short wheelbase car, while Grosjean was in the long wheelbase version.
Can anyone tell me if it was the same in the afternoon, or if Kimi reverted to the long wheelbase car?
Just wondering if that was to do with his better performance in FP2?
Cheers
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
1st November 2013, 17:06
@eurobrun as far as I’m aware, Kimi used the shorter wheelbase for FP2 too..
petebaldwin (@)
1st November 2013, 16:24
Nice to see the others stand a chance of being competitive rather the Red Bulls having the best part of a second gap already.
Hopefully if Mercedes don’t screw their strategy up, Vettel doesn’t have another couple of seconds in the bag and Lotus can sort Grosjean’s car out finally, we might have a race on our hands!
Paul A (@paul-a)
1st November 2013, 18:14
The Mercedes and Lotuses will be 3-6 tenths down, the Ferraris 5 to 8 tenths, and I’m not sure anyone else can spoil the top eight… another boring vettel-fest. The only redeeming factor – his alternator might fail (thank you Renault.)
Yoshisune (@yobo01)
1st November 2013, 18:48
Is it me or the Ferrari looks really bad this weekend? It seems that Mclaren and Sauber have a better overall pace.
Deej92 (@deej92)
1st November 2013, 20:27
It seems that way. Although practice doesn’t always give us the full picture, it’s quite astonishing really, if you consider Ferrari’s early-season pace and McLaren’s season-long troubles.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
1st November 2013, 21:54
@yobo01 & @deej92
Ferrari have always been rubbish and slow around this circuit, so to me, even as a Ferrari fan, their lack of pace this weekend doesn’t come as a surprise.
They should be fast around Brazil though, it’s a circuit which has historically always suited them.
fangio85 (@fangio85)
1st November 2013, 21:12
Ferrari look to have gone backward again.. perhaps they brought an update, that always seems to do it lol
Todfod (@todfod)
2nd November 2013, 8:44
I’m hoping its an update that could be useful for the 2014 season. Either ways .. it doesn’t look like it did a lot of good to their performance
Gold help Ferrari for 2014