Brazilian Grand Prix - Practice 2 Formula 1


Brazilian Grand Prix - Practice 2

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Hello and welcome back to Sao Paulo in Brazil, we have just two Grand

:01:05.:01:11.

Prix left before the end of the season and while Lewis Hamilton has

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already been crowned champion, the fight is on to be best of the rest.

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Alan McNish, we have been hiding from the rain, lovely and sunny this

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morning but we knew there was a threat of rain and thunderstorms in

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the area. That is the thing about Interlagps, you just don't know.

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They have been a lot a rain affected races, just a few minutes ago, the

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ground was wet and we were expecting a wet free practice to, but it has

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now dried off, we will still look at the clouds and I am sure we will see

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a smattering of rain at some point. The cars on the circuit, it can be

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dry at the beginning of qualifying and wet at the end, the teams will

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not take any chances letting any showers hold them back? They have a

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restricted number of wet tyres as well so they cannot just run and

:02:05.:02:09.

destroy the tyres, they will be thinking about the race situation. I

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hope it is either dry or completely wet, not the in between stage. We

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saw how tricky it was earlier on, it has been slippery and a lot of

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building work going on here, a lot of people complaining about bust on

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the track. Max Verstappen at the start of the session, coming around

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the long corner, then we have Sebastian Vettel coming into the

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last corner and just as he turns in towards the exit he loses the rear

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end and has to open the steering and run a bit wide and across the grass,

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no harm done in that situation but a small error. That is one thing I

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like about this circuit, it does punish you for any small error.

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There are no massive run of areas to secure yourself. Lewis Hamilton half

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a second quicker than anyone else but he locked up going into the

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first corner, it is cambered their so the inside left is very unloaded

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and easy to unlock. Finally we have Kimi Raikkonen in the Ferrari

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locking up as soon as he hits the break, 110 mph into turn four and

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the hybrid system acted aggressively the, skidding through the gravel. No

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damage in that situation but clearly this circuit is not in perfect

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condition. Looking like he is trying to plough a field there. But he is

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used in rallying. We were talking about Lewis Hamilton, half a second

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fastest at the end of free practice one but Nico Rosberg won the Mexican

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Grand Prix with a fantastic atmosphere, he is determined to win

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every race for the rest of the season. He has to get the momentum

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that, he has been dominated by Lewis Hamilton 's season, especially in

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qualifying but he has had four pole positions on the bounce and a strong

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race win in Mexico. 12 months ago he was a dominant person here in Brazil

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so he wants to continue with that and he was to get his mind settled

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going into 2016 as a title contender again. One

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the man who did win the title again this year was Lewis Hamilton, Nico

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Rosberg as we said one the Mexican Grand Prix and he is back up in

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second place. The Finnish drivers cannot stay

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apart on the track. We know Mercedes sewed up the constructors' title in

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Russia. Ferrari are second. Force India office but could still be

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vulnerable to Lotus and Toro Rosso. In the pit lane today we have Tom

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Clarkson and Jenny Gell, what is it like? It is 25 degrees, a little bit

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of moisture in the air but before we start talking about whether I to

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say, there is a famous saying in Formula 1 that it is only Friday and

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that has applied particularly today. Walking up and down the pit lane you

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can see how much the teams were gearing towards 2016 during first

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practice this morning. Mercedes ran an ester, even Red Bull have a new

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internal combustion engine which is geared towards next year. It is only

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this afternoon that we will see a majority of the teams working on the

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weekend ahead. However there are some issues with that. The weather

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here is definitely changeable, I have spoken to the FIA, they say

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they expect showers on and off through this session so it will be

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hard to predict exactly what tyres to be out on at which time, you

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would want it either dry or wet and it looks like a few drops come down

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now in the pit lane it will be mixing it up the whole way through.

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There we can see Daniil Kvyat having a look with his engineer and Adrian

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Sutil and Alexander Vert, he announced week he was retiring from

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motor racing. Hanging up his habit and in typical fashion, it was a

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clear decision by him. This weekend he is here for Williams and this

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could be a good Grand Prix for Williams, they were fast here last

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year and Felipe Massa is a local favourite, winning hit twice and

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Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen, that is one of the big stories of

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the weekend because they are still battling for fourth place overall in

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the championship. You can bet your bottom dollar that Massa will be

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spurred on by the Brazilian fans. He has such a huge selection of fans,

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worth mentioning Felipe Nasr here, it was here that he was announced as

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a driver for Sauber going forward before this season, how has he

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applied himself? He had a good run at the start of the season but he

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dropped off a little bit and his performances were not quite

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continuing with that momentum. But Sauber and their car did not

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develop, that was the issue. They started extremely well in Australia,

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a big surprise but were not able to continue that momentum. We can see

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Felipe Massa there, this it is exactly what we were talking about,

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starting to rain a little bit. The drivers are used with this around

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Interlagps because it changes quickly. In fact, Bottas means

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between lakes and the weather comes and goes, qualifying has been

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delayed before, we are used to it. There are two macro legs either side

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of the circuit, if it rains here it does rain heavily and you get a lot

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of rivers and aquaplaning and things like that but right now the rain has

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started again and there are little wet spots so it is in that critical

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condition where you would not necessarily go out on slicks but you

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cannot go on intermediates either. Before this session starts to tell

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us about your morning, an interesting moment in the pit lane?

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There was an interesting moment but I knew nothing about it. I was

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released into Jenson Button and he was not happy about it. He was

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released and I was released, the mechanic that released me released

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me when it was clear but Jensen was a bit quicker, I could see nothing

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in the mirror and I blocked him fairly savagely to be fair and we

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got a fine for it but it is not a big deal really. There was no big

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drama. Happy with performance? Good I think, a new track for me, quite

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complex as well, a lot of undulations and blind corners and

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technical bits. It is FB one, it is the worst session of the weekend

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because there is no rubber down, but we had a testing programme and it

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was the first time in a long time I have been driving and we have got

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through a clean programme. First time since Monza so that is a long

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time. Good to be back in the car properly but a good session. You

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have to go back to the garage and learn about this, we will not keep

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you, just very briefly, still spitting with rain, what can we

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expect? I think we will wait a bit before it goes one way or the other,

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if it dries up all gets wet, then you will see cars on track but this

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could be tomorrow and also Sunday. He will go up to the commentary

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box, we have live coverage of free practice to coming up from

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Interlagps, enjoy. The COMMENTATOR: Here we are, in

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Bottas getting towards the end of the World Championship, two rounds

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to go, Friday practice two where traditionally we see the long run

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times and what performance the teams will have in the Grand Prix for

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Sunday. Also a taster of the qualifying simulation. As we have

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been hearing in the build-up to this session, there has been rain. It

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started raining about half a narrow go and then it stopped and now it

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has started again. It is the intermittent sort of rain that has

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affected so many Brazilian Grand Prix over the year. They're having

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some great moments,, Ayrton Senna on the way to his first-ever victory in

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his home Grand Prix, a rain shower towards the end and he was stuck in

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gear that day and a cramp in his shoulders to deal with. More

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recently, 2008, was Hamilton finally winning the world champion by

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passing the Toyota on the last corner of the last lap of the last

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race of the championship. This misty rain that suddenly drifts in with a

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huge part of the story there, Toyota had gambled staying on the dry

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weather tyres and Hamilton was on the wet tyres and it was a question

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of whether it would rain more not as to whether he would win the World

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Championship. He did, and the rest is history. It is just free practice

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and we will see how things evolve over the next 90 minutes, if you

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were not with us this morning, to see the first practice session,

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Lewis Hamilton hit the ground running, he may have had a few

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personal issues of circuit in the build-up to this Grand Prix. With a

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road accident in Monaco where he lives, no one hurt but some damage

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to his very valuable supercar, some other cars as well. Hamilton

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admitted yesterday that he has been burning the candle at both ends

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since winning the World Championship, letting his head down

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a bit but it has not slowed him down at all so far. 1:13.543 was his time

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after 28 laps of running in free practice one. That was comfortably

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half a second quicker than Nico Rosberg. Talking to a number of

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photographers out on circuit this morning, all of them commenting on

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how crisp and aggressive Hamilton looked a particularly in the low

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speed corners, of which there are a number at Interlagps, the 2.6 miles

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circuit. Raikkonen had a spin this morning, meanwhile, Jenson Button

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and Fernando Alonso, driving for the McLaren team and their boss, Eric

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Bailly a is with Tom Clarkson now. Let us talk about the weather, you

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are talking to an Englishman, what is the forecast for this session?

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Rehab a few showers floating around so as you can see there are some few

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drops. -- we have a few options. The macro you are not changing your

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programme? It is too unpredictable at this stage. We watch the radar

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and see what is going on. Let us talk about your team, a difficult

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Grand Prix in Mexico, can we expect better things this weekend? Won yes,

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it can only be better, everybody is working hard and they are very

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focused on what is happening now and for next year so we can expect

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better reliability here. Down on power and at altitude, the long hill

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coming up to the start and finish straight, are you expecting decent

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things, can we think about points? We do not want to think about

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anything now, no wrong expectations. These last two races, they test

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sessions for McLaren or are you trying to get results, are you

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really chasing Sauber in the championship? Won for the last 18

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races? It is like I said, we are working on making our car better, we

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are just trying to keep focused on where we should be. Where should you

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be next season? We will see, much higher. Tom with the McLaren boss

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and Jenson Button was saying yesterday in the official press

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conference, the driver 's press conference, that he believes that

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next year they will be fighting at the front if not necessarily winning

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races which is quite big talk. He was 13th in practice this morning

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and Alonso in 16th, talking about great moments here at Bottas over

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the years, the 2005 Grand Prix where he won the world title, Alonso, for

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the first time in the Renault, he came in and climbed on to the nose

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of his Renault car and just exploded with joy, a very emotional moment

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for him, the culmination of a lifetime 's work.

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It has been dreadfully since about half an hour -- drizzle. The track

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temperature is 32. But was not enough rain falling to make it fully

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damp. No evidence of shininess on the racetrack. I drove back to

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Austin airport with Alan McNish and it was raining hard and I was asking

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how you can tell why Macleay tunnels are and how you are likely to Aqua

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plane. It is an amazing science. Your eyes seeing the water on the

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racetrack is huge. Anything shiny is not good when it is wet because that

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suggests there is standing water and slippery. The rain just coming over

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the top of the bridge to the commentary box. If it drips, as it

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is, and it is probably going to be spots of rain, you would definitely

:16:36.:16:39.

be on the slick tyre trying to get as much of your running done as

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possible to get a bit of a feel, especially on the soft tyre, because

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the experience on the soft tyre this year is the rule. Last year it was

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overheating on the surface of the tyre itself. I can see them getting

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onto that tyre quite soon. Rosberg heading out on circuit on the medium

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compound Pirelli tyres. He has all sorts of pressure sensors on the

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front of that Mercedes. This free practice session is a three our

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opportunity for all of the Formula 1 team to try out some new things and

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do some measurements. We often see the cars coming in in a Day-Glo

:17:21.:17:24.

paints to measure the aerodynamic flows battling over the car and the

:17:25.:17:35.

surfaces and they can learn a lot from that. As Tom Clarkson was

:17:36.:17:37.

saying this is a great opportunity with these last couple of races. The

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championship and the constructors decided. A great opportunity for

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them to try something new with an eye on next season. There will be a

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tyre test with the latest development tyres for next year

:17:53.:17:55.

including the new ultrasoft which sounds exciting. It will primarily

:17:56.:18:02.

be a qualifying tyre but the idea is to make the strategy a bit more

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variable on the Saturday. Yes. The ultrasoft will be faster and more

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critical than the current super soft. Maybe similar to what we had

:18:22.:18:27.

as the super soft last year. I do not think it is going to be radical

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because they cannot go too far but you might have options with

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different teams running different options to the other. One hour and

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26 minutes remaining. Very early stages. Grosjean still some way off

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the pace we saw this morning. Coming close a number of times to getting

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that kind of breakthrough result that Verstappen has had. So far the

:19:07.:19:14.

