Free Practice 1 – Massa sets the pace first in Brazil!

Brazilian Felipe Massa set the fastest time during Free Practice 1 in Brazil. For the decisive final Grand Prix of the 2008 Season, the Scuderia Ferrari driver outpaced his rival, Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren. The Briton responded by being less than two-tenths behind and announced that the battle would be fierce all weekend. The reigning world champion, Kimi Räikkönen, placed his F2008 on the third line of the timesheets.

Felipe Massa (Ferrari), on home ground, secured the first place in his first free practice at Interlagos. The Brazilian is setting the tone for his colleague Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) by taking back 190 milliseconds from him in the last seconds of the session. In dry but tricky conditions due to the morning humidity, the young British driver had been the most consistent and fastest for nearly an hour.

The title contenders, on Sunday, stayed in their garages for the first half hour of the ninety-minute session. It was the Toro Rosso, Toyota, and Renault drivers who went out first; thus setting the reference lap times. Hamilton came out of his box a few minutes before Massa. The English driver quickly demonstrated his performance and posted his best lap time after three laps, at 1’12”495.

Massa was not in the rhythm at that time. After several tests on the F2008 from his pit, the Brazilian managed to get closer to Hamilton’s time. First 200 milliseconds behind… then 70, then 14. In his last flying lap, the Brazilian pulled off a masterstroke by taking back two-tenths from the McLaren driver: The battle for the title is clearly on!

For his part, Hamilton was on track until the last seconds as well, but he couldn’t improve due to a flat spot on his front left tire.

Behind the two championship rivals, Kimi Räikkönen is very close. His Ferrari is only 12 thousandths of a second behind Lewis Hamilton and seems to be putting pressure on the Briton.

Robert Kubica is 4th, already nearly six-tenths behind Massa and 50 thousandths ahead of Heikki Kovalainen in the second McLaren. The BMW driver is far ahead of his teammate. Heidfeld is still in the top 10, in ninth position.

The Renaults almost make a close grouping with Fernando Alonso in 6th place and Nelson Piquet Junior in 8th position, at home. The Brazilian, with 39 laps on the clock, is also the most enduring this morning. The diamond team drivers are separated by Marc Webber’s blue Red Bull.

Glock concludes the top 10 with Toyota. He is ahead of his teammate, Jarno Trulli, and the Williams of Nico Rosberg.

Sébastien Bourdais commented that he wants to finish the season on a positive note: the Frenchman starts his weekend well, he is 13th, but clearly ahead of his teammate at Toro Rosso, Sebastian Vettel. The German could only manage the 17th time.

The Hondas are 14th and 15th, with Button and Barrichello, respectively. They are ahead of the Japanese driver Kazuki Nakajima.

Coulthard with his special white Red Bull « Wings for Life » is only 18th. The Force India cars finish over two seconds behind the leaders. It’s worth noting that Sutil once again finishes ahead of his elder, Giancarlo Fisichella.

The time difference with Sao Paulo is 4 hours less. The Free Practice 2 will therefore start at 6 p.m. in France.

Results of Free Practice 1 – Brazilian GP – October 31, 2008: