FP2: Alonso tops final practice in Sao Paulo

F1 Grand Prix, GP Brazil, Autódromo José Carlos Pace, Interlagos

Ahead of this evening's sprint race, Alpine's Fernando Alonso went fastest in the final practice session for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, beating championship leader Max Verstappen by eight tenths of a second.

As predicted ahead of the weekend, drivers faced a very different set of circumstances this morning when they rolled out on the Autódromo José Carlos Pace. While it was cold and cloudy yesterday, the weather has changed for today with the sun heating up the air and track much more than on the opening day.

With the qualifying session done and dusted, drivers focused on the race setup of their car, using a used set of tyres and running on a heavy fuel load. The first part of the session was dominated by championship leader Max Verstappen, who dictated the early pace during his first stint which he completed on a used set of red-walled soft tyres.

However, Fernando Alonso went out on a presumably much lighter fuel load in the middle part of the session. Using his lighter car and the grip of a set of soft tyres, the Spaniard set the benchmark of the session with a 1m11.238.

Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas spent the first part of the session in the lower region of the order before completing a more impressive second stint on the red-walled tyres in the closing stages of the session. The Briton ended the session fifth fastest, with his team mate taking 3rd.

Ferrari’s driver duo of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc finished 8th and 9th respectively with both of them completing more than 30 laps in the final practice session.

Following a strong performance in the qualifying session, AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was only 14th fastest with the Frenchman describing his car as undrivable at the end of the session. His team mate Yuki Tsunoda lapped around a tenth of a second slower, ending up P16.

After being out-qualified by his team mate for the first time this season, the leading Williams of George Russell was 15th with the other Williams driver Nicholas Latifi taking 18th. The session saw the Haas duo of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin end the session at the bottom of the timesheets.