Hollywood result for Sainz has not come through. I do not think he

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means the brakes are not working entirely. I think he means the

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efficiency of the brakes are not very good so he does not get the

:19:33.:19:35.

massive deceleration you normally get when you come up to the hairpin.

:19:36.:19:44.

150 kilograms of force onto the brake pedal. You have a celebration

:19:45.:19:54.

at quite a few corners but if you do not get the friction on the panel,

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on the desk, on the tyre, on the ground, then you feel it because the

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line is very narrow when you get to the apex especially at the moment

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because the circuit seems to be sloppy this morning with a few bebop

:20:04.:20:11.

having off track excursions. 5.5 G of deceleration as they hit the

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brakes. Just slowing down from well over 200 mph. Five G of deceleration

:20:27.:20:30.

hitting the driver squarely on the chest. Just under a second under

:20:31.:20:38.

half of braking. That how efficient the braking is. That is why it is so

:20:39.:20:43.

important if they not working properly, like for Grosjean.

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Remember you can get in touch with us if you are watching live. That is

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a replay, exactly the same as what happened to Max Verstappen this

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morning. Just as he is about to change up to the next gear the rear

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of the car becomes unstable. It is basically a replica of what happened

:21:11.:21:14.

to Verstappen this morning. Talk to me about the lack of grip budget so

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this morning. That has been a fair amount of building work been going

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on. The pit lane is particularly dusty. Out on circuit, is it

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normal... We are part of the City here or there is a lot of smog in

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the air and a lot of stuff coming down and settling. Yes, but this was

:21:34.:21:40.

a new tarmac surface last year and significantly quicker than the

:21:41.:21:43.

previous. It seemed to have a lot of grip at very high temperatures. They

:21:44.:21:49.

were still one seconds slower than last year in free practice. The

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circuit did not seem to have the grip. It seems to have become more

:21:55.:21:59.

slippery as it has cured since it was brand-new at the beginning of

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the 2014 weekend. That work in the background has not helped because

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they put up new buildings and I am sure the dust is settling. It will

:22:09.:22:18.

get faster. 13.5 was the fastest this morning. It does not appear to

:22:19.:22:21.

be the condition it was 12 months ago. The fastest time from this

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session last year was one minute 12 by Rosberg. Some way of that.

:22:32.:22:38.

Normally that left-hander is flat-out and Bottas got a bit of a

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turn as he got into the corner. Even changing gear is destabilising the

:22:47.:22:50.

cars enough so you are seeing some big oversteer moments. Tom Clarkson

:22:51.:22:56.

can bring us up on the conditions. Conditions have not changed.

:22:57.:23:06.

Williams say they are expecting this, not quite wet, not quite dry.

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Situation a lot whereas on the pit wall is going to have to react to

:23:13.:23:18.

track conditions. I was walking the track last night, and there is a

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slightly dirty facade into like Russell this year, the new paddock

:23:27.:23:31.

is not finished and where most racetracks have Astroturf here they

:23:32.:23:38.

have badly read cards which of her car runs wages going to end up going

:23:39.:23:43.

all sorts of places, particularly if it is wet. It seems slightly messy

:23:44.:23:49.

and I wonder if they might be dragging some of that find mud onto

:23:50.:23:57.

the racing line. It is a slightly raised beds of turf on the inside of

:23:58.:24:03.

the racetrack. Nico Rosberg goes fastest. He was purple sector

:24:04.:24:11.

fastest all the way through. Maldonado seem to get in the way of

:24:12.:24:15.

Stevens, who was giving his hand signal. Suggesting he was not happy.

:24:16.:24:22.

When you see the situation normal in terms of the weather, I have been

:24:23.:24:28.

here for a six-hour race and it gets a fine mist and you think it has to

:24:29.:24:32.

rain but it does not. If it doesn't rain is very heavily. It is the

:24:33.:24:38.

opposite seasons here so this is bring coming into summer as far as

:24:39.:24:42.

Brazil is concerned whereas the rest of us in the northern hemisphere are

:24:43.:24:48.

heading into winter. Mercedes winner last time out in Mexico are leading.

:24:49.:24:54.

He was fastest in every session in qualifying and race here in Brazil

:24:55.:24:58.

last year, beating Lewis Hamilton to chequered flag. Here is Raikkonen's

:24:59.:25:14.

radio. No grip on the tyres. That was a common complaint this morning.

:25:15.:25:19.

Jenson Button was very vocal about it. It went from no front grip to no

:25:20.:25:24.

rear grip. It seems to be a knife edge whether you can make this tyre

:25:25.:25:29.

work. It will be interesting when they go to the soft, that will

:25:30.:25:33.

definitely give them more trip, it is whether they can keep the tyre

:25:34.:25:37.

without losing the performance. Raikkonen saying he has no grip on

:25:38.:25:41.

the tyre. The engineer would say if you had no grip you would fly off

:25:42.:25:45.

the racetrack so you must have some. What does he mean? Not as much as he

:25:46.:25:51.

wants? You never have enough or you would be flat-out groaned every

:25:52.:25:59.

single corner. Keep working on your tyres. There is nothing on the radar

:26:00.:26:05.

yet. How far is the rain? That is what Ericsson asked. 36 points

:26:06.:26:13.

between them but it is pretty lopsided in the favour of Nasr. This

:26:14.:26:20.

is a weekend and Abu Dhabi as well where Ericsson would like to finish

:26:21.:26:24.

the season on a high with in that Sauber team. In the best possible

:26:25.:26:32.

shape with ten points scored in Australia on debut but since then he

:26:33.:26:36.

has gone on to score in other races as well as Sauber has been

:26:37.:26:40.

overhauled by other teams, still managing to score a few points along

:26:41.:26:44.

the way, but still the bulk of the points in the early races when a

:26:45.:26:47.

number of teams are struggling with reliability. Plenty of you are

:26:48.:26:58.

getting in touch. David says, can McLaren turned things round for next

:26:59.:27:04.

year? The chassis seems to be good but can Honda provide the engine or

:27:05.:27:11.

is it all lost? You used to be a Honda test driver. Do you see those

:27:12.:27:15.

golden days coming back? That is the big question. That is what McLaren

:27:16.:27:21.

and Honda are asking themselves. It is not through lack of effort but it

:27:22.:27:26.

is a big uphill challenge. It is about the chassis. Williams are

:27:27.:27:31.

pushing ahead. You have Ferrari, Red Bull are trying to come back and

:27:32.:27:34.

Mercedes the leaders and already one big step ahead in terms of looking

:27:35.:27:40.

at what they are doing for 2016. It is big catch up. The gap... Lewis

:27:41.:27:54.

Hamilton is chasing Bottas. He has Ricciardo behind him. In front of

:27:55.:28:01.

Bottas there is fairly empty track through to Verstappen. Hamilton

:28:02.:28:04.

dropping back from Bottas having been given that message. Hamilton

:28:05.:28:09.

has backed off to let Ricciardo go through. Still less fine mist hangs

:28:10.:28:17.

in the air in the distance the normal view of the skyline of Sao

:28:18.:28:21.

Paulo which back in the 1970s was the fastest-growing City in the

:28:22.:28:27.

world in the days when someone was coming through and winning the World

:28:28.:28:31.

Championship, the first Brazilian to put Formula 1 on the map in this

:28:32.:28:39.

country, and in his wake came many great drivers to Ayrton Senna and

:28:40.:28:43.

today Felipe Massa, a two time winner of this Brazilian Grand Prix

:28:44.:28:48.

but never a world champion. He came so close in 2008. Was burgers out on

:28:49.:28:54.

circuit and on the attack. Mercedes have been looking good this morning.

:28:55.:29:01.

Turning corners exactly as they wanted. Also getting the power. You

:29:02.:29:05.

saw the others having a little bit of oversteer. Nico has that car

:29:06.:29:13.

planted at the moment. You have to have good acceleration. This is an

:29:14.:29:18.

incredibly steep incline all the way up to the start and finish straight

:29:19.:29:21.

so if you lose one coal-mac an hour it affects you and you can lose four

:29:22.:29:35.

or five tenths. 205 mph, that is how quick they are going. We are at an

:29:36.:29:40.

all to Jude nothing as high as Mexico City but still as high as 800

:29:41.:29:47.

metres -- altitude. Spinning a bit more quickly. I need another pair of

:29:48.:29:59.

gloves. An unusual request in the middle of a session. Maybe he needs

:30:00.:30:03.

to go to a department store. Plenty going on behind in Formula 1

:30:04.:30:23.

at the moment, news this morning that the FIA has launched the

:30:24.:30:30.

process, a tender process for a commercially available engine from

:30:31.:30:33.

2017 onwards and that will put the cat among the pigeons. This is the

:30:34.:30:37.

latest move in the stand-off between the governing body and commercial

:30:38.:30:41.

boss Bernie Ecclestone on one hand and the engine manufacturers,

:30:42.:30:44.

particularly Ferrari and Mercedes on the other. In a suffix balladry

:30:45.:30:55.

message from Daniil Kvyat. I am not sure Jenson Button would agree, he

:30:56.:30:58.

has done the fastest time in the first and second sector. He is

:30:59.:31:02.

pulling all the way up the hill to the start and finish line and it

:31:03.:31:09.

will be fastest in the session. He goes quicker by a 10th and a half,

:31:10.:31:14.

saying speed across the finishing line, Hamilton does a 1.13 point

:31:15.:31:22.

364, just under a 10th of a second than he managed this morning in free

:31:23.:31:26.

practice. That is despite rain and the other things going on. 33

:31:27.:31:31.

degrees is the track temperature, 28 degrees of air temperature. Talking

:31:32.:31:36.

about the engine tender process, an interesting development and it plays

:31:37.:31:42.

into the whole story of Red Bull and what engine they will be using next

:31:43.:31:47.

year. It will have to be some form of interim engine as far as they are

:31:48.:31:50.

concerned, whether it be Renault without a badge or a Honda, likely

:31:51.:31:55.

to be the form of the two but they would be a prime customer for this

:31:56.:32:01.

commercially available engine from 2017 onwards. It is a big and little

:32:02.:32:07.

push as Grosjean attacks into the hairpin corner, that is another team

:32:08.:32:12.

in that area where they are not 100% what is happening because there is

:32:13.:32:15.

talk they will be taken over by Renault but the deal does not seem

:32:16.:32:20.

to have been clarified yet. For Red Bull, they need to get it sorted out

:32:21.:32:24.

because it has been a long time and deadlines have been pushed back

:32:25.:32:29.

again and again, until next week, that is the last physical moment

:32:30.:32:32.

before they have two create so many things on the car's development. How

:32:33.:32:40.

much rain is going at the moment? A very different view from Daniil

:32:41.:32:46.

Kvyat, although he has set the his own personal fastest final sector so

:32:47.:32:52.

the rain he said was affecting the middle sector in particular seems

:32:53.:32:55.

not to be an issue because the Russian driver has just gone fifth

:32:56.:33:03.

quickest with a 1:14.619. We should talk about the development engine on

:33:04.:33:08.

the back of Ricciardo's calf one of the big stories coming out of this

:33:09.:33:11.

year, not only the breakdown in relation ship between Renault and

:33:12.:33:16.

