With incidents galore, Ferrari finishes 1-2, Mercedes fourth and fifth.
INTERLAGOS, Brazil—Friday, November 15th—Typically, Friday practice isn’t a dramatic event. That wasn’t the case this Friday in Interlagos, Brazil, as teams prepared for Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix. With a backdrop of incidents, Ferrari took the day with Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc finishing 1-2 overall with Vettel setting the fastest time of the day at 1:09:217. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took third.
The afternoon session never ended. With a little over three minutes to go in the session, Toro Rosso’s Dani Kvyat, who crashed in the morning, repeated his feat by doing the same at the final corner of the circuit. He slid off the track, lightly smashing his rear wing.
As the Russian emerged unhurt from the vehicle, fire began coming out of the engine. As a track marshal put out the blaze, fire-retardant material gave the car a huge color of white as it was towed back to the team’s pit garage. The red flag came out as organizers decided that there was too little time to resume the session. It was not only a bad day for Kvyat but also the Red Bull organization. Pierre Gasly pulled off the track midway through the afternoon with a blown engine. That put the virtual safety car out momentarily as busy track marshals pushed Gasly’s Toro Rosso out of harm’s way.
Alex Albon took the opening session in wet conditions with a time of 1:16:142. But shortly afterward, the British-born Thai slid off the track at the famous last corner of Junção and went into the wall.
Robert Kubica was another victim of drivers sliding off the track as the Pole went off early in the second session, claiming that Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen’s spray in front caused him to de distracted.
For the rest of the top ten, Mercedes couldn’t get into the top three. Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton, the newly crowned champion for the sixth time, finished in fourth and fifth, respectively. For the first time in a while, Kevin Magnussen found grip in his car and took sixth, while Daniel Ricciardo was seventh in his Renault.
Kimi Raikkonen came alive late in the session to finish eighth, while Albon–despite difficulties in his Red Bull– ended up ninth. Carlos Sainz Jr. finished tenth in his McLaren. Romain Grosjean, the other American Haas F1 team driver, finished no better than 16th.
More showery weather is expected on Saturday, qualifying day, but partly cloudy is the race day forecast. If that prediction comes to pass, it could affect how the race develops.
