Rain curtails Brazil practice

Final practice for tomorrow’s Brazilian Grand Prix lasted just 13 minutes following a thunderstorm and a heavy crash involving Romain Grosjean.

The storm struck Sao Paulo 30 minutes before the hour-long session was scheduled to officially start, grounding the medical helicopter due to poor visibility and forcing the FIA to call a delay.

When the rain eventually eased off and motor sport’s governing body announced an 11.42am local start time, there were still rivers of water around the Interlagos track.

The marshals were forced into a clear-up operation as they used giant squeegees to sweep away the standing water, notably from the platform on which the helicopter stood.

With more rain forecast for qualifying later today, all 20 drivers used the limited amount of time available to put in a few laps on the extreme wet tyres.

Given the conditions, it came as no surprise when the session was red flagged with five minutes remaining as Grosjean aquaplaned off the track and into a barrier.

The Frenchman had already spun once in his Renault, and although he managed to continue on that occasion, it was not long before he went one step further.

Carrying speed through turn five, Grosjean simply lost the back end of his car, sending him careering across the in-field grass, even airborne at one stage.

Fortunately, the impact with the barrier was not as severe as it could have been, although enough to send a marshal scurrying away in alarm.

Grosjean eventually came to rest in a large muddy puddle with his car missing its front nose, and with the 23-year-old uttering his sincere apologies to the team over the radio.

It naturally brought out the red flag and ultimately a premature end to the session, in which Nico Rosberg topped the timesheets.

The Williams driver completed the most laps of any of his rivals, with the best of his nine a one minute 23.182secs, 11 seconds slower than the fastest in the dry yesterday from Fernando Alonso.

Rosberg finished 0.650secs ahead of his team-mate Kazuki Nakajima, followed by championship leader Jenson Button, Alonso and Adrian Sutil in his Force India, all just under a second down.

The 20-car field was separated by seven seconds, with Toyota’s debutant in Kamui Kobayashi – standing in for the injured Timo Glock – bringing up the rear of the field.