Red Bull but Red Bull have not brought any developer and steps to

:33:17.:33:19.

this engine which has gone backwards from 2014. This is the first

:33:20.:33:23.

occasion in which a development Renault is out on track using most

:33:24.:33:27.

of their available development tokens. Ricciardo and his team boss

:33:28.:33:31.

Richie and horn playing it down yesterday, they they expected it

:33:32.:33:36.

would be a 10th or two tenths of a second only in terms of gain. It is

:33:37.:33:42.

interesting that the development has been in the internal combustion part

:33:43.:33:46.

of the engine am not be power unit, which means not mucking about with

:33:47.:33:50.

the turbo which means they have some reliability issues in that area.

:33:51.:33:55.

They have used 12 tokens for the season on it and I think they would

:33:56.:33:59.

hope to have a bigger gain than a couple of tenths of a second but

:34:00.:34:02.

they have delayed the introduction of this engine for a while. But Red

:34:03.:34:08.

Bull, they have it in one car but not the other side Daniil Kvyat is

:34:09.:34:12.

on the previous specifications, they are spitting the strategy a little

:34:13.:34:16.

bit because there is a gain of maybe two tenths of a second but you have

:34:17.:34:21.

to take the grid penalty to have the engine in the car. Daniel Ricciardo

:34:22.:34:25.

saying the reason for him to take it is that they did not expect to be

:34:26.:34:29.

that competitive here and that rain is forecast throughout the weekend

:34:30.:34:32.

and as we mentioned earlier, anything can happen though it is one

:34:33.:34:36.

of those places where you might get lucky with the safety car and start

:34:37.:34:42.

further back might not be the end of the world. Only one car out on the

:34:43.:34:46.

circuit, you have a view on this Renault and Red Bull situation.

:34:47.:34:50.

Something Daniel Ricciardo said yesterday was that they were hoping

:34:51.:34:53.

this new Renault upgrade will have better drivability which will give

:34:54.:34:57.

it better fuel consumption because it is one of the more thirsty

:34:58.:35:02.

engines on the grid at the moment and that would help them particular

:35:03.:35:05.

in Abu Dhabi, which has a high fuel consumption rate. The news came

:35:06.:35:11.

through from the FIA about the engine tender process, bids have to

:35:12.:35:15.

be in by the 23rd of November which does not leave a lot of time and

:35:16.:35:20.

makes you suspect that there have been people ex-pressing an interest

:35:21.:35:23.

in it, what has been the reaction in the paddock in the last couple of

:35:24.:35:29.

hours? People I have spoken to think it is cynical, a political game and

:35:30.:35:33.

hopefully what will happen is the manufacturers, Ferrari, Mercedes,

:35:34.:35:38.

Honda, will turn around and say that they wanted it to become a 12

:35:39.:35:43.

million euros engine a year, let us compromise because at the moment it

:35:44.:35:48.

is costing 18, I think that is what the endgame is here personally. Very

:35:49.:35:54.

interesting, and our and nine minutes to go in this session so

:35:55.:35:57.

everyone on their early run. They lock-up from Romain Grosjean on his

:35:58.:36:01.

penultimate outing as a Lotus driver, he is moving to the new Hoss

:36:02.:36:07.

team coming in next year that will be powered by Ferrari. -- Hass,

:36:08.:36:13.

everything that they are legally allowed to use for Ferrari will be

:36:14.:36:17.

on that car so they are reflecting to start out of the reasonably high

:36:18.:36:21.

competitive level. Grosjean is particularly excited by the new

:36:22.:36:26.

challenge awaiting him. At the same time, a little emotional leaving a

:36:27.:36:30.

team where he has pretty much spent his entire Formula 1 career. Billy

:36:31.:36:34.

no mates on the circuit at the moment, nobody else out on track and

:36:35.:36:39.

Hamilton Hummer Rosberg and Vettel are the top three. He has done quite

:36:40.:36:46.

a few laps as we get another replay of him locking up coming into the

:36:47.:36:52.

right-hand hairpin. Romain Grosjean is currently done 13 laps on this

:36:53.:36:59.

medium tyre which at this moment, the way the track surface and the

:37:00.:37:03.

grip level is, the rubber on the track is about the limit of it.

:37:04.:37:08.

Pastor Maldonado sitting there in the cockpit of the other Lotus

:37:09.:37:13.

watching his team-mate circulating out on circuit. Fernando Alonso has

:37:14.:37:18.

just gone out in the McLaren Honda, Maldonado from Venezuela, not 1

:37:19.:37:21.

million miles away from here, to the north, well to the North. It has

:37:22.:37:27.

been a run of races where fans of his from Venezuela can easily

:37:28.:37:31.

reached from Austin, Texas, to Mexico City and Brazil, they are

:37:32.:37:35.

spoiled for choice really. Venezuelan Formula 1 fans at this

:37:36.:37:39.

time of the year. Alonso on the circuit, looking at the document

:37:40.:37:46.

issued. There are a few very light drops in the pit lane but nothing of

:37:47.:37:49.

significance on the radar so it should not get any worse. Looking at

:37:50.:37:54.

the document issued the FIA at the beginning of the race weekend,

:37:55.:37:57.

bringing everybody to date on how many engines have been used in all

:37:58.:38:02.

the different components of the engine as well, I saw this morning

:38:03.:38:07.

that Honda have now used in 11 internal combustion engines, the

:38:08.:38:11.

maximum is four in the regulations so some time ago, they took the view

:38:12.:38:15.

that when the rules were changed on penalties but they would max out and

:38:16.:38:19.

take penalties as and when appropriate. Really focusing on

:38:20.:38:26.

development. There was little they could do otherwise if they did not

:38:27.:38:30.

focus on that, they did not have the reliability and it is difficult to

:38:31.:38:33.

gain reliability through the season with how it is structured at the

:38:34.:38:36.

moment and they had little alternative to be honest. Alonso

:38:37.:38:41.

talking about underperformance, what did you make about those comments? I

:38:42.:38:45.

thought they were pretty fair actually. In general, over one lap

:38:46.:38:50.

he can deliver a bit more than he has done and there have been quite a

:38:51.:38:53.

few occasions where I was not totally convinced that he was not

:38:54.:38:59.

looking at other things and he needed to refocus on the job in hand

:39:00.:39:03.

which is apparently what he has done right now. One of the things he

:39:04.:39:10.

might have been focusing on? Other drives and seats and where Elsey

:39:11.:39:14.

could have gone. Sports car racing and the Le Mans 24 hours, which will

:39:15.:39:19.

clash with the new Azerbaijan grand break, Alonso has had a reasonable

:39:20.:39:24.

season, he has stepped up against Jenson Button as you would expect

:39:25.:39:26.

but it has been difficult for both of them considering they former

:39:27.:39:31.

world champions and they have both had to be incredibly patient with

:39:32.:39:36.

the problems that have come their way with the Honda hybrid turbo

:39:37.:39:40.

engine. Interesting to see what Honda's reaction is to this engine

:39:41.:39:46.

tender process because if it does get some momentum behind it, they

:39:47.:39:49.

might be interested to consider that. The Ferrari crossing the start

:39:50.:39:55.

and finish line, Sebastian Vettel, 327 K pH, five case lower than the

:39:56.:40:02.

Mercedes, just before he hits the breaks into Turn 1. Riding on board

:40:03.:40:08.

here, coming down to turn for where Kimi Raikkonen spun this morning and

:40:09.:40:12.

you can see the front wing, they have two front wing options here,

:40:13.:40:16.

subtle changes to the main plane and the little flaps but they have been

:40:17.:40:19.

trying them back-to-back with both drivers and both of them have gone

:40:20.:40:24.

to the latest evolution of it and finding it gives them just a bit

:40:25.:40:27.

more stability and grip on these tighter corners here on the infield

:40:28.:40:33.

sector. Bottas has become the first man going out on the soft compound

:40:34.:40:37.

tyres met he is heading out on circuit. Ferrari have also brought

:40:38.:40:43.

some updates to the rear bodywork of the car as they look to pile on the

:40:44.:40:48.

rear end downforce and stability which is fundamental as far as

:40:49.:40:51.

Sebastian Vettel is concerned, it is one of the things that makes him

:40:52.:40:54.

fast and he relies on it, the more of that they can give him, the

:40:55.:40:58.

faster he goes and from Singapore onwards they have made great steps

:40:59.:41:02.

in that car and really started to get the performance equally

:41:03.:41:07.

importantly, which is what he had that victory in Singapore and has

:41:08.:41:12.

gone on particular strongly. And our and three minutes remaining on the

:41:13.:41:19.

clock. Vettel just improving their on that last lap. We are heading

:41:20.:41:25.

towards the time where they switch over onto the soft tyres and go out

:41:26.:41:29.

and do their qualifying simulation runs. What are you seeing in terms

:41:30.:41:34.

of track conditions, how has it improved since the start of this

:41:35.:41:37.

session when you were standing in the rain? It does not seem to have

:41:38.:41:43.

got wetter which is the main thing but in terms of improvement, it has

:41:44.:41:47.

not improved from this morning. That suggests they still roughly have the

:41:48.:41:52.

same grip levels as this morning. Interesting is what happens, Bottas

:41:53.:41:56.

already doing the fastest first sector of anyone, four hundreds

:41:57.:42:01.

quicker than Lewis Hamilton who had the previous quickest in those first

:42:02.:42:04.

couple of corners, that is only really Turn 1 and two, then it

:42:05.:42:09.

flattens out for three and down to Turn 4, this is the middle sector

:42:10.:42:13.

and the hairpin and this left-hander where we will see the benefit of

:42:14.:42:20.

that. A little bit of rain on the way. Sebastian Vettel saying some

:42:21.:42:24.

rain on the way, a right front lock from Valtteri Bottas, pushing hard

:42:25.:42:30.

on those softer compound tyres. 20 of sparks coming out from underneath

:42:31.:42:33.

the floor of that Williams Mercedes, he is the fastest of

:42:34.:42:38.

anyone in sector one and a personal best in sector to so I think he is

:42:39.:42:42.

heading for top of the Pops here. He will want to switch over onto the

:42:43.:42:47.

soft compound tyre. Coming down through the undulation and across

:42:48.:42:51.

the start and finish line, by three hundredths of a second he goes

:42:52.:42:55.

faster than Nico Rosberg, than Lewis Hamilton. Alonso is off the circuit

:42:56.:43:01.

but back on. That is one second faster than Valtteri Bottas did on

:43:02.:43:06.

the medium tyre, so the delta seems to be about one second. We will get

:43:07.:43:10.

a better read when more people go out, smoke coming out of the back of

:43:11.:43:15.

