What happened in final Brazilian Grand Prix practice

Fernando Alonso was fastest for Alpine in the final practice session of Formula 1’s Brazilian Grand Prix weekend, which took place in the shadow of the stewards’ deliberations over Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen’s Friday controversies.

Key moments

– Alonso and Ocon first and fourth for Alpine
– Verstappen leads for long spell and is second
– Mercedes works on long runs but jumps into top five late on
– Paddock focus mainly on wait for news from stewards

The Saturday practice session has been one of the least popular elements of F1’s sprint format weekends.

As it falls after qualifying has already taken place and with cars under parc ferme rules in terms of set-up changes, it effectively acts as a warm-up for the sprint race. There is no need for teams to chase single-lap pace and little they can change on their cars.

That leads to teams pursuing a variety of programmes and a final order that may have little relevance to true form.

It felt even more low-key this weekend as the F1 world awaited the stewards’ verdict on Lewis Hamilton’s potential rear wing infringement in Friday practice and Max Verstappen’s parc ferme rules breach.

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Verstappen spent a while at the head of the order before a 1m11.238s from Alonso on soft tyres usurped the Red Bull by 0.864s.

Mercedes made clear it was working on long runs as Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas spent much of the hour in the bottom quarter of the field.

A more concerted effort on soft tyres later on did bring Bottas up to third ahead of the second Alpine of Esteban Ocon and Hamilton into fifth.

Sergio Perez was second in a Red Bull 1-2 for a while before the late improvements put him back to sixth.

Ocon and Kimi Raikkonen – who ended up 10th – also had spells on the top spot early on.

Practice 2 Results