Nico Rosberg emerged as the pacesetter for this weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix after topping the times in Friday practice.

Fresh from his victory at the Mexican Grand Prix, the German continued his run of impressive form by dominating the second 90 minute practice session at Interlagos.

Rosberg posted a session best 1:12.385s on soft compound rubber which proved to be almost half a second quicker than his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton, who suffered a minor road accident in the lead up to this weekend’s race, was the star of opening practice, but was unable to match Rosberg’s soft tyre pace in the afternoon hit out.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was the only driver to lap within a second of the Mercedes duo in third, with the four-time world champion 0.960s adrift of Rosberg.

Kimi Raikkonen confirmed Ferrari as Mercedes’ nearest challengers in fourth.

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo set the fifth quickest time armed with the upgraded Renault power unit, which will see him incur a 10 place grid penalty for Sunday’s race.

Valtteri Bottas recovered from a spin to claim sixth spot with the Lotus of Romain Grosjean and Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg close behind.

The sister Red Bull of Daniil Kvyat and the second Williams of crowd favourite Felipe Massa rounded out the top 10.

McLaren continued to struggle for outright speed with Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso languishing more than two seconds adrift in 16th and 18th positions respectively.

Alonso caused the only interruption to practice when he came to a halt on the circuit with smoke coming from his car.

Bottas was handed a three place grid penalty for passing under red flag conditions triggered by Alonso.

Result: Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix Practice 2 

Result: Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix Practice 1