Alonso's car and he is going back slowly, not sure if it was a driver

:43:16.:43:21.

error but more of a technical issue. I have no power. Half the power. I

:43:22.:43:27.

think he has less than that. Definitely smoke coming out from the

:43:28.:43:32.

back of that engine, a tell-tale blue haze beginning to drift out of

:43:33.:43:38.

the oversized exhaust pipe. Some flames in there, that is it, it

:43:39.:43:41.

looks like it has detonated itself inside. Not that much smoke coming

:43:42.:43:47.

out now that he has turned the engine off, maybe it was flames from

:43:48.:43:53.

a few will being burnt. I think that is the end of his session, he has

:43:54.:43:58.

gone off the track, the last part of the track but no way to get back to

:43:59.:44:04.

the pits from there. Said they had 11 combustion engines, they might be

:44:05.:44:09.

heading number 12 here, if it was a goals difference on a league table,

:44:10.:44:12.

they would be looking pretty good but 12 is not a good number to have

:44:13.:44:17.

in Formula 1 when the goal is four. He trudges away from his car,

:44:18.:44:21.

leaving it to the right-hand side of the racetrack and this wide open

:44:22.:44:27.

expanse of grass, a few cameramen pointing the other way, not looking

:44:28.:44:34.

at where he is. I think this might be a replay, Jenson Button coming

:44:35.:44:36.

out of the pit lane and Alonso just changing the gear. Stop the car,

:44:37.:44:43.

stop the car at the side of the track. It was an instruction from

:44:44.:44:47.

the pits, and now a red flag to recover that car and it is a

:44:48.:44:53.

dangerous situation just as he comes out of the right-hander. Yes,

:44:54.:44:57.

unfortunate that we have the red flag, was not able to get it further

:44:58.:45:03.

away from the track and closer to the marshals but frustration again

:45:04.:45:06.

for Fernando Alonso, he has had some great moments here at this Bottas

:45:07.:45:12.

circuit but the mechanics, a rather resigned air as the marshal waives

:45:13.:45:16.

the red flag here, they have had such a hard season, the McLaren

:45:17.:45:18.

mechanics. They are going to have a hard winter

:45:19.:45:28.

as well, trying to boost their performance ahead of next season. We

:45:29.:45:35.

have a red flag. Only Bottas has done a qualifying simulation run on

:45:36.:45:39.

the soft compound Pirelli. A lot more speed and performance to come

:45:40.:45:43.

in the remainder of this session, provided it does not rain again.

:45:44.:45:47.

Hamilton is second-fastest on the medium compound tyre. The -- Vettel

:45:48.:46:03.

in fifth. How much dry running is Fernando

:46:04.:46:07.

Alonso going to a total? We are beginning to get wet. Talking to the

:46:08.:46:14.

Pirelli engineers I was asking why are the track conditions so much

:46:15.:46:19.

worse this year than last year? That is something Allen touched on. Two

:46:20.:46:26.

reasons from them. The ship of the stones. Last year a freshly laid

:46:27.:46:32.

surface and this year they are much rounder. Second reason, they are

:46:33.:46:39.

saying there are various corners around the track where the asphalt

:46:40.:46:43.

was damaged during the race last year. Could not tell me why but I

:46:44.:46:47.

wonder if you have an inside line. I do not. I know it was roughly about

:46:48.:46:54.

one and a half or two seconds faster from the previous year for us in

:46:55.:46:58.

terms of performance and grip level was huge, tyre wear was much less

:46:59.:47:04.

than before. I did not think there was any damage to the track. I

:47:05.:47:09.

cannot really help you. In terms of the roughness of the stones it

:47:10.:47:14.

actually is... It has a lot of bitumen contained and it is very

:47:15.:47:19.

smooth anyway so if there was any roughness it was quite small even

:47:20.:47:22.

when the track was laid under they have taken that edge off it must be

:47:23.:47:29.

a very smooth surface on top. A strange cameo here as they clear

:47:30.:47:36.

away a lawns or's car. Fernando Alonso sitting on the wall staring

:47:37.:47:43.

at his car. Waiting for somebody to pick up. His body language says

:47:44.:47:47.

complete and utter dejection. Yet again his car like him down.

:47:48.:47:53.

Christian Horner, the team boss of Red Bull Racing, joins us. Typical

:47:54.:47:59.

Brazil conditions at the beginning of this session. What did you get

:48:00.:48:05.

from it? Depressed, having listened to you describing Fernando Alonso

:48:06.:48:11.

walking away from his car. Obviously the weather, it started to spit a

:48:12.:48:15.

little bit in the pit lane a few minutes ago. Hopefully that is going

:48:16.:48:19.

to clean up and we can get back into the session quickly. Running two

:48:20.:48:23.

different engines what did you learn about Daniel Ricciardo's

:48:24.:48:27.

development? Is it along the lines you expected, one tenth up to two

:48:28.:48:34.

tenths? It is difficult to judge at the moment. There is still a bit of

:48:35.:48:40.

fine tuning going on. It is within the noise of about a 10th at the

:48:41.:48:46.

moment I would say. Since the last session the FIA has put out this

:48:47.:48:50.

tender document for this commercially available engine for

:48:51.:48:55.

2017. How much is that music to your ears? It is a very interesting and

:48:56.:48:58.

positive step as far as we are concerned because it is saying that

:48:59.:49:05.

the FIA are determined to get a cost-effective powerful engine as an

:49:06.:49:09.

alternative introduced into the sport. One can assume that this is

:49:10.:49:18.

leverage for perhaps a change in engine regulation. When are we going

:49:19.:49:23.

to know what you are going to be doing for next year? That seems to

:49:24.:49:27.

have been delayed in terms of your decision and announcements? You are

:49:28.:49:31.

quite right. There is only one race left so I hope to be able to tell

:49:32.:49:36.

you by then. There's a lot of work going on in the background. We are

:49:37.:49:40.

honing in on something but unfortunately I am not at liberty to

:49:41.:49:44.

say exactly what that is at the moment. Can we assume it is going to

:49:45.:49:49.

be in a similar line to where you are now? You can assume what you

:49:50.:49:54.

like! Going back to the engine tender process, in terms of the

:49:55.:49:59.

reaction within the paddock there's a feeling in some quarters this

:50:00.:50:05.

might be a bluff to get Ferrari and Mercedes back to the negotiating

:50:06.:50:08.

table but there is intent behind it surely? Absolutely. The FIA have

:50:09.:50:14.

gone out and said the tender is happening. I think John was prepared

:50:15.:50:21.

to negotiate with the manufacturers of they had lowered their price

:50:22.:50:30.

below what it was and we have been offered engines at over 30 million

:50:31.:50:35.

euros and it is completely nuts. This weekend where do you feel your

:50:36.:50:40.

guys are? It looks as if you are struggling a little bit in the first

:50:41.:50:45.

and third sector but the middle sector could be where you could

:50:46.:50:48.

gain. It is a little bit like Mexico trying to find the balance between

:50:49.:50:51.

how much when we strip out of the car to be quicker in sectors the map

:50:52.:50:57.

and one whereas Sector 2 theoretically is our strongest

:50:58.:51:00.

sector so we are running less downforce than other cars trying to

:51:01.:51:03.

find the balance. At the moment in these conditions the cars and

:51:04.:51:09.

drivers have been performing well. Finally, returning to your next

:51:10.:51:13.

steps, you are going to get your engine decision when you can and

:51:14.:51:18.

presumably it is flat out throughout the winter to make it in time for

:51:19.:51:21.

the first test in February and the first Grand Prix in March, does that

:51:22.:51:27.

mean Christmas is cancelled? Christmas is never cancelled. It

:51:28.:51:32.

just might be busy. It may be a working Christmas. If anybody can

:51:33.:51:38.

pull this off it is our team. They have demonstrated their ability of

:51:39.:51:42.

the year to work to tight deadlines and develop and this is no

:51:43.:51:49.

different. I am certain that every person is absolutely up for the

:51:50.:51:53.

challenge of this and will be there. Here is hoping you find some potent

:51:54.:51:56.

engine under your Christmas tree. Good luck. Christian Horner, the

:51:57.:52:03.

boss of Red Bull Racing. Interesting he said the team are working to

:52:04.:52:09.

tight deadlines and used to that. It is a very tight deadline. Making

:52:10.:52:16.

sure it is implemented into the car in time for the earlier tests in

:52:17.:52:22.

2016. That has been one of over the years, very tight deadlines and also

:52:23.:52:26.

the way they do their development, constant small development through

:52:27.:52:31.

the season. Not many people at Red Bull are going to be given time off

:52:32.:52:37.

at Christmas to relax. The session is due to recommence at 2:39pm,

:52:38.:52:43.

which is just under two minutes from now. Remember to send your questions

:52:44.:52:51.

are nice you are watching the replay. The man asked if the current

:52:52.:52:57.

regulations are holding teams like Force India back? Force India have

:52:58.:53:01.

the best power unit in the back of their car so it is probably helping

:53:02.:53:04.

them. It is very difficult unless you have a manufacturer to HEV

:53:05.:53:21.

victory in the current regulations. Richard, will Haas be trundling at

:53:22.:53:28.

the back? I do not think so. Given the amount of collaboration I think

:53:29.:53:31.

they will do well in addition to which they have a solid budget and a

:53:32.:53:36.

proper business plan so I think Haas should be somewhere around Sauber.

:53:37.:53:42.

Paul, do you think Renault have been distracted by the development of

:53:43.:53:46.

their formula E engine? I do not think so. It is a sideline in

:53:47.:53:52.

comparison to their Formula 1 engine. They released a lot of

:53:53.:53:58.

people when the V8s were frozen back on the day and they did not have the

:53:59.:54:02.

technical developments and they were lead to the party looking at the new

:54:03.:54:07.

engines. Robert, do you think Ferrari will use their veto on the

:54:08.:54:10.

regulation changes needed to accommodate these commercial engines

:54:11.:54:14.

that Christian Horner was talking about? There's a fair amount of

:54:15.:54:17.

nodding going on in the commentary box. They have the right to use it

:54:18.:54:23.

and if they do it will get fairly messy. This is the early process in

:54:24.:54:30.

a complex battle that is going to carry on in the next few weeks

:54:31.:54:34.

because it is going to have to get done by the end of this year if it

:54:35.:54:39.

is going to pass. Anything for the following year has to be unanimous.

:54:40.:54:44.

By the end of this year majority will carry it. Is Interlagos much

:54:45.:54:52.

greener? From someone in the Netherlands. Historically, yes.

:54:53.:55:00.

After last year with the new track resurfacing you would say no but it

:55:01.:55:03.

seems that have gone back in terms of its grip levels from where the

:55:04.:55:07.

tarmac surface was led down the first time. Hamilton heading out on

:55:08.:55:18.

circuit on the soft compound tyres. We are your place for Formula 1 this

:55:19.:55:26.

weekend. Live throughout. We have seen a second off lap time

:55:27.:55:29.

improvement from the medium to the softer compound tyre from Bottas.

:55:30.:55:35.

Let us see if anybody gets more improvement as we get towards the

:55:36.:55:40.

simulations. Track temperature about 32 degrees, a temperature 28.

:55:41.:55:46.

Raikkonen got stung a little bit by that read flag because he had gone

:55:47.:55:52.

out on his soft tyres and started and the red flag came out so the

:55:53.:56:02.

peak might have gone from that tyre. Lewis Hamilton sparking all the way

:56:03.:56:05.

down the street to Turn 4 and up through six and seven into one of

:56:06.:56:12.

the slowest corners of the circuit. This is about 35 mph. It feels like

:56:13.:56:18.

you are riding a bicycle. Hamilton This is about 35 mph. It feels like

:56:19.:56:25.

is about a 10th of a second slower at this stage. This looks good for

:56:26.:56:29.

Rosberg. He was faster than Hamilton in every session here last year and

:56:30.:56:34.

took the race win. Very frustrating for Hamilton who had a spin when the

:56:35.:56:39.

team asked him to do and that extra lap and there was a heated debrief

:56:40.:56:43.

after that, as I was after Mexico when he wanted to do something

:56:44.:56:52.

different from his team-mate. Keep an eye on Rosberg. Can he take a

:56:53.:57:00.

second or more of his time? Is this enough to bushes team-mate into

:57:01.:57:06.

second? It certainly is. 1.35 seconds quicker. He has phoned more

:57:07.:57:12.

on the softer compound tyre, the switch from the medium to the soft.

:57:13.:57:21.

Yes, he was much quicker in that middle sector. He was a 10th quicker

:57:22.:57:25.

in the first sector but in the middle sector he gained the time and

:57:26.:57:29.

he was able to deliver what is the fastest lap of the weekend so far.

:57:30.:57:34.

