Brendon Hartley has had to blow out smoke not candles on his birthday after another engine failure during the first practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix today.
The Kiwi driver, who turned 28 today, had to pull over during his first test of the Autódromo José Carlos Pace track. But the car was fixed in time for the second practice session where Hartley produced the 17th best time, one spot behind Torro Rosso teammate Pierre Gasly who also had car issues during practice one.
Hartley failed to finish the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago when his car caught fire due to an engine failure.
Hartley's best time in practice two was 1:11.821, more than two seconds behind F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton who completed a best lap of 1:09.515. Hamilton's Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas was had the second best time of 1:09.563 with Australian Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo 1:09.743 in third.
