Nico Rosberg pushed Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton off the top of the timesheets in second practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Hamilton's preparations for the penultimate race of his championship-winning campaign have been hampered by his mysterious crash in Monaco in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
But the British driver, who has failed to win in Brazil in eight previous outings and is also recovering from a fever here, put his troubles to one side to lead the way on Friday morning.
But Rosberg bounced back emphatically in the second session to finish well ahead of his Mercedes team-mate with the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel third in the standings.
Rosberg's best lap of one minute and 12.385 seconds at the famous Interlagos track was almost half-a-second faster than Hamilton and nearly a full second quicker than Vettel.
The German, who won here last year from pole, also survived a detour at turn 12 in the slippery conditions to end the session comfortably quickest.
On Thursday, Hamilton revealed a fortnight of "heavy partying" and "not much rest" contributed to him hitting a stationary vehicle while driving his £1.5m limited edition Pagani Zonda supercar at approximately 3.30am on Tuesday morning.
He subsequently delayed his flight from Monaco to Sao Paulo by 24 hours, missing a sponsor's event on Wednesday, and only arriving for this weekend's race yesterday morning.
Hamilton initially refused to expand on his Instagram post in which he revealed nobody was hurt in a crash which he claimed he made "very light contact" with another stationary vehicle.
But later, when speaking to the British media, Hamilton said: "It was a result of heavy partying and not much rest for a week and a half.
"I am a bit run down. I have been non-stop and trying to fit training in at the same time and not getting a lot of sleep."
Hamilton responded to his critics by ending the opening session half-a-second up on Rosberg only for the roles to be reversed later on Friday. Jenson Button, who is back at the scene of his title victory in 2009 and his final race win in 2012, believes
McLaren will be back fighting at the sharp end of the grid next season despite their awful year.
But there was little evidence of a comeback here with the Englishman only 16th while his team-mate
Fernando Alonso was forced to miss most of the afternoon session after his Honda engine failed. The session was red flagged for 10 minutes as Alonso's sick McLaren was safely removed.
Kimi Raikkonen was fourth fastest for Ferrari with Daniel Ricciardo fifth for Red Bull and Williams driver Valtteri Bottas sixth. Lotus' Romain Grosjean, Force India's Nico Hulkenberg, the Red Bull of Daniil Kvyat and home favourite Felipe Massa completed the top 10.
