Carlos Sainz Jnr said he chose to do more laps in the rain during first practice as he’s not been happy with the feeling of his McLaren in wet conditions.

“It was quite tricky,” said Sainz, who was the first driver to set a time when practice began at Interlagos today. “But it was very important for us to get some mileage.

“I had never been comfortable with the McLaren on the on the wet since Hockenheim. So it was important for us to experiment and try it out there.

“That’s why we did so many laps on full wets and full inter[mediates]. It was a bit better, getting the feeling a bit back to where it was with other cars in the wet. So I’m happy.”

However Sainz was not as happy with his car’s balance when the track dried out. “It was quite a poor session for us compared to the last weekends. We struggled quite a lot more.”

He ended the second practice session in 10th place. “I must say the lap wasn’t perfect at all, but also the feeling with the car wasn’t quite there today,” he said.

His team mate Lando Norris finished the day’s running with only the two Williams drivers behind him. “I locked up on one of the laps, I had a bit of a flat spot,” he said. “It’s just close and I just made a few mistakes.”

“If I put the lap together it’ll all be fine,” he added. “If I just put the lap together tomorrow when it counts we should be good.”

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2019 F1 season