Practice
Practice over both Friday and Saturday was dominated by the weather, that saw no dry running for any of the drivers as the clouds hung over Sao Paulo. 2014 prototype tyres, supplied by Pirelli for data gathering ahead of development of new cars, saw little running in a blow for the teams. Mercedes stole an early lead on Friday, with Nico Rosberg running P1-P1-P19 (no time) and Hamilton P2-P5-P11. Both drivers found the conditions tricky and hard to read into, but Rosberg felt they had more opportunity to challenge Red Bull. They were not far behind with Vettel P3-P2-P17 and Webber P6-P3-P1 in his final practice ever, feeling they built a base line and got what they could from the day as tyres were preserved for qualifying and the race. Lotus continued to look decent as Kovalainen ran P9-P4-P3 in his second race for the team replacing Raikkonen, with Grosjean P13-P10-P2, underlining their pace on Saturday morning. Kovalainen was very pleased despite feeling there were a couple of things to work out, whilst Grosjean enjoyed himself even as he struggled with understeer. Torro Rosso had a good outing as Vergne ran P14-P6-P6, enjoying himself and setting a good baseline, with Ricciardo P9-P12 in FP2 and 3 after 2014 driver Daniil Kvyat ran P8 in FP1. Ricciardo felt it was productive despite the limited running time, though felt there was a need for more rear grip, while Kvyat was pleased to be on track and enjoyed Interlargos for the first time in a Formula 1 car in the rain. Ferrari found things difficult as Massa, in his final race for the Italian team, ran P11-P7-P22 (no time) and Alonso P5-P11-P20 (no time). The team opted to save tyres ahead of the rest of the weekend and gave them limited running, with both drivers finding it tricky to gain much from the track, with Alonso suggesting strategy would be very difficult. Sauber looked solid again with Hulkenberg P10-P8-P5 and Gutierrez P12-P12-P7, though Hulkenberg was not too happy with the car on the wet tyres, while Gutierrez found it useful to drive in the wet conditions and generally felt quite comfortable with the car as they worked towards a good, balanced setup. Force India sent James Calado out again in FP1 for his first wet drive in an F1 car, which he found tricky and didn't take any risks, but he still set a decent lap time just three-tenths off Sutil for P18. He enjoyed the track and gathered some data for the team. Di Resta took over for FP2 and FP3 with P13-P9, feeling they found direction to improve the car. Sutil ran P15-P15-P10 and completed lots of laps on Friday as they worked to understand the car in the wet conditions. Williams ran a limited programme but got some data as Maldonado ran P17-P14-P8 with Bottas P16-P16-P4 to brighten the team up. They gathered some useful tyre data though and tested a few different things out to optimise their setup. McLaren had a mixed outcome with Perez running few laps on Friday on his way to P7-P17-P18, feeling they got some data towards their wet setup should conditions prevail, with Jenson Button running P4-P22-P21 (no time), getting lots of laps done in FP1 and understanding the car in the wet weather. He felt there was both opportunity and risk presented by it, and would have liked some more tyres to use. At the back, Marussia took P21-P18-P13 with Bianchi, feeling they had made some good progress for the weekend as they worked on balance and strategy. Gonzalez went out for FP1 with P22, getting through 19 laps on a wet weather programme, before Chilton took over with P21-P15 for FP2 and 3. The British rookie felt they made progress during the session on a challenging circuit, generally happy with the pace of the car. All three drivers had never driven the track before prior to this weekend, so were learning as well as developing the car. Caterham stuck with both race drivers as Van der Garde went P19-P19-P16 and Pic P20-P20-P14; Van der Garde was happy initially on both wets and intermediates, especially with the front end though the back end was too loose. He developed an upshift problem that was quickly fixed, and he set over 30 laps on Friday, pleased with the car in the wet conditions. Pic made runs with different tyre pressures and then sat back to preserve tyres, running when the weather lifted, but overall felt they had gathered good data ahead of the race.