Quicker than anyone in free Practice 2 last year if my memory serves me

:57:35.:57:44.

correctly. I have it here. Two temps slower than last year but the

:57:45.:57:47.

conditions on the circuit are not exactly ideal. -- tenths. Hulkenberg

:57:48.:57:59.

has always been strong around here, he got his pole. He was battling for

:58:00.:58:06.

the win with Hamilton a few years ago when they collided, frankly.

:58:07.:58:17.

Ricciardo makes an improvement. Raikkonen had a spin this morning

:58:18.:58:20.

and has gone fourth fastest in the Ferrari. Sainz also out on the soft

:58:21.:58:27.

compound tyres. He has not been here before. His team-mate Verstappen,

:58:28.:58:32.

this was one of the Friday mornings that Verstappen did last year, so he

:58:33.:58:37.

has driven a Formula 1 car around here for 90 minutes and I watched

:58:38.:58:42.

carefully what he got up to last year, Verstappen, and he was

:58:43.:58:47.

spinning getting into Turn 1 and locking up the early part of the

:58:48.:58:51.

session, but as they are around a half went on you saw him dialling

:58:52.:58:56.

himself in the car in and he looks like a veteran by the end. Let us

:58:57.:59:06.

get an update on the conditions. It is a strange one. We always knew it

:59:07.:59:10.

was going to be a little bit of rain and then it would clean up and come

:59:11.:59:13.

back again and the showers would continue. One of the teams are

:59:14.:59:18.

trying to raise as much of the programme is possible because the

:59:19.:59:22.

weather forecast shows there is a band of rain around and it is due to

:59:23.:59:26.

get heavier. I am watching the cars come round Turn 1 which is one of

:59:27.:59:31.

the best places to stand and it is getting heavier but I think it is

:59:32.:59:35.

going to swing in and out as we go through the remainder of the

:59:36.:59:39.

session. It is about timing your lap right. If you want to perfect it.

:59:40.:59:45.

Where you are is where I was watching Verstappen last year. A

:59:46.:59:49.

fantastic place to watch a Formula 1 car. Right over your right shoulder

:59:50.:00:00.

at 200 mph braking to 60 mph. Intensity could be increasing. Turn

:00:01.:00:09.

1 is a fantastic place to watch a Formula 1 car, if you ever make the

:00:10.:00:14.

journey out here to enter I strongly recommend getting a seat somewhere

:00:15.:00:21.

around Turn 1. Just by the bridge that we are next to buy the

:00:22.:00:23.

commentary box. They assess the aerodynamic effect

:00:24.:00:36.

of the new parts, the little bit rough and ready from Felipe Massa in

:00:37.:00:40.

the Williams, on the soft compound tyres, twice a winner here and has

:00:41.:00:45.

been on pole position before. Down in ninth at the moment. Too much

:00:46.:00:49.

curb on the inside of that right-hander and it sends him to

:00:50.:00:53.

wide. You have to take curve but if you take too much it can upset the

:00:54.:00:58.

car a lot, especially at the moment when the grip level is not quite

:00:59.:01:02.

there. Sebastian Vettel kindly giving us a wave. And interesting

:01:03.:01:10.

pattern on the hand of his glove, presumably giving him grip but it

:01:11.:01:15.

looks like a skeleton costume from Halloween on the palm of his glove.

:01:16.:01:21.

Here is Verstappen. The car is very difficult to drive. Decode that? It

:01:22.:01:28.

means it is inconsistent, when he breaks and turns in, he is not sure

:01:29.:01:33.

what the car will do, then when he loses traction and grip it is very

:01:34.:01:38.

snappy and he can't predict what the car is going to do very well. In

:01:39.:01:42.

that position, you are always better trying to get one problem rather

:01:43.:01:45.

than two or three, get one problem, whether it be understood, as Nico

:01:46.:01:50.

Rosberg has been complaining about in this session and then you can

:01:51.:01:53.

work on one solution to that one problem. It is inconsistent, it is

:01:54.:01:59.

hard to make it work around here. Vettel had a go at a second lap but

:02:00.:02:04.

was a 10th slower than his first run on the soft compound tyres. It does

:02:05.:02:09.

not look as though the fastest lap is the second one, we have seen a

:02:10.:02:15.

number of races where you need to go for a second or sometimes even a

:02:16.:02:18.

third timed lap to get the sweet spot with the tyres. This circuit

:02:19.:02:24.

you put a lot of tyre energy into it, how when you go back on the

:02:25.:02:28.

throttle you get a lot of talk and a lot of energy into the rear tyres

:02:29.:02:31.

and then this long right-hander so the front right and the right rear.

:02:32.:02:37.

That is in at the hairpin at turn eight, coming through the uphill

:02:38.:02:42.

right-hander, looks to have got the cup on the outside and look to car

:02:43.:02:53.

but on. That corner translates as orange in Brazilian Portuguese. The

:02:54.:03:00.

one that takes about 130 pH leading into it. That is turn six, that

:03:01.:03:09.

corner, the translation is horseshoe. You have to try and

:03:10.:03:13.

missed the first apex to get the second one and as you pop up over

:03:14.:03:17.

the hill, you go onto the breaks. You can see the skid marks, if they

:03:18.:03:23.

go back, you cannot see it on this shot, but he gets onto the outside

:03:24.:03:27.

curve so we are running on board with him, a little bit of overseer

:03:28.:03:31.

and yes, he loses it just as he comes up over the second bit. He

:03:32.:03:39.

said the rear felt so loose, Verstappen managing expectations, he

:03:40.:03:42.

said a moment ago that the car was difficult to drive and he proved it

:03:43.:03:48.

for us. That is a corner where you are a bit better to have some

:03:49.:03:51.

understeer because it is more consistent and stable and then you

:03:52.:03:55.

can get on the brakes consistently for this next corner, you cannot

:03:56.:03:59.

have too much understeer or you will lose time but better with an

:04:00.:04:02.

understeer balance than oversteer on that one. Do you want one more time

:04:03.:04:08.

to lap? Won definitely not, the tyres have gone. Confirmation of

:04:09.:04:14.

what we were saying, it is a 1 lap tyre in qualifying, that is

:04:15.:04:18.

important information as far as qualifying is concerned tomorrow. It

:04:19.:04:22.

is logged down by the engine is logged down by the engineers and the

:04:23.:04:25.

other thousands of data points from every time the car goes out on the

:04:26.:04:30.

circuit. Tremendous amount of information transmitted by the cars

:04:31.:04:33.

to the pits and back to the factories as well, in real time as

:04:34.:04:38.

they go around this highly sophisticated Formula 1 cars. The

:04:39.:04:42.

staff and despite his spin is a 10th quicker than his Toro Rosso

:04:43.:04:46.

team-mate Carlos Sainz. As far as I can see, we have not had

:04:47.:04:50.

confirmation that Toro Rosso are sticking with these two drivers next

:04:51.:04:55.

year. I think everyone would be astonished if they didn't but there

:04:56.:04:59.

has not been an official confirmation. Their team principal

:05:00.:05:05.

will be in a press conference after this one so it will be interesting

:05:06.:05:11.

to ask. The chances of anyone else in those two seats is minimal but

:05:12.:05:14.

Red Bull have not officially confirmed their engine programme for

:05:15.:05:20.

their teams so from that point of view, there are some questions, the

:05:21.:05:24.

least of their problems is announcing their drivers when they

:05:25.:05:29.

still have to get the other parts of the jigsaw into place. Give me your

:05:30.:05:33.

overview on what you have seen, you have a keen eye for a young driver

:05:34.:05:37.

and help out where you can in developing young drivers and you

:05:38.:05:40.

know what you are looking at, how do you expect Sainz and Verstappen

:05:41.:05:47.

after their rookie years? Very different personalities and that

:05:48.:05:50.

comes through in their driving, Sainz is methodical in how he

:05:51.:05:55.

drives. He builds up to things which is not the Latin temperament you

:05:56.:06:00.

would perhaps expect from a Spaniard but he goes through processes and he

:06:01.:06:04.

delivers very consistently. We saw that after the accident in Russia

:06:05.:06:08.

and he came into the race and normally would have finished well in

:06:09.:06:11.

the points if he had not had a problem and that was one of the best

:06:12.:06:15.

examples of the potential he has going forward. However, on the other

:06:16.:06:20.

side we have Max Verstappen who just drives by the seat of his pants and

:06:21.:06:26.

it is all enthusiastic, fantastic overtaking manoeuvres and round the

:06:27.:06:31.

outside in Belgium, where you take a shop intake of breath and he is the

:06:32.:06:34.

one who will probably take most of the headlines but in terms of taking

:06:35.:06:37.

the points at the end of the season, you have a steady hand with Sainz so

:06:38.:06:42.

I think they have two very good characters to develop for the future

:06:43.:06:47.

gives cannot have two gung ho guys going at it, you need that

:06:48.:06:50.

counterbalance and I think they have got it nicely. Verstappen has two

:06:51.:06:57.

fourth places and more points than Sainz in the championship, 47, just

:06:58.:07:02.

18 for Sainz, when you look at the year in those cold and hard terms

:07:03.:07:06.

and results, Verstappen has had a far better season but what extent,

:07:07.:07:11.

races like Russia where Sainz was coming through the field and got

:07:12.:07:15.

your attention, what about those in the paddock and the teams, how would

:07:16.:07:20.

they pay attention to that? Watch out for the front lock-up. You can

:07:21.:07:30.

try break map five. Both Sauber drivers talking about locking on the

:07:31.:07:34.

medium tyre which is significantly easier to lock into these hairpins,

:07:35.:07:39.

basically different rake settings that you can achieve. Just coming

:07:40.:07:45.

back to the Toro Rosso drivers, I think it is exactly about the

:07:46.:07:51.

potential that they can deliver. Helmut Marko is the adviser to Red

:07:52.:07:54.

Bull in terms of drivers and I think he will always look at someone who

:07:55.:08:00.

has the speed and capability and not just necessarily the results but

:08:01.:08:05.

what he believes is the future. Jenny is at Toro Rosso, what

:08:06.:08:10.

information do you have? I want to play a game, you can see an Max

:08:11.:08:13.

Verstappen's car, they are about to change the rear wing and if you look

:08:14.:08:19.

at the back at the red part of that car, you can see it is quite

:08:20.:08:23.

different to the other side of the garage. If I get a look at Carlos

:08:24.:08:29.

Sainz's car on the other side, you can make out the rear wing and the

:08:30.:08:33.

red parts of that rear wing, the bottom one is totally different

:08:34.:08:36.

angle and it looks very different even from the naked eye, most people

:08:37.:08:40.

could spot the difference but what does that mean for the drivers?

:08:41.:08:47.

Round here it is a trade-off, as we are hearing from Christian Horner

:08:48.:08:53.

earlier on, between sectors one and three which are the acceleration and

:08:54.:08:59.

top speed sectors of 210 mph and sector to, the middle part which is

:09:00.:09:02.

all of the tight and twisty corners. It is about trying to get

:09:03.:09:08.

the downforce and drag balance, the difference between the two rear

:09:09.:09:12.

wings but also the front wing as well and it is to what extent you

:09:13.:09:17.

can get the correct trade-off. At the same time, not putting too much

:09:18.:09:25.

energy into the tyres. That is not good, the problem on the up shift

:09:26.:09:29.

from second to third gear for Nico Rosberg, the winner of the Mexican

:09:30.:09:33.

Grand Prix last time out. We do not have a graphic on screen, it is on

:09:34.:09:39.

the steering wheel, but he is coasting back into the pits at the

:09:40.:09:44.

moment. There are a lot of second to third up shifts in that Middlesex

:09:45.:09:48.

but he is staying in fifth right now as it comes into the pit lane so it

:09:49.:09:54.

does not appear he can shift down. He is in 50, you would normally be

:09:55.:10:00.

in first or second gear. There have been if your reliability issues for

:10:01.:10:03.

