Nico Rosberg fastest in Brazil free practice two

While it was Lewis Hamilton who led his Mercedes team-mate by half a second in FP1, Rosberg matched that result in the afternoon session as he ended up with a similar margin at the top of the times. Sebastian Vettel had been just 0.1s slower than Rosberg in first practice but saw that gap widen to almost a second on the soft tyre runs in FP2.

Kimi Raikkonen was another 0.2s back from his Ferrari team-mate in fourth place ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas during a tricky afternoon of running due to the threat of rain.

Light spots of rain fell throughout the majority of the 90-minute session, but the track temperature was high enough to not require drivers to switch from the slick tyres. However, the slightly greasier track conditions led to a number of spinners, with Alexander Rossi sliding at Turn 3 before Max Verstappen had his second spin of the day, this time at Turn 8.

Bottas was another driver to spin as he lost control at Turn 9, before pace-setter Rosberg then ran very deep at Turn 12 and had to slowly return to the track across the grass run-off area.

While Mercedes extended its advantage over the rest of the field, the midfield pack was closely matched on a short circuit as 0.6s covered Ricciardo in fifth place to Verstappen in 14th. Lotus will be encouraged by Romain Grosjean ending the session seventh quickest ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in eighth, Daniil Kvyat in ninth and Felipe Massa tenth.

McLaren dropped further off the pace than it had been in FP1 and there were more reliability worries for the team as Fernando Alonso stopped on track. Alonso had completed just 10 laps when smoke began emerging from the rear of the car and he had to pull over, bringing out the red flags while the stricken McLaren was recovered.

Long runs focused on tyre degradation, with Red Bull telling Ricciardo that a number of drivers were struggling to make the soft tyre last, while Verstappen complained of his medium tyres quickly running out of performance.

Hamilton's return to the track came amid headlines about his party lifestyle with the 30-year-old, whose helmet this weekend carries a tribute to his late boyhood idol Ayrton Senna, recognising he had been overdoing things.

"Heavy partying and not much rest for a week and a half," the Briton told reporters.

"I am a bit run down. I have been non-stop and trying to fit training in at the same time and not getting a lot of sleep."