Sau Paulo, 7 Nov 2014 (IST Sat morn):

Nico Rosberg tops both Free Practice 1 and 2 at the Interlagos in Sao Paulo on Friday. A Mercedes AMG Petronas image

Nico Rosberg continued at the top of the timesheets in Interlagos, beating team-mate Lewis Hamilton to top spot by the same two tenths of a second margin he had enjoyed in the morning session.

Rosberg spent the early part of the session trailing Hamilton on the prime medium tyres but when the switch was made for option soft tyres, the German stretched his legs to take P1 with his first flying lap.

Hamilton tried to respond but on his opening flyer he ran wide Mergulho corner and ended up six-tenths adrift of his title rival. Unlike many other drivers Hamilton managed to improve on his second quick lap but he could get no closer to Rosberg than 0.2s.

Kimi Raikkonen was third fastest, half a second behind Rosberg, while Daniel Ricciardo, who had finished tenth in the morning session, improved to fourth fastest in the afternoon session, with the RB10 looking much more surefooted in the second practice period. Behind Ricciardo came the Williams cars of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa.

While Raikkonen enjoyed a decent afternoon, despite a spin, team-mate Fernando Alonso had a more troubled outing, the Spaniard being forced to pull over at the side of the track with an engine fire. Ferrari later said that the power unit involved was a high mileage example and the incident was of no major concern, though Director odf Engineering Pat Fry said it had been a shame that Alonso was sidelined for the final 20 minutes of the session. Despite the setback Alonso still managed the afternoon’s seventh fastest time.

Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat was ended up up eighth ahead of the second Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel, who, like his team-mate appeared more comfortable at the wheel of his RB10 than in the morning.

Kevin Magnussen rounded out the top 10, beating the lead Lotus of Pastor Maldonado by just two hundredths of a second.

Elsewhere, Esteban Gutierrez, who suffered electrical problems in the morning, also encountered problems in second session, the Mexican stopping with 13 minutes remaining and bringing out the red flag.

Jean-Eric Vergne also hit trouble. The Frenchman missed the morning session due to Max Verstappen taking over his Toro Rosso and Vergne’s first taste of the new Interlagos surface lasted just five laps before he pulled over at the aside of the track with a power unit problem.

Just 17 drivers ran during the session, with Sergio Perez unable to participate after Force India reserve Daniel Juncadella crashed his race car during the morning session.

2014 Brazilian Grand Prix – Free Practice 2
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:12.123 36
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:12.336 0.213 36
3 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:12.696 0.573 32
4 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:12.956 0.833 24
5 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:13.035 0.912 31
6 Felipe Massa Williams 1:13.099 0.976 27
7 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:13.122 0.999 20
8 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:13.254 1.131 35
9 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:13.333 1.210 28
10 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:13.479 1.356 33
11 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:13.497 1.374 33
12 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:13.714 1.591 37
13 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:13.882 1.759 32
14 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:13.902 1.779 25
15 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1:14.204 2.081 36
16 Jenson Button McLaren 1:14.209 2.086
17 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:17.171 5.048 31
18 Sergio Perez Force India No time 5
ends