Nico Rosberg at Italy and Russia, the Russian race in particular

:10:04.:10:07.

costing him what looked like a race victory. He has driven straight

:10:08.:10:11.

through the pits, presumably they have done some form of reset as he

:10:12.:10:15.

went through the pit lane. They cannot sent anything to the car, you

:10:16.:10:19.

can only have they cannot sent anything to the car, you can only

:10:20.:10:23.

have data, it is illegal to have any data from the pits to the car.

:10:24.:10:29.

Feedback, shift looks OK. No, definitely a problem. Nico Rosberg

:10:30.:10:35.

came through the pits, not for the gearbox problem but to do a practice

:10:36.:10:42.

start. We will hear and see what the shift from second to third looks

:10:43.:10:46.

like, he pulls in the clutch and is ready to go. Allen back into

:10:47.:10:53.

neutral. It is a long process going on here. Firstly, second gear, third

:10:54.:11:06.

gear, sounded all right. It did. The interesting thing for me was how

:11:07.:11:10.

quickly the engine revs dropped down and how low they went, using the

:11:11.:11:15.

talk of the engine to accelerate and get away from wheel spin. It is a

:11:16.:11:21.

very complex procedure, now, the driver has to adjust the clutch

:11:22.:11:25.

settings, he cannot be informed by the teams of the optimum setting

:11:26.:11:29.

before the race starts, that is a regulation that came in at the

:11:30.:11:33.

Belgian Grand Prix in August. It looked like a public good start but

:11:34.:11:38.

it is only good if it is better than the car behind, it is all relative.

:11:39.:11:44.

Basically a good start is under three seconds, 2.7 or 2.8 seconds.

:11:45.:11:53.

For zero to 100. Ideal. Most people switching onto the long runs. We

:11:54.:11:58.

have used soft tyres for the top five cars in the field, outdoing a

:11:59.:12:03.

long-running, simulating the early laps of the Grand Prix on Sunday,

:12:04.:12:09.

the only odd man out is Valtteri Bottas, who is using a set of the

:12:10.:12:17.

medium compound tyres. Also, Felipe Nasr and Alonso and Ericsson, who

:12:18.:12:26.

are further back. Fernando Alonso is still parked at the side of the

:12:27.:12:31.

circuit where he seemed to have a problem with his power unit, losing

:12:32.:12:33.

power and then stopped three quarters of the way round the

:12:34.:12:39.

circuit. Valtteri Bottas, I would not be surprised if they slip their

:12:40.:12:44.

strategy at Williams, Felipe Massa using the soft and Valtteri Bottas

:12:45.:12:47.

using the medium tyres. 30 minutes to go, they can probably do ten or

:12:48.:12:53.

12 laps on this tyre and have a feel for switching over later on. A

:12:54.:13:00.

similar way that Ferrari do as well. The work continues in the Toro Rosso

:13:01.:13:03.

garage, that Jenny was telling us about, switching the rear wings etc.

:13:04.:13:11.

Sainz and Verstappen. That is Max Verstappen's car he already had that

:13:12.:13:17.

incredibly heavy looking rear wing, to Mendis and at every downforce.

:13:18.:13:20.

The fact there is so much work going on with those cars indicates how

:13:21.:13:27.

hard Toro Rosso, as a midfield team, is still pushing. They brought three

:13:28.:13:31.

different front wings to be single for Grand Prix which is an

:13:32.:13:34.

indication of how serious they are in trying to compete with the others

:13:35.:13:40.

in the midfield area. They are currently on 66 World Championship

:13:41.:13:45.

points, just five behind Lotus in the constructors, plenty to aim for.

:13:46.:13:53.

Target lap times are low 16s. That is the target lap time for Lewis

:13:54.:13:56.

Hamilton to give you reference, the fastest lap of the race last year

:13:57.:14:04.

was a 1:13.555, so that is quite a bit off but the beginning of the

:14:05.:14:09.

race they were doing 15s so it is roughly within the same ballpark.

:14:10.:14:13.

That is impressive, you did that without reading it, you must have

:14:14.:14:17.

committed that to your memory in the bath before coming out here. Thank

:14:18.:14:23.

you, you are giving my secrets away. Half an hour to go and we have

:14:24.:14:26.

roughly half the field out on the circuit at the moment on this warm

:14:27.:14:32.

but misty November day here at Interlagps in Brazil. We are about

:14:33.:14:37.

25 kilometres from the centre of downtown Sao Paulo, near the

:14:38.:14:44.

cemetery where Ayrton Senna is buried. A legendary figure here, the

:14:45.:14:48.

three-time world champion and winner of this grand free on a couple of

:14:49.:14:53.

occasions. Certainly in those days there was plenty of excitement and

:14:54.:14:57.

plenty of work on Jenson Button's car, a plastic sheet covering the

:14:58.:15:01.

front area. I think they will be spraying some paint on the front

:15:02.:15:05.

wing, to protect the suspension pick-up points and the tyres so they

:15:06.:15:11.

can see what's the car went on to the circuit, the ever flowing

:15:12.:15:15.

through the front wing and where the paint would go, if it is all over

:15:16.:15:19.

the suspension from when it was sprayed on you would not get much of

:15:20.:15:23.

a feel of what the air was actually doing. Is that a job for the junior

:15:24.:15:29.

guy on the team, does he have to clean it all up? I do not know but

:15:30.:15:35.

it is something that they all do and they were doing it with Lewis

:15:36.:15:38.

Hamilton with the S duct, tying the bulge cover on the nose, they

:15:39.:15:44.

sprayed a lots of flow viz on that in F P one this morning. It is

:15:45.:15:54.

something they do to do in their singer Leighton and their computer

:15:55.:15:55.

fluid dynamics as well. The target lap time is what the two

:15:56.:16:10.

Mercedes are doing at the moment. Turn and nine, the downhill

:16:11.:16:13.

left-hander. A positive camber corner but to go into it with a lot

:16:14.:16:18.

of acceleration from second to third gear and then set into the camber of

:16:19.:16:22.

the corner but of you lose the rear a little bit on entry it can build

:16:23.:16:29.

up momentum and bring you around. Is everything OK? Can you check the

:16:30.:16:41.

rear wing stability? What exactly happened? Locked up, Mr the apex

:16:42.:16:50.

slightly. It was a very lazy turn in. It looked as if it slowly came

:16:51.:16:56.

round on him. It was slightly strange. Not the normal thing that

:16:57.:17:01.

happens there because normally you get it going on in the entry to the

:17:02.:17:05.

corner as you turn on but this was as you came down when normally it

:17:06.:17:11.

sets into an understeer. A very pretty shot of a couple of birds

:17:12.:17:15.

with the bird's eye view. Getting out of the way swiftly. As their

:17:16.:17:19.

white Williams came spinning out of control towards the two birds out on

:17:20.:17:25.

the circuit. Second to third gear. Went down to second as he lost the

:17:26.:17:34.

rear. Slightly strange. He is asking for an understanding of this ability

:17:35.:17:40.

of the rear wing and if it is producing the consistency of

:17:41.:17:44.

downforce expected. Vettel is on the medium compound tyre. He has

:17:45.:17:53.

switched onto it. Ferrari are doing a back-to-back with Raikkonen on

:17:54.:17:56.

used soft tyres and Vettel has gone back to the city was using it

:17:57.:18:02.

earlier or medium compound tyres, or similar life, so they are going to

:18:03.:18:09.

get a direct performance of the two. That is the kind of work that goes

:18:10.:18:14.

on in this practice session. In addition to the qualifying

:18:15.:18:18.

simulations we have already seen. Just drifting out on that last lap.

:18:19.:18:22.

Did you have traffic? Not particularly. He has now they are on

:18:23.:18:30.

the racetrack. A better lap that time from Rosberg. Both CDs drivers

:18:31.:18:41.

having a slightly off lap. Raikkonen was also will lapping at 1.167. The

:18:42.:18:59.

rear tyre, inside shoulder, heavy training. That is Hulkenberg that is

:19:00.:19:06.

complaining. He has done ten laps on that soft tyre. It is inside edge

:19:07.:19:12.

which is usually wheel spin and that is coming out of these corners. Not

:19:13.:19:23.

the corner like Turn 3. It is the wheel spin that comes out of corners

:19:24.:19:30.

like this one, the last one. Daniel Kvyat also doing that at this stage

:19:31.:19:37.

of the game. Also using medium compound tyres. Soft compound tyres,

:19:38.:19:44.

sorry. The lap times beginning to come down a bit for Mercedes.

:19:45.:19:52.

Hamilton felt he was quicker than Rosberg in the race in Mexico but

:19:53.:19:55.

could not get past him and he said the same thing about this race as

:19:56.:20:00.

well as Ricciardo almost loses the car, putting it out of the garage

:20:01.:20:04.

and the tail swinging round. The pit lane is very dirty and dusty. This

:20:05.:20:10.

morning you saw plumes of dust and that went into the tyres and that is

:20:11.:20:13.

one of the reasons that may be they struggled a little bit once they

:20:14.:20:18.

came in for the first stop. The tyre absorbed all of that dust and dirt

:20:19.:20:23.

and they could not clean it so well because it was in gained a little

:20:24.:20:27.

bit too much into the rubber and switching onto the second set of got

:20:28.:20:30.

a little bit cleaner and that will continue as the pit lane cleans up.

:20:31.:20:36.

Vettel has come back in and gone on to the soft and Raikkonen has gone

:20:37.:20:40.

on to the medium compound tyres. A switch around. They have done that a

:20:41.:20:46.

few times. I thought they would have done more running. If they felt they

:20:47.:20:52.

were getting close to the end of the 12 laps, and starting to lose the

:20:53.:20:58.

consistency of the tyre... That is a little bit early in real terms. You

:20:59.:21:02.

would expect it to be a little bit later than that. It is possible

:21:03.:21:06.

because last year it was us all of time period when they would be doing

:21:07.:21:14.

the changeover, laps seven, 26 and 50 when they did the pit stops. The

:21:15.:21:18.

tyres have not changed that much from this year to last. The rear

:21:19.:21:26.

tyres have been made to last a bit longer. Otherwise the compound in

:21:27.:21:30.

has been pretty much the same. It will be interesting to see what

:21:31.:21:35.

happens next year. Pirelli are expected to carry on. The settings,

:21:36.:21:48.

problem with engine braking. When you are going into the corner that

:21:49.:21:51.

is so that you can adjust how much the engine holds you back. That is

:21:52.:21:56.

in conjunction with the hybrid and the brake pressure which has a

:21:57.:22:00.

distribution front to rear. There is a lot of different dynamics acting

:22:01.:22:03.

on that. The engine braking is something that the driver feels

:22:04.:22:08.

helps him pivot the car is specially in those tight corners. We have seen

:22:09.:22:14.

quite a lot of tyre degradation. Appleton's soft tyres have done 12

:22:15.:22:19.

laps and his last lap, he picked up the pace, the lap before that had

:22:20.:22:24.

been slower -- Hamilton. Maybe he gave the tyres a bit of a breather.

:22:25.:22:28.

Very little to choose between him and Rosberg on pace. A bit of a

:22:29.:22:33.

deceiving picture from Hamilton that last lap. It looked as if we were

:22:34.:22:37.

having degradation but it will be back again. You cannot do that

:22:38.:22:43.

during the Grand Prix. You have to keep going flat out all the way

:22:44.:22:48.

through. I have seen that in the long run is when they will do a slow

:22:49.:22:52.

