Red Bull drivers Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber emphasised they are still title contenders by dominating first practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Vettel - who is 25 points behind the championship leader, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso - set the fastest time, 0.482 seconds quicker than Webber.
The Australian, 11 points behind Alonso, was just 0.035secs ahead of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton’s team-mate Jenson Button was fourth with Alonso only 13th.
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The Spaniard’s car stopped out on the track towards the end of the session. Ferrari said the engine in the car was at the end of its life and the failure happened two laps earlier than expected. BBC Sport
Ferrari driver Felipe Massa also struggled and was only the 14th fastest in front of his home crowd, nearly two seconds off the fastest time.
The morning session was uneventful until the final minutes, with drivers staying on the track under clear skies in Sao Paulo.
Toro Rosso driver Jaime Alguersuari was one of the few going off line but was able return to the track. Renault driver Vitaly Petrov skidded off the track and crashed into the tire barriers outside Turn 6 near the end, and later Sauber driver Kamui Kobayashi almost collided after going off on the same turn.
Robert Kubica of Renault rounded out the top five in the first session, 1.042 behind Vettel’s time. Nico Rosberg of Mercedes was sixth, Rubens Barrichello of Williams was seventh and seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher of Mercedes was eighth. The Canadian Press
Force India’s Adrian Sutil was ninth quickest ahead of Sauber driver Nick Heidfeld. SkySports
Nick Heidfeld was BMW Sauber’s lead runner with 1m 14.000s, fractionally ahead of team mate Kamui Kobayashi who posted 1m 14.004s before a big spin right at the end of the session brushed his C29 into a tyre wall.
Williams’ Nico Hulkenberg took 12th in 1m 14.155s on his first acquaintance with Interlagos, ahead of the Ferraris which, as they used to earlier in the season, focused on race work. Alonso lapped in 1m 14.246s, Ferrari team mate Felipe Massa in 1m 14.267s, but there was bad news for the points leader when he rolled to a halt with 10 minutes left with technical problems. The team had already been planning to change his engine ahead of the afternoon session. Formula 1
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