Lewis Hamilton set the practice pace at the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix on Friday with a nod to his late idol Ayrton Senna.
The McLaren driver, wearing a special helmet with the logo and colors of Brazil’s triple Formula One champion merged with his own, lapped with a best time of one minute, 13.392 seconds in the afternoon.
Red Bull’s double champion Sebastian Vettel, who wrapped up this year’s title with four races to spare, was second-fastest at Interlagos with a lap 0.167 seconds slower and just ahead of Australian teammate Mark Webber.
Photo: EPA
“The car’s been pretty good today,” said Hamilton, who won his 2008 title at the anti-clockwise Interlagos track and arrived in Brazil fresh from his morale-boosting Abu Dhabi win and further energized by a break in Los Angeles with ex-girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger.
“We are there or thereabouts. I think the Red Bulls will still be quicker generally on race pace ... but I might be surprised. The car feels really good on low and high fuel,” said the Briton, who expected a wet weekend.
The helmet will be auctioned off after the race in aid of the Senna charitable foundation run by the late McLaren champion’s sister Viviane.
Webber, with one last chance to win a race in a year dominated by Vettel, had been fastest in the morning session in 1 minute, 13.811 seconds at one of his favorite tracks.
The Australian, whose victory at Interlagos in 2009 was overshadowed by Jenson Button winning the title, was a contender right to the end last year, but has not won since Hungary last year.
He has now gone 25 races without success during which time Vettel, who can take the outright record of 15 poles in a single season if he qualifies fastest yesterday, has won two championships and 14 grand prix.
Button, who won his title with Brawn and is now chasing his fourth win of the year with McLaren, was second on a hot morning, but seventh after lunch.
Felipe Massa, twice a winner in front of his home crowd and celebrating his 100th start for Ferrari this weekend, was fifth and sixth respectively.
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who won both of his titles with Renault at Interlagos, pulled over with an engine failure at the end of the first session and needed a replacement for the second.
Ferrari said he would not suffer any penalty because the replacement was a previously used engine and within his allocation for the season.
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