Smashing!
Four-star Hamilton dominates free practice in record time
LEWIS Hamilton, with four world championship stars freshly painted on his race helmet, smashed the Interlagos track record as Mercedes dominated the practice session.
Showing no let up after clinching his fourth world title in Mexico two weeks ago, Hamilton was quickest in both sessions with a best time of 1:09.202 in the sunny morning session.
Finnish teammate Valtteri Bottas was second in both and ended up just 0.048 slower.
“It’s been a good day,” said Hamilton, who arrived at Interlagos on Thursday nursing a cold and will be chasing his 10th win of the season today.
“It was pretty exciting to come to the track with the cars being so much faster this year.
“Unfortunately the tyres don’t last very long so you only get one or two laps on the short runs.
“Overall, we got through what we needed to do. We’re in a decent position but I think it could be quite close.”
The previous track record of 1:09.822 was set by Brazilian Rubens Barrichello in 2004 qualifying for Ferrari.
Hamilton, who accused Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg over the radio of dangerous driving in forcing him wide onto the runoff in the morning, was half a second faster than Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen before lunch.
The Finn had been closest to the Mercedes duo in the first session but Australian Daniel Ricciardo filled that position later on for Red Bull.
His 20-year-old Dutch teammate Max Verstappen, winner of two of the last four races, was fourth and fifth on the respective timesheets.
Team principal Christian Horner said Red Bull had played it safe due to reliability concerns and the need to make the engine last.
Ricciardo will have a 10-place grid penalty for today’s race, after a change of his Renault power unit, while both drivers for the Red Bull-owned Toro Rosso team suffered costly failures.
“I think they (Renault) are really struggling to understand what are the root cause of these issues,” said Horner.
“So we’re running super- safe and conservative in these sessions, which explains quite a bit of the deficit to the Mercedes at the moment.”
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who had an early spin, was sixth and fourth respectively.
“Mercedes looked very strong so I think they are a bit ahead, both of them,” said Vettel, who has won four times this year.
“Then I think it is very close between us and Red Bull.”
Mercedes have clinched the constructors’ championship for a fourth successive year and experimented with processes and parts for 2018.