Lewis Hamilton picked up from where he left off in the USA by posting the quickest time in opening practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Hamilton, who is competing in his last race for McLaren before moving to Mercedes, posted the quickest time of the session early on, taking advantage of a set of 2013-spec Pirelli tires, which all teams worked with in the opening 90 minutes of running.
Hamilton's time of 1m14.131s was only 0.009sec better than that of Sebastian Vettel, the Red Bull driver's mark set on this year's rubber. Vettel's teammate Mark Webber was third, also less than a tenth off a second behind Hamilton.
McLaren's Jenson Button was fourth, while championship contender Fernando Alonso finished in fifth position in the Ferrari, albeit over two tenths of a second off the best time.
Felipe Massa was sixth in the second Italian car, with Romain Grosjean, Paul di Resta, Pastor Maldonado and Nico Hulkenberg completing the top 10.
Williams tester Valtteri Bottas was the first man to post a time in the opening minutes of the session, the Finn completing a lap of 1m21.218s that kept him on top until Sergio Perez went some 4sec quicker 12 minutes into the session. The Mexican then found another 2srv to post a 1m15.869s.
Fifteen minutes in, Hamilton jumped to the top of the times with a 1m14.374s lap. Moments later, the the Briton improved to a 1m14.131s that put him nearly 2sec clear of the rest of the field and proved enough to keep him on top until the session's end.
Vettel moved up to second place 27 minutes in, posting a time just 0.3sec off Hamilton's best while also on the prototype Pirelli rubber. The two-time World Champion improved his time later in the session when running with this year's hard tires, but he still fell short of Hamilton's time.
With the teams not using the medium tires at their disposal, the top times stayed mostly unchanged during the remainder of the session.
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix winner Kimi Raikkonen missed most of the running as his mechanics worked on his Lotus, the Finn only posting a time with 10 minutes to go after being hit with apparent engine problems.
The struggling HRT team also restricted its running, with Pedro da la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan each managing just an installation lap early on and not returning to the track until there were 35 minutes left on the clock.
The 90 minutes of action were mostly incident-free except for a spin by Massa with nine minutes to go, the Brazilian losing control of his car at Pinheirinho.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m14.131s 33
2. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m14.140s + 0.009 35
3. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m14.198s + 0.067 34
4. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m14.217s + 0.086 31
5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m14.392s + 0.261 28
6. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m14.716s + 0.585 29
7. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m14.719s + 0.588 33
8. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m14.738s + 0.607 34
9. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m15.015s + 0.884 37
10. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m15.050s + 0.919 32
11. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m15.114s + 0.983 36
12. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m15.255s + 1.124 31
13. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m15.396s + 1.265 32
14. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 1m15.413s + 1.282 23
15. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m15.587s + 1.456 35
16. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m15.701s + 1.570 16
17. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m16.048s + 1.917 35
18. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m16.315s + 2.184 36
19. Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 1m16.460s + 2.329 32
20. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1m16.506s + 2.375 31
21. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m16.617s + 2.486 30
22. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m17.234s + 3.103 26
23. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m17.678s + 3.547 15
24. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m17.895s + 3.764 13