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For the BMW
WilliamsF1 team the opening Friday practice for the 2005 United States Grand Prix
would see a session where Nick Heidfeld would easily lead team-mate Mark Webber.
Nick was able to set a time that would see him in fourth while Mark was down
in ninth. Nick and Mark would only complete eleven laps between
them in the session.
The
opening Friday practice for the 2005 United States Grand Prix would see
American driver Scott Speed taking up the role of Friday driver for the Red
Bull
Team. The circuit had been resurfaced for this race and with the start of
the
session it would be Jordan's Robert Doornbos who would take to the track
first.
He was joined by Speed and Minardi's Patrick Friesacher. Other drivers also
to
come out were de la Rosa, Zonta, Montoya and Albers. The drivers were out
completing their installation laps. The other Jordan's of Karthikeyan and
Tieago
Monteiro were also out, joined by Red Bull's Christian Klein and Sauber's
Jacques Villeneuve. The final Red Bull of David Coulthard was also out. Both
BAR's were also out.
It would take ten minutes of the session before the first driver would set a
time
with Pedro de la Rosa setting a time of 1m:12.913. He would be joined by
Scott
Speed who completed his first lap with a time of 1m:16.594.
But things would
go
wrong for the McLaren Friday driver as he would stop out on the circuit and
climb
out of his car his run over. Speed would improve his time with a 1m:15.744.
Robert Doornbos would be third with a time of 1m:19.372. With nearly fifteen
minutes of the session run the only drivers who had not come out were
Michael
Schumacher, both BMW WilliamsF1 drivers Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld, and
Toyota's Jarno Trulli. Speed would improve with a 1m:15.270. Doornbos was
now
down to a 1m:16.269. Monteiro's first lap was a 1m:19.018, improving with a
1m:16.559.
Zonta would move into second with a 1m:13.435. He would improve
with a 1m:13.395 but remain in second. Friesacher's first lap was a
1m:18.440. Patrick was down to a 1m:17.320. Karthikeyan was last with a
1m:16.895. The fastest driver so far was Zonta with a top speed of 343kph
down the main straight. Karthikeyan would leave the track but was able to
continue.
Speed would improve with a 1m:14.988 but was still in third. But his time
was
2.075 seconds behind de la Rosa's time. It was found that de la Rosa's
problem
was a throttle sensor failure. Zonta was out again and would improve with a
1m:13.328. Albers was out and his first lap was a 1m:20.157. He was to
nearly
take Michael Schumacher off as he returned to the track.
Trulli, Heidfeld, and Webber had come out. Michael's first lap was a
1m:13.277 to
move into second. Heidfeld was now in fifth with a 1m:13.783 behind BAR's
Takuma Sato. Mark Webber's first lap was a 1m:13.930 moving into seventh.
Barrichello was in eighth with a 1m:14.191. At the front Renault's Giancarlo
Fisichella was now in second with a 1m:13.024 while Button was now third
with a 1m:13.190. But Alonso would push both drivers down one spot when he
went second fastest with a 1m:12.961.
With fifteen minutes of the session remaining Scott Speed was in eleventh
with a
1m:14.102. Nick and Mark were now in ninth and tenth. Neither BMW WilliamsF1
FW27's were appearing in the speed figures which on such a speed circuit was
somewhat of a worry. Zonta was able to pass de la Rosa's time with a
1m:12.085, to be 0.828 seconds ahead. Neither McLaren driver had yet to set
a time. But this would change with Montoya moving to the top of the times
with a blistering lap of 1m:12.027.
With just over five minutes remaining there would be the usual run of cars
looking to set a time. Alonso was still in third but improved with a
1m:12.666.
Raikkonen was to go off into the gravel at turn 11. He was able to return to
the
pits for repairs. The Toyota's of Ralf and Jarno were in eleventh and
fourteenth.
Nick was able to put his car into fourth with a 1m:12.804, while Mark was
now in eighth with a 1m:13.082. Villeneuve would also go off at turn 11 but
was able to return to the pit lane. Sato was in seventh with a 1m:13.013.
Another driver to go off was Barrichello taking to the grass at turn one.
With the end of the session the top ten would be Montoya from Zonta, Alonso,
Heidfeld, Button, de la Rosa, Sato, Fisichella, Webber, and Michael
Schumacher. |