-ish build-up to their pace, race pairs, and then they will have a

:22:53.:22:58.

soul that and cool the tyre down and go again which gives them a better

:22:59.:23:01.

understanding of what the tyre will be able to do in the race. Something

:23:02.:23:07.

they develop and the other teams do not miss as I really do that but

:23:08.:23:11.

they feel that gives them a consistent reference. --

:23:12.:23:19.

necessarily. The Ferrari of Vettel is competitive. Pretty much

:23:20.:23:26.

identical pace of the two Mercedes in front of him. His tyres are three

:23:27.:23:31.

laps fresher but that is not a huge amount Soviet leader Mark is looking

:23:32.:23:37.

reasonably competitive. -- so the Ferrari. Vettel said he had to be

:23:38.:23:45.

cautious. You cannot really trust Nicky loader when he says things

:23:46.:23:52.

like that. How do you see the gap? Or seven tenths unfortunately

:23:53.:23:54.

because we would like to see Vettel on the front row but I do not think

:23:55.:23:59.

we are going to see that. Mercedes can turn up their power unit and it

:24:00.:24:03.

is not just the engine, it is the hybrid system, for qualifying.

:24:04.:24:10.

Ferrari can only do it to a lesser extent than Mercedes. Yes, they have

:24:11.:24:14.

improved and we saw that at Monza with extra horsepower and they will

:24:15.:24:23.

able to use that especially in qualifying but it is certainly not a

:24:24.:24:33.

match for the Mercedes still. Not such a good lap from Vettel. I think

:24:34.:24:39.

we are going to see reasonably high tyre degradation. A classic

:24:40.:24:44.

situation. Three stops last year being the way to go with the

:24:45.:24:48.

uncertainties over the weather adding an extra dimension. The cloud

:24:49.:24:51.

base has cleared a little bit over in the distance. I can see the

:24:52.:25:01.

skyline is a little more clearly. One or two shadows beginning to

:25:02.:25:05.

appear on the racetrack. We saw Fernando Alonso braking down with

:25:06.:25:11.

what looked like very much an engine problem hourly. Flames coming out of

:25:12.:25:18.

the engine. Yes, it was a little bit obvious isobars but I have spoken to

:25:19.:25:22.

the team to try to work out the issue. Vettel whizzes past me to go

:25:23.:25:29.

right on the soft tyres. They said it was a hardware issue. The engine

:25:30.:25:34.

is going to have to go back to haunt for them to looked at it and work

:25:35.:25:37.

out what has gone wrong but I asked if it was an old engine and they

:25:38.:25:46.

said it had raised in Austin. It has only raised in Austin and if that is

:25:47.:25:50.

the first outing since then that is not many kilometres since then. I do

:25:51.:25:55.

not think the guys at Honda will be very pleased and the guys that

:25:56.:26:02.

McLaren even less so. That is also one of the spec four engines that

:26:03.:26:07.

those used in Austin which is the latest specification and he had a

:26:08.:26:11.

problem with that towards the end of the race and dropped back so ready

:26:12.:26:13.

that particular engine had some issues. He felt confident that they

:26:14.:26:19.

had fixed or alternatively it would not happen again but clearly it was

:26:20.:26:25.

not ideal for Fernando Alonso. 18.5 minutes remaining in the session.

:26:26.:26:37.

Rossi is out on the circuit. He is ending the year as a Formula 1

:26:38.:26:41.

driver. That has always been his dream. Opening the next year he will

:26:42.:26:44.

get the chance to retain that seat but there is a awful lot going on

:26:45.:26:50.

behind-the-scenes. These sporting director and the team principal have

:26:51.:26:55.

both handed in their resignation, not happy with the direction that

:26:56.:27:01.

Stephen Fitzpatrick, the owner, is taking the team. Neither of them are

:27:02.:27:07.

seeing very much about it, sworn to secrecy about why they are leaving.

:27:08.:27:16.

One of them was an employee and the other the team principal. A little

:27:17.:27:22.

bit of a unpicking to go on within that team. No word from the owners

:27:23.:27:26.

about future direction who is going to replace them or how the team is

:27:27.:27:30.

going to be managed and run. Awfully we will get something before the end

:27:31.:27:34.

of the season to clarify the position -- hopefully. Felipe

:27:35.:27:45.

Massa's brother, local hero. Very close to winning a world champion.

:27:46.:27:49.

He was world champion for about 20 seconds. He has done 17 laps on

:27:50.:28:03.

those tyres. Rosberg, Hamilton, Vettel the top three. The two

:28:04.:28:09.

Mercedes are still going strong. They have done 17 laps on the softer

:28:10.:28:14.

compound tyres and their lap times are in the low 1.17s. Vettel also

:28:15.:28:27.

using the softer compound tyres. Six laps more life on it. Did he say it

:28:28.:28:39.

feels like chewing gum? No, he said I do not like doing that. Why would

:28:40.:28:44.

he not like doing that, not one to tell his engineer over the radio

:28:45.:28:49.

what he felt the tyres are doing? Is that keeping your secrets to

:28:50.:28:56.

yourself? He has put a gigantic flat spot on the front like a 50p piece.

:28:57.:29:02.

I think it is keeping a bit of information to himself exactly where

:29:03.:29:04.

years with the lap times at the moment. He was a little bit slower

:29:05.:29:09.

due to the lock-up coming up in to the lock-up coming up into turn ten.

:29:10.:29:13.

You did not lose too much time but he has maybe put a flat spot into

:29:14.:29:19.

the rear front tyre. These tyres are not doing too badly. The lap times

:29:20.:29:26.

have only gone off by half a second. Because of that long pool, you can

:29:27.:29:34.

see the incline... We are going to extend the stint a little. Daniel

:29:35.:29:40.

Ricciardo is on the medium tyre. He has done 18 laps. Coming up into the

:29:41.:29:45.

top corner, it is a long pool up the hill so if you have less fuel on the

:29:46.:29:52.

car it helps you significantly with acceleration so it can count about

:29:53.:30:00.

the tyre drop off. That is the picture with Vettel also circulating

:30:01.:30:03.

and still quicker than the two Mercedes. That is interesting. Ross

:30:04.:30:09.

Burke having had that right front lock-up has gone off the racetrack

:30:10.:30:15.

-- Nico Rosberg. Where is he? That is the last corner. Coming out of

:30:16.:30:23.

the bottom of the hill heading up to Turn 12. Taking that are just 80 mph

:30:24.:30:34.

and running wild. -- worried. He comes through the hairpin before it

:30:35.:30:38.

is a flat right-hander. As he turns into that, he comes through. It is

:30:39.:30:47.

difficult from this angle to see what happened but it looks as if he

:30:48.:30:51.

has turned on and locked up. He locked up the left front and run

:30:52.:30:59.

forward into the run-off area. This is where Raikkonen famously went

:31:00.:31:01.

behind that barrier because he thought he could get up the other

:31:02.:31:06.

side and he had to do a U-turn and come back behind there. One of the

:31:07.:31:13.

support races, Rosberg doing a bit of wheel spin across the grass. That

:31:14.:31:19.

is on the replay because he is back into the pits. The computer tells us

:31:20.:31:24.

he has gone back out on circuit again.

:31:25.:31:44.

The performance of the Red Bull, a fair bit of degradation for them

:31:45.:31:51.

looking at that. Around half a second over the course of that lap.

:31:52.:31:56.

Looking at Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, they were pretty close, a

:31:57.:32:00.

little bit up and down to read across it but towards the end of the

:32:01.:32:05.

stint, I would think Lewis Hamilton is edging ahead of Rosberg even

:32:06.:32:09.

though Rosberg is fastest overall. It looks like Hamilton was a bit

:32:10.:32:14.

more consistent on the long run. All of the long run work has been

:32:15.:32:21.

focused on the soft firework but now they are out on the medium tyre,

:32:22.:32:26.

they will not get a lot of work on it but one thing you have to say, is

:32:27.:32:32.

the Ferrari looks quick in race trim and in Sebastian Vettel's hands at

:32:33.:32:36.

least. He has been matching them if not slightly better throughout that

:32:37.:32:42.

long run although his tyres are a few laps fresher. It is hard to

:32:43.:32:51.

calculate. I did not hear what he said. I think it was his visor.

:32:52.:33:00.

Rosberg back in business having switched on to the medium compound

:33:01.:33:04.

tyres, meanwhile, Felipe Massa, winner of this Grand Prix back in

:33:05.:33:09.

2008 comes across the line to complete another lap, this time in a

:33:10.:33:17.

Williams and it is quite quick. The medium compound tyres have done 12

:33:18.:33:21.

laps, that is interesting because it tells us about the crossover.

:33:22.:33:28.

Hamilton with a good lap. Look at the amount of pick-up on each side

:33:29.:33:32.

of the racing line as they come through here, that will be a problem

:33:33.:33:38.

on Sunday. Here is Verstappen. My tyres are dead, the front and the

:33:39.:33:47.

rear. Verstappen has done 23 laps on that set of tyres, but that is a

:33:48.:33:51.

good situation, if the tyres are dead and it is front and rear which

:33:52.:33:56.

means they are going off in a balanced way, big understeer and

:33:57.:34:00.

then the rear comes round as he exits the corner, they know where

:34:01.:34:04.

the drop-off point is but it is not like a car then goes into one

:34:05.:34:08.

particular balance with understeer. Marcus Ericsson with another big

:34:09.:34:12.

lock-up, was Hamilton did that this morning and it is a very easy corner

:34:13.:34:17.

because of the camber of the road and the lateness of the breaks into

:34:18.:34:23.

the corner. It looks like the medium compound tyre is performing

:34:24.:34:25.

reasonably well in comparison with the soft. They will work out their

:34:26.:34:32.

fastest strategy but I do not think we will see as many early stops as

:34:33.:34:37.

we did last year. Last year was soft and then they went to the medium and

:34:38.:34:41.

changed back to the medium or the way through to the end of the race,

:34:42.:34:46.

they only used the soft tyre for qualifying and the opening stint of

:34:47.:34:51.

the race. It could be a different picture with the amount of work

:34:52.:34:54.

being done on the soft tyres, it does look reasonably quick. Rosberg

:34:55.:35:01.

with a 1:16.5, competitive with what he was doing earlier on. Should be

:35:02.:35:06.

quite an interesting race from a strategy point of view. Not much to

:35:07.:35:12.

choose between them, it is about working out your fastest race as

:35:13.:35:17.

always and we could see variety here. I hope so, that is one of the

:35:18.:35:23.

reasons they wanted more degradation but it might also add variety as we

:35:24.:35:28.

see the raindrops falling on one of the puddles left earlier on. Less

:35:29.:35:32.

than ten minutes remaining in the session as Felipe Nasr, the

:35:33.:35:40.

Brazilian driver of Middle Eastern extraction, the year ago he was

:35:41.:35:43.

announced as a Formula 1 driver, stepping up from GP to their, where

:35:44.:35:49.

he had won a race and Joe Liam Palmer will be making that same

:35:50.:35:54.

step, he was the GP to champion last year and it has taken him an extra

:35:55.:35:58.

year to get into Formula 1 but he now has the opportunity with the

:35:59.:36:03.

Lotus team for next year. The we are affecting them to switch to Renault

:36:04.:36:11.

but we believe they will honour through the drivers are, how do you

:36:12.:36:15.

think Parma will do as a driver? Piller wrote I think he will do

:36:16.:36:21.

well, he has done a good job on Friday mornings, I hope the car will

:36:22.:36:25.

have a bit more finance than it did this year, especially if Renault, as

:36:26.:36:30.

anticipated, take over the team. They will then be able to build for

:36:31.:36:35.

the future but he has Pastor Maldonado, and experience the make,

:36:36.:36:39.

very fast sometimes and sometimes underrated in terms of speed but

:36:40.:36:45.

