Lewis Hamilton sets fastest time in F1 practice for Brazilian Grand Prix

16:00, 14 November 2015

ASTANA. KAZINFORM - Lewis Hamilton brushed off his recent car accident to head the order in opening practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix. Hamilton's preparations for the penultimate race of his championship-winning campaign have been hampered by his mysterious incident in Monaco in the early hours of Tuesday. But the Briton, who is also recovering from a fever and is yet to win in Brazil, posted a best lap of 1min 13.543sec to finish ahead of his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg on Friday morning - although the German made up for it by topping the standings in second practice in the afternoon, ahead of Hamilton by almost half a second.

The Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel finished third in the standings, 0.625sec adrift of Hamilton, with the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo in fourth, almost one second off the pace.

On Thursday, Hamilton revealed a fortnight of "heavy partying" and "not much rest" contributed to him hitting a stationary vehicle while driving his limited edition Pagani Zonda supercar at around 3.30am. He subsequently delayed his flight from Monaco to São Paulo by 24 hours, missing a sponsors' event on Wednesday, and only arriving for this weekend's race on Thursday morning.

Hamilton initially refused to elaborate on his Instagram post in which he revealed no one was hurt in a crash, claiming he made "very light contact" with another stationary vehicle. But later he added: "It was a result of heavy partying and not much rest for a week and a half. I am a bit run down. I have been non-stop and trying to fit training in at the same time and not getting a lot of sleep."

Yet the Briton, who sealed his third Formula One championship with three races to spare in Austin last month, led the way at the Interlagos track on Friday. He was the best part of half a second up on Rosberg, the winner here last year who is going for his fifth consecutive pole.

Kimi Raikkonen finished fifth in the session and survived a hairy moment when he lost control of his Ferrari under braking at turn four. A messy trip across the gravel ensued before he headed back to the garage and parked his car with a little under 10 minutes of the session remaining.

Jenson Button, back at the scene of his title victory in 2009 and his final race win in 2012, believes McLaren will be back fighting at the sharp end of the grid next season despite their awful year. He was 13th fastest, almost two seconds slower than Hamilton, and his team-mate Fernando Alonso was 16th in the order.

Elsewhere, Daniil Kvyat was sixth for Red Bull, Valtteri Bottas seventh, Max Verstappen eighth, Nico Hulkenberg ninth with the Lotus driver Pastor Maldonado making up the top 10.

For more information go to The Guardian.com.

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