11/11/2016
NEWS STORY
Lewis topped the morning session with Nico P3. Lewis set the fastest time once again in the afternoon session, Nico the second fastest. Both drivers ran the Medium and Soft compound tyres in both sessions.
Lewis Hamilton: It's been a good day. We got through all of our run programmes and the car is feeling really good. It's pretty tough out here physically right now with the heat as high as it is. Not just in the car but for the guys in the garage too. Finding the right balance isn't easy either in these conditions as the tyres are getting really hot. But our long run pace seems to be strong so we can be happy with the start we've made today.
Nico Rosberg: It's been very hot out there today - more so than we expect it to be for the rest of the weekend. As a result, that makes it difficult to fully prepare for qualifying and the race. Other than that, it was a pretty normal Friday. Our car looks quick but Red Bull are definitely close. The Soft tyre is degrading quite a lot on the long runs, with blistering on the rears. There's a surprising amount of degradation on the Medium tyre too - but I think overall we've got decent pace on the long runs. Strategy-wise it won't be straightforward for the race. But, again, it's meant to get quite a lot colder so we could see something completely different on Sunday. It's great to be back in Brazil. It's a proper race track and it always feels special driving somewhere with so much history and tradition.
Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical): Great weather here at Interlagos today - although the risk of sudden rain has already proven itself to be a threat since we arrived earlier this week. Our programme so far has run exactly as planned, with no problems to report on either car. We worked exclusively with the Soft and Medium tyres and our pace on both compounds at low and high fuel looks relatively encouraging. We are, however, a long way from the conditions we expect to see in qualifying and the race. We have a lot more work to do before then, with the potential for a very close competition. This is a circuit renowned for throwing jokers into the pack, so we take nothing for granted heading into the weekend.
Check out our Friday gallery from Interlagos, here.