The Honda Racing F1 Team began its on-track preparations for the final Grand Prix of the year in Sao Paulo today, with the team's RA108 cars completing 129 laps of the 4.309km (2.677-mile) Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Interlagos

The team completed its usual Friday homework during the two 1.5-hour practice sessions with the cool temperatures and dark rain clouds resulting in occasional light showers.

Rubens Barrichello had a smooth build-up to his home Grand Prix and is sporting a new design on his crash helmet for this weekend in the colours of ex-Formula One driver Ingo Hoffmann. The Brazilian is a long-standing friend of Rubens, ever since he gave him his first crash helmet when Rubens was just seven years old.

“It's a real pleasure for me to be racing at Interlagos this weekend, especially in front of the Brazilian fans and my family,” he said. “We had two straightforward practice sessions with no real issues today however, as we expected, the car is lacking performance. We will do our best to maximise the data that we were able to achieve today but it will be a big ask to progress into Q2 tomorrow."

The only unscheduled stoppage today came midway through the opening session when an electrical problem brought Jenson's running to an early conclusion after 13 laps, after setting a fastest lap just 0.090s slower than his team-mate.

After finishing today's second session with Rubens in 16th position and Jenson in 18th place, the drivers and engineers will examine the data gathered today to see if further progress can be made with the set-up of the RA108 prior to tomorrow's qualifying session.