Rosberg sets the pace in FP1 at Brazil

This afternoon we saw Nico Rosberg setting the pace in FP1 in Brazil ahead of his team mate and championship rival Lewis Hamilton and Toro Rosso rookie Daniil Kvayt who was third fastest.

During FP1, we saw Max Verstappen, Felipe Nasr and Daniel Juncadella making having another F1 run for Toro Rosso, Williams and Force India in the session and gaining valuable experience on the Interlagos circuit and also in their respective cars.

During the first opening ten minutes of FP1, we saw Jenson Button stopping on the left hand side of the pit lane with power unit problems and did not set a lap time in the session.

Also, we saw Adrian Sutil go off the track during the session and he was able to continue running in the session. We did also see Daniel Juncadella and Max Verstappen spin off the circuit due to the lack of heat in their tyres but both of them were able to continue running in the session.

In the final thirty minutes of the session, Daniel Juncadella crashed into the barriers at Turn 7 after taking too much “rumble strips” and lost the rear of the car. The session was red flagged in order to recover the Force India and leaves the team with a lot of work to do in order to fix the car ready for Sergio Perez in FP2.

During the latter stages of the session, Max Verstappen went off at Turn1 due to a severe lock up on the left front tyre and missed his turning and braking point but was also to continue running in the session. Kimi Raikkonen at the same corner as Juncadella twice and went off the track but was able to continue running.

It was also announced during the session by Sky Sports F1 that the Marussia F1 Team has “ceased trading” and will be making their staff redundant. This is due to Marussia not being able to find investment or a management buyout before their deadline which was today.

This is a real shame for Formula One to lose a team like Marussia who have battled hard this season to score their first points in Formula One with Jules Bianchi at Monaco and also had a difficult month in October too.

Everyone at Driving For Pleasure's thoughts go to the Marussia employees who will be made redundant and I cannot imagine what they are going through.
It was also announced by the FIA that they will testing out their virtual Safety Car procedure at the end of the session. In order to test out this procedure, the FIA will randomly select two cars from the grid who will test this out for the FIA.

But it was Rosberg who set the pace in FP1 ahead of Rosberg with a lap time of 1.12.764. Hamilton finished the session in second place ahead of Kvyat who was 0.395 seconds behind the two Mercedes drivers.

Fernando Alonso finished the session in fourth place ahead of Felipe Massa in fifth place, Max Verstappen in sixth place, Pastor Maldonado in seventh place, Kimi Raikkonen in eighth place, Kevin Magnussen in ninth place and Daniel Ricciardo rounding off the top ten finishers of the session.

Adrian Sutil ended the session in eleventh place ahead of Felipe Nasr in twelfth place, Nico Hulkenberg in thirteenth place and Sebastian Vettel in fourteenth place. As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Romain Grosjean finished the session in fifteenth place ahead of Daniel Juncadella in sixteenth place, Jenson Button in seventeenth place and Esteban Guitererz in eighteenth place. Both Button and Gutierrez did not set a lap time.

The classification of FP1 at the Brazilian Grand Prix is as follows below:-

Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1.12.764
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 0.221s
Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 0.959s
Fernando Alonso Ferrari 0.978s
Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1.047s
Max Verstappen Toro Rosso 1.063s
Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1.270s
Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1.350s
Kevin Magnussen Williams-Mercedes 1.372s
Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1.433s
Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1.670s
Felipe Nasr Williams-Mercedes 1.788s
Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1.914s
Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 2.138s
Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 2.345s
Daniel Juncadella Force India-Mercedes 3.266s
Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes No Time
Esteban Guiterrez Sauber-Ferrari No Time

Sarah Jones