Brazilian GP – Friday – Practice 1

The first session around Interlagos finished with Lewis Hamilton on top of the timesheet, just 9 thousandths of a second ahead of Sebastian Vettel.  Lewis must be asking ‘what if’ when thinking about his numerous car failures earlier this season – could possibly have still been in with a shot of the 2012 title.

Mercedes’ poor form in recent races isn’t showing much sign of change if these times are anything to go by, Rosberg was down in 18th and Michael Schumacher’s plan to bow out of F1 on a high doesn’t look to be on track if the best he can muster is 11th.  That said, it’s only practice so who knows what setups and testing work the teams were doing.

The other championship battle to be decided this weekend is between Williams and Force India who are scrapping over 7th, although it would take a strong result for Williams and a poor one for Force India if the Williams team are to snatch the position.  By the same token, if Sauber have a shocker on Sunday and Force India have a blinder of a race then Vijay Mallya’s team could snaffle 6th in the constructors championship.  Watch this space.

Further down the grid, there’s the much coveted 10th place in the constructors championship to be decided too.  Even though Marussia, Caterham and HRT have zero points between them, Marussia have recorded the highest finishing position this season and are currently on track to grab 10th and some well-earned prize money.  Only this Sunday’s race stands between them and some handy dollars that Caterham would very much enjoy too.  With the Brazilian GP often throwing a crazy result, especially with some unpredictable weather on the horizon, the situation could change…