Massa strikes first blow
Title contenders Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton slugged it out in first practice ahead of Sunday's championship-deciding Brazilian Grand Prix.
After the initial 90-minute session at Interlagos, it was home hero Massa in his Ferrari who landed the first blow, edging out McLaren's Hamilton by just 0.190 seconds.
Hamilton, who holds a seven-point cushion over Massa and needs only to finish in the top five to become Formula One's youngest world champion, had sat at the top of the timesheets for a lengthy period.
That was only by a few thousandths of a second over Massa, though, underlining there is likely to be little difference between the two men throughout the weekend.
Then Massa conjured a lap of one minute 12.305secs for the 4.309km circuit that sits on the edge of the sprawling city that is his birthplace of Sao Paulo.
There were a couple of light showers that punctuated the session, with the weather an unknown variable that could throw the weekend into chaos.
Heavy rain is forecast on Sunday, and as Massa has proven over the course of the season to date, he and his car have been unable to handle such conditions, and that could play into Hamilton's hands.
Despite the greasy surface at times, there was only one notable incident which saw Kimi Raikkonen spin on his way to finishing third quickest.
The outgoing world champion finished just 0.202secs adrift of his Ferrari team-mate, with BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica fourth and the second McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen in fifth.
