Preparations for the penultimate race of the season, the Brazilian Grand Prix, got underway today at the Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo. Mercedes GP Petronas pair Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg completed a total of 61 and 60 laps respectively of the 4.309km track as they began the team's preparations for the weekend.

Nico Rosberg: "We made some good set-up changes and definitely learned a lot over the two sessions today. As a result, I'm confident that we can nail the set-up if it is dry tomorrow. However if the predicted rain arrives, then I will look forward to it even more as we should be a little stronger if it is wet and have a better chance of being further up the field."

Michael Schumacher: "We had two trouble free practice sessions today and were able to complete a lot of work with the car. I would have wished and expected for us to be closer to the top teams but unfortunately the gap seems to be a little bigger than at the last races. The track itself has improved a lot since I last raced here and the bumps are not really a problem anymore. All in all, we have to see what we can improve for qualifying tomorrow and we will have a deep look into our data now."

Ross Brawn: "Although we had a more challenging Friday than at recent race weekends, it was a useful day to achieve our set-up work in anticipation of a dry race on Sunday. So far we haven't achieved the level of performance that we would like but we have collected good information to work through tonight. The weather always seems to play its part in Brazil and if the rain arrives tomorrow, the conditions may benefit us."

Norbert Haug: "Today we did not quite achieve the level of performance that we have shown at the last couple of races however we are not too far off. Our high fuel runs looked reasonable but the single lap performance can be improved further before qualifying. The weather forecast predicts heavy rain for tomorrow so we may see a different order in such conditions. So far, the team, Nico and Michael have always performed quite well in wet conditions."

To check out our Interlagos practice gallery, click here