McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, topped the time sheets in First Practice ahead of this weekend's final GrandPrix in Sao Paulo. The Brit finished the session just one thousands of a second ahead the RedBull duo of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. Jenson Button was fourth fastest in the second McLaren with Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa fifth and sixth for Ferrari.
Romain Grosjean was 7th fastest for Lotus with team mate Kimi Raikkonen down the order in 16th place with an engine issue. The team changed his spark plugs however this did not solve his issue. So I believe that the Iceman will be forced into taking a ten place grid penalty which after great reliabilty on Kimi's side of the garage Would come as a disaster for the Iceman as he is locked in a very tight battle with Lewis Hamilton for third in the Driver's championship.
It was a big day on the driver front with Sauber confirming that Mexican Estabam Guttierez will join Nico Hulkenborg as Sergio Perez' team-mate. This news will come as a blow for Kamui Kobayashi as it leaves him without a drive for next season. Now there is still hope for the Japanese driver as Force India are yet to confirm their line-up and Caterham and Marussia have a seat available.
It is unclear what the situation is with HRT as they may not be on the grid next year. In other driver related news the Caterham F1 Team announced that they have signed Marussia's Charles Pic as one of their driver's for next season however they have not confirmed who he will be replacing.
I will be back this evening with an update from second practice.
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