Parma will just be making sure he delivers when it comes to the races

:36:46.:36:49.

and I am sure he will stand up well against Pastor Maldonado. It will be

:36:50.:36:54.

interesting, another interesting talking point for next season, the

:36:55.:36:59.

two Manor Marussia cars up for grabs in terms of empty seats left for

:37:00.:37:04.

Formula 1, most teams got the business done early, some of them

:37:05.:37:09.

very early and some drivers are on longer contracts as well as we look

:37:10.:37:12.

at Sebastian Vettel, back onto the soft compound tyres and still

:37:13.:37:21.

lapping in the 1.17s so consistent performance from him and Ferrari, we

:37:22.:37:25.

have to keep an eye on them on race day. If they can get in front, they

:37:26.:37:33.

can stay there. Jenson, we would like to repeat the front wing

:37:34.:37:37.

comparison so please box this lap. That is a good idea. A comparison

:37:38.:37:45.

that they clearly did earlier on where they did not totally get the

:37:46.:37:50.

results expected out of it so they will do another thing with seven

:37:51.:37:54.

minutes to go, they have done the majority of their long run anyway so

:37:55.:37:59.

it is about using the time to the best benefit considering they do not

:38:00.:38:03.

have any information from Fernando Alonso with him going out so early

:38:04.:38:06.

in the session with an engine problem. The headlines from this act

:38:07.:38:13.

session, not a particularly typical Brazil picture here with Rosberg

:38:14.:38:20.

half a second quicker than Lewis Hamilton, which is pretty much the

:38:21.:38:25.

opposite of what it was in free practice one this morning, then

:38:26.:38:27.

another half second back to Sebastian Vettel, so that'll is a

:38:28.:38:33.

full second slower than Rosberg in qualification trim, a quick lap from

:38:34.:38:39.

Rosberg in the conditions but behind them is more what we expect to see

:38:40.:38:43.

from Brazil with very close lap times, it is a short lap, just 72

:38:44.:38:50.

seconds so the margins between the cars are very tight and that is what

:38:51.:38:58.

you have behind Vettel with Raikkonen, Ricciardo, Bottas,

:38:59.:39:02.

Grosjean, Hulkenberg, all separated by fractions of a second but the

:39:03.:39:08.

margin for Mercedes in single lap qualifying looks awesome. Hamilton

:39:09.:39:11.

did it this morning, half a second ahead of Rosberg who was also a bit

:39:12.:39:18.

ahead of third place, being able to deliver that round here which is not

:39:19.:39:22.

what we want ideally, we would like to see Ed a lot closer and generally

:39:23.:39:28.

it is, the mid-area is very close as usual, Vettel at 13.3, Raikkonen

:39:29.:39:36.

13.5, Bottas 13.6, Hulkenberg 13.7, and Daniil Kvyat in 90s 13.8

:39:37.:39:44.

alongside Felipe Massa. Another word from Tom Clarkson with five and it's

:39:45.:39:48.

to go. It is interesting to discuss the qualifying comparison within the

:39:49.:39:55.

intra- team battle at Mercedes, although on the face of it, these

:39:56.:39:58.

last two races look like a dead rubber because the champion should

:39:59.:40:04.

settle but the needle is as intense as ever, 2016 begins here and the

:40:05.:40:09.

last few races Rosberg has been on pole position and he said something

:40:10.:40:13.

revealing, he said that the pendulum seems to have swung back in his

:40:14.:40:17.

direction over one lap but I don't yet know why and that is what he

:40:18.:40:22.

will be working out over the next couple of races, why he is now

:40:23.:40:25.

quicker than Hamilton over one lap and work on that over the winter and

:40:26.:40:30.

take it into next season. I think there is an element that sometimes

:40:31.:40:34.

when it is running for you it runs for you and you have to maximise it,

:40:35.:40:38.

if you try to analyse too many things you get caught up in the

:40:39.:40:43.

technicalities of it. There is a certain mad of qualifying that is

:40:44.:40:48.

pure emotion and confidence. It limited amount is technical

:40:49.:40:53.

analysis. I think he has found something in terms of setting the

:40:54.:40:57.

car up which works better for him in qualifying, as we heard yesterday on

:40:58.:41:03.

five live Formula 1, which kicked us off across all the platforms, it is

:41:04.:41:09.

fine margins between the two drivers throughout this season, very few

:41:10.:41:11.

occasions has there been a big margin to one driver or the other

:41:12.:41:16.

but Hamilton has led the way this year with 11 pole positions compared

:41:17.:41:20.

to lassi is and where it was Rosberg who had the upper hand but

:41:21.:41:25.

qualifying between them seems to be so important. Last year, Rosberg was

:41:26.:41:31.

able to give him a run for his money through to the last race because of

:41:32.:41:35.

his qualifying platform, he knows he has to get that back and he seemed

:41:36.:41:39.

to have gone about it in the right way with four consecutive pole

:41:40.:41:42.

positions which is why the needle is back between them. Their

:41:43.:41:46.

relationship is back to being tetchy and cold as it was at points in

:41:47.:41:51.

2014, it started this year being quite friendly, I would not say

:41:52.:41:55.

cuddly but they were borderline amicable and now you can sense a

:41:56.:42:03.

real tension and frostiness and from Rosberg's point of view, he has to

:42:04.:42:08.

capitalise on that and keep it going through 2016 to make Hamilton feel

:42:09.:42:11.

unsettled as he did for much of 2014. Yes, it is about delivering

:42:12.:42:19.

that on the surface, that is the man he has to unsubtle, Lewis Hamilton.

:42:20.:42:24.

A strange sport, Formula 1, the man working in your team with you at the

:42:25.:42:28.

end of the day is the guy you are trying to work against, unlike

:42:29.:42:31.

football, rugby, where the concept of teamwork is about all for one and

:42:32.:42:38.

one for all. You need to work with your to make but ultimately you need

:42:39.:42:42.

to be Tim just as much as anyone else to win a World Championship,

:42:43.:42:46.

the comment of Nico Rosberg said he would prefer not to talk on the

:42:47.:42:50.

radio about how the tyres are feeling and give too many details

:42:51.:42:54.

about how they are dropping off and cooling of the relationship now that

:42:55.:42:57.

Hamilton has won the championship but at the same time, Rosberg has

:42:58.:43:02.

found a little bit of something. Two minutes remaining in this free

:43:03.:43:06.

practice session ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix, the

:43:07.:43:11.

penultimate round of this year 's World Championship, as I looked out

:43:12.:43:16.

from the commentary box position, I can see the sun almost beginning to

:43:17.:43:19.

poke through the clouds, the Hayes is lifting in the distance, Jenny,

:43:20.:43:26.

how are things evolving for this weekend? There is still drizzle

:43:27.:43:30.

around us so it is one of those typically strange sessions in Sao

:43:31.:43:34.

Paulo where one part of the track has little bit of sunshine and

:43:35.:43:40.

another a bit of rain. Any information at all on degradation. A

:43:41.:43:44.

lot of traffic at the moment so it is difficult to pick things out, we

:43:45.:43:49.

are good on degradation, almost identical to Nico. Hamilton talking

:43:50.:43:54.

about the traffic there, just say the weekend and the weather we are

:43:55.:43:58.

expecting, we expect a thunderstorm tomorrow, that could have a lot of

:43:59.:44:03.

rain in that case which would make qualifying interesting but that will

:44:04.:44:06.

clear by Sunday where we expect another dry day, some changeable

:44:07.:44:11.

times ahead but the thunderstorm could make things interesting for

:44:12.:44:15.

qualifying. Interesting message between Hamilton and his engineer,

:44:16.:44:20.

the engineer saying they are good on tyre degradation, comparable with

:44:21.:44:25.

the other clock on Hamilton was a bit harder in Mexico on the tyres

:44:26.:44:28.

than Rosberg and that was one of the things that led to that rather

:44:29.:44:32.

controversial episode where they pitted Rosberg as a safety measure

:44:33.:44:37.

onto a new set of tyres because they had the gap to the car behind,

:44:38.:44:40.

Daniil Kvyat, at that point but Hamilton tried to resist when they

:44:41.:44:45.

called him into the pits because he was trying to win the race his way

:44:46.:44:50.

but it was 18 situation. That is what led to that, Hamilton being

:44:51.:44:54.

just a tiny bit harder on the tyres than Rosberg in the first place. All

:44:55.:45:00.

fun and games, particular in the Mercedes setup. The flag man on the

:45:01.:45:04.

start and finish straight unfurling his chequered flag, leaning across

:45:05.:45:10.

the barrier and waving it now at the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and

:45:11.:45:14.

Carlos Sainz comes across the line now after the chequered flag and

:45:15.:45:19.

they will have to come into the pits at the end of this lap and that is

:45:20.:45:24.

it for free practice two which gives us Rosberg fastest by almost half a

:45:25.:45:28.

second from his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Sebastian Vettel

:45:29.:45:34.

almost a second off in qualifying pace but in long one pays, the

:45:35.:45:36.

Ferrari looking competitive. Raikkonen is fourth and then the Red

:45:37.:45:51.

Bull of Ricciardo. It looks as if Vettel and Raikkonen are going to be

:45:52.:45:56.

competitive but it is all about the Mercedes. I am interesting to see

:45:57.:46:01.

what Bottas and Massa can do because historically they are not on the

:46:02.:46:05.

pace but can deliver on Saturday mornings. We have seen the Ferrari

:46:06.:46:10.

team, which have seen tasty in Friday free practice to and then

:46:11.:46:15.

disappointed as the weekend has gone on, we will see how things are, but

:46:16.:46:19.

looking at the back of that Ferrari, Vettel has a lot of new

:46:20.:46:24.

parts on the back of that car to help with the rear end downforce. A

:46:25.:46:29.

sequence of tiny little dots on the back of the flora. 1012 of them in a

:46:30.:46:34.

row. Leading up to the rear wheel on the back of the Ferrari. -- ten or

:46:35.:46:46.

12. A simulation pit stop going on. He sweeps into his pit box. The

:46:47.:46:51.

fastest man this afternoon. One of the many practices the mechanics do

:46:52.:46:55.

over the course of the weekend. They will be out there in the morning

:46:56.:46:59.

being told by the sporting director. Just like everybody else, trying to

:47:00.:47:03.

get their pit stops as fast as possible. Williams have been giving

:47:04.:47:10.

a better way, losing about a second to their main rivals, something they

:47:11.:47:15.

intend to work on. Rosberg from Hamilton with Vettel in third place,

:47:16.:47:21.

Raikkonen, then Ricciardo, Bottas, Grosjean once again in the Lotus

:47:22.:47:26.

looking for a strong end to his career. Massa two times a winner in

:47:27.:47:35.

ten. Errors very much the former man of the moment in the Force India was

:47:36.:47:44.

11. Maldonado was 12. Button and Ericsson. Marussia may have a bit of

:47:45.:47:56.

a leadership crisis but seem to be running OK. A pretty clear picture.

:47:57.:48:06.

It looks very much as if on single lap qualifying performance it is

:48:07.:48:09.

strictly an in-house battle between Hamilton and Rosberg but Ferrari

:48:10.:48:15.

could challenge in the race on Sunday.

:48:16.:48:19.

This morning Lewis Hamilton build-out have the second gap over

:48:20.:48:26.

Rosberg and why did forward and Rosberg has done exactly the same to

:48:27.:48:30.

him. You will not have to miss a thing because we have every session

:48:31.:48:39.

live across the BBC. We will be looking back at some of the classic

:48:40.:48:43.

Grand Prix. That will also be on iPlayer. In Scotland, you can press

:48:44.:49:01.

the red Button. Thank you for your company. Goodbye.

:49:02.:49:07.

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