Nico Rosberg edged Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton to the fastest time in Friday practice for this weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos.

The German driver topped the timesheets in both 90 minute practice sessions with his personal best effort arriving on a soft tyre run in the final hit out of the day.

Having trailed his team-mate initially, a set of new soft tyres allowed him to post a 1:12.123s lap, which was a full 0.213s quicker than Hamilton.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was third fastest after taking advantage of a late run on the soft tyres. The Finn was half a ascend off the pace set by Rosberg,

Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo was fourth quickest with the Australian just ahead of the Williams pair of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa.

Fernando Alonso was almost a second away from the leader’s pace in seventh before the Spaniard’s day ended prematurely when his Ferrari caught fire towards the end of the session.

The two-time world champion was forced to stop on circuit and subsequently put out the blaze, which is understood to have been the result of a power unit issue. The incident halted the session.

Force India’s Sergio Perez was a notable absentee in the second practice session. The Mexican’s car suffered extensive damage following a crash with test driver Daniel Juncadella at the wheel in the morning session.

Elsewhere, mechanical problems limited McLaren’s Jenson Button to just a solitary lap in the first session. The Brit completed 31 laps in the Practice 2 but he continued to struggle as he ended the day in 16th position.

Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne and Sauber’s Esteban Guttierrez also encountered mechanical problems with the pair bringing out the red flags on two separate occasions after grinding to a halt on the track.

The field completed another test of the new virtual Safety Car procedure during the sessions.

Practice 2 Result

Practice 1 Result