Nico Rosberg proved he is unwilling to allow Lewis Hamilton to ride roughshod all over him by turning in a dominant day of practice yesterday ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix.
After emerging from a controversial race in Belgium where he and Mercedes team-mate Hamilton collided with a season-high 29-point lead, Rosberg has been on the receiving end of a backlash from the Briton.
Five successive victories have allowed Hamilton to turn the tables on Rosberg and open up a 24-point cushion to the German with two grands prix remaining, at Interlagos tomorrow and Abu Dhabi on November 23.
Rosberg, however, showed he is far from finished as he topped the timesheet at the end of both 90-minute sessions, initially on the medium-compound tyre in the morning and then soft rubber in the afternoon.
Rosberg’s best time of the day was a one minute 12.123 seconds for one of the most-renowned circuits in F1, with Hamilton just over two tenths of a second adrift – the same for both sessions.
For once, it was Kimi Raikkonen in his Ferrari – rather than team-mate Fernando Alonso as has often been the case – emerging the best of the rest, with the Finn just over half a second adrift.
As for Alonso, his session came to a premature end when his car burst into flames after he had pulled off the circuit, initially with smoke billowing from the rear of his car.
Alonso finished down in seventh come the conclusion to the day, 0.999 seconds off Rosberg’s pace.
In between the Ferrari duo were Daniel Ricciardo in his Red Bull and Williams pair Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa, the latter on home soil and finishing 0.976 seconds adrift.
Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat was next up, followed by Sebastian Vettel in his Red Bull and McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen to round out the top 10.
As for Jenson Button, the veteran was down in 16th in his McLaren, just over two seconds back following a frustrating day.
In the first practice session, Button suffered an ERS (energy recovery store) failure at the end of his installation lap that kept him in the garage for the rest of the session.
If Button thought he had problems, though, then he perhaps spared a thought for Force India’s Sergio Perez who failed to turn a wheel in anger all day.
In giving way to Daniel Juncadella in the opening session, the Spaniard crashed the car to such an extent that repairs were impossible in order to allow Perez to get out on track in the second session.