Slater's practice ends early in red flag at São Paulo

Audi rookie Freddie Slater stopped on track just 15 minutes into the opening practice session ahead of the São Paulo Grand Prix, bringing a red flag. It was the second successive Friday that the 18-year-old had struggled in practice, after a difficult outing ahead of the Mexico City race the previous week.

Slater, who was the first driver brought into Audi's driver development programme, had earlier been sent out with a cooling fan still in the right-hand sidepod of his car. He was recalled to the pits to have it removed, and the stewards investigated the team for releasing the car in an unsafe condition. He had completed just seven laps at the time of the stoppage, with a best of one minute 14.966 seconds on the hard tyres.

Audi described the stoppage as an issue it would investigate fully once the car was back in the garage.