2015 F1 Round 18 Brazilian Grand Prix FP2 – Rosberg beats Hamilton, Alonso stoppage brings red flag

Rosberg led second practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix on the afternoon of November 13 with a 1:12.385. Hamilton was second, 0.458 seconds behind, with Vettel third.

The weather turned overcast, with spots of rain around midday. Rosberg initially set the leading time on medium tyres before Hamilton responded, and the drivers continued to improve after switching to soft tyres.

Alonso pulled off near Turn 4 and stopped, reporting a loss of power. The session was red-flagged so that his McLaren could be removed.

After the red flag, Hamilton set a 1:12.843 on soft tyres. Rosberg then lowered the fastest time to 1:12.385 to regain first place.

Rosberg also encountered a gearshift problem later in the session, stopping at the pit exit to reset the car before continuing. He also had lock-ups and off-track moments.

Vettel was third and Räikkönen fourth, ahead of Ricciardo in fifth and Bottas in sixth. Grosjean, Hülkenberg, Kvyat and Massa completed the top ten in that order.

Spots of rain made some sections slippery, and Bottas ran off at Turn 9. The teams then turned to long runs, with no further changes to the leading times.

After practice, the stewards opened an investigation into whether Bottas had overtaken Nasr under the red flag. The FP2 timing classification still listed Bottas sixth.