Kimi Raikkonen said it was a pretty standard Grand Prix Friday at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace, with the Scuderia Ferrari going through the motions to get a decent set-up to take them through the rest of the weekend.
The Finn ended the morning session third fastest, just over half a second off the pace of newly crowned World Champion Lewis Hamilton, but he was six-tenths back on the Briton in the afternoon session, which was held in more overcast conditions and involved a light sprinkling of rain.
Raikkonen feels getting the tyres to work will be important on Saturday, and it will be the ones who adapt better to the conditions that will get the best result in Qualifying.
“It’s only a Friday,” said Raikkonen, “and as always, we keep trying different things to learn from them.
“The tyres will play a key role here as usual, the performance will depend on how they work and how long they will last. I felt some vibrations at the beginning of my stint, but that’s quite normal to have sometimes in the car: usually it comes from tyres and different sets.
“We don’t know what the temperatures will be over the rest of the weekend, but we cannot change them anyway and it will be the same for everybody.”
