Hamilton hoping for rain

Lewis Hamilton is preparing himself for a splashing time in Brazil this weekend as rain is threatening to spice up Formula One's season finale.

The forecast is for an 80% chance of rain on Saturday and 90% on Sunday, throwing open the potential for chaos and a surprise result like last year when Nico Hulkenberg, then with Williams, qualified on pole. It means the practice times, with Hamilton quickest at the end of the two 90-minute sessions around Interlagos in his McLaren, could prove irrelevant.

"It was a pretty solid day, not far from perfect as a day goes," said Hamilton after clocking a time of one minute 13.392secs, finishing 0.167secs ahead of Red Bull's double world champion Sebastian Vettel.

"But it doesn't mean when we get into qualifying we're easily going to be fastest, it's quite close and every time we go into Q3 the Red Bull seems to do something. But I might be pleasantly surprised, although at the end of the day it doesn't really matter what happened because it is going to be raining this weekend.

"That puts us in an even stronger position. We'll be really good in the wet."

Rain is certainly what Fernando Alonso is hoping for if he is to conjure a shock result and finish with his second win this season. Alonso was fourth fastest in practice in a Ferrari that required an engine change at the end of the first session.

With the team using an old engine there is no penalty at least, but he acknowledges he is not in the running unless the climate changes following a glorious day of sunshine on Friday.

"Looking at what we saw, I think that in the dry we are a bit less competitive than usual," said Alonso, who only finished 0.206secs behind Hamilton.

"I don't think I can fight with the Red Bulls and McLarens, and on top of that one of the Mercedes (Michael Schumacher) is very quick. However, there's a very high chance of rain, so anything could happen.

"If I could choose, I would opt for a wet race because in normal conditions we can only expect a fifth place in qualifying and to fight for a podium place in the race."