Brazilian GP - Friday: Red Bull Mean Business

- Published on Nov 5th, 2010 by Adam Milleneuve

Friday at Interlagos and the Red Bulls have made their intentions clear, both Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel were untouchable in both practice one and practice two, clearly ahead of title rivals Alonso, Hamilton and Button.  Here's the low down so far...

Practice One

Vettel quickest, ahead of Webber with the McLarens not too far behind with the usual suspects of Rosberg and Kubica behind them.  Barrichello was on form on home turf too with the 7th best time for Williams.  Virgin and Lotus has another good tustle, ending with the Lotus of Trulli less than a second off the pace of the Toro Rosso of Buemi.

The story of the session has to be Mr Petrov, who under the pressure of driving to impress enough to keep his seat for 2011 ended up stacking his Renault into the barriers... again - poor Vitaly.  Also in the wars was Fernando Alonso who had to sit and watch his Ferrari be craned off when the engine expired earlier than the team expected.  Rather worrying for Bruno Senna who was again out-shone by Christian Klien who was over half a second quicker than the Brazilian.

PRACTICE TWO

With a fresh engine, Alonso took the fight to the Red Bulls.. and lost with Vettel quickest once again and Webber just a tenth behind him. Hamilton kept up McLaren's hope of championship glory with a convincing session putting the Brit in 4th.  Talk of the session was Kobayashi, who almost lost control when passing a Lotus on the main straight, he held it and kept it clean though, unlike Michael Schumacher who appeared to be up to his old tricks when passing a Toro Rosso - Schuey squeezed past on the way into turn one (textbook) but clipped the front wing and then looked to be brake-testing when slowing down strangely on the way into the Senna 'S' - very odd and uncalled for...

Renault will be chuffed with another great effort from Kubica and no-doubt Sauber will be praising Nick Heidfeld who clocked the 8th best time in a session that proves he still deserves to be named 'Nick-the-quick' at least some of the time.

So after today's sessions, how do you think the land lies now for the Brazilian GP weekend?  Will Red Bull have their two drivers bickering, but bring home a one-two and take the fight to Alonso, or do you have a more outlandish idea?