Nico Rosberg maintained his wet weather advantage during Friday’s second practice session for the Brazilian Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver, who delivered a time of 1:27.306 on Pirelli’s Intermediate tyres, led reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel by just over two tenths of a second, with Mark Webber third.

Although conditions began to improve after the opening session of the weekend, the rainfall returned moments before the pit lane opened for a second time, ensuring a damp track surface for the entirety of the first day in Interlagos.

As was the case in FP1, Rosberg jumped to the head of the timesheets in the early stages, but it took a considerable improvement in track conditions for his frontrunning rivals to venture out and assess the situation.

A flurry of improvements in the closing stages saw Red Bull duo Vettel and Webber briefly lead, but Rosberg produced his ultimate pace-setting time with just a couple of minutes to spare, giving the Milton Keynes-based outfit something to think about if rain continues to fall throughout the weekend.

Heikki Kovalainen finished an impressive fourth for Lotus, edging out former team-mate and Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. After Daniil Kvyat went eighth fastest this morning, Jean-Éric Vergne continued Toro Rosso’s encouraging wet weather form in sixth, placing just ahead of Felipe Massa and Nico Hülkenberg.

Daniel Ricciardo and Romain Grosjean completed the top ten positions, denying Fernando Alonso who was the first driver to put on the Intermediate tyres after the opening sequence of Wet rubber stints.

At the tail-end of the order, Jules Bianchi narrowly outpaced Giedo van der Garde to put Marussia ahead of Caterham, while Jenson Button brought up the rear after completing just six laps, the fewest number of the session.

The rain meant that the Pirelli prototype tyres, geared towards the 2014 season, saw no further action, with the Italian manufacturer now eyeing further tests after the campaign has concluded.