By SA07
June 16 2007

Fernando Alonso leads the charts for practice 1 of the United States grand prix. He pretty much picked up where Lewis left off last weekend making this there 3rd weekend at the top of the time sheets. Nick Heidfeld starts a strong weekend for Bmw in 2nd just forcing Hamilton down to 3rd and the Ferraris seem to have no answer to McLarens pace once again.

Weather Hot and dry, with a clear sky (23.3% - 56.6% humidity)
Air Temperature 24.5°C minimum, 38.8°C maximum
Track Temperature 33.6°C minimum, 57.4°C maximum

Alonso finished half a second clear of any opposition which was basically Nick Heidfeld and rookie Lewis Hamilton. Reserve and rookie driver Sebastian Vettel finished fourth fastest completing more laps than anyone else 33 only half a second a drift from his more experienced counter part Heidfeld. An out of form Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen finished the 90 minute session 5th and Rosberg finished 6th looking for a better weekend.

 Massa finished 7th for Ferrari is the title fight over for them? and Coulthard finished 8th looking on form once again for Red Bull. Jenson Button starts a stronger looking weekend for Honda in 9th with Webber 10th and Trulli 1th. Friday driver and all round test driver Nakajima finsihed 12th for Williams which unusually meant that Wurz had no running in the first session.

Ralf Schumacher avoids the walls this year and finishes 13th with Liuzzi 14th and Speed 15th at his home grand prix. A confused Fisichella finishes 16th and a hopefull Sato finishes 17th for us. Rubens Barirchello finishes 18th not very happy with the balance of the car. Kovalainen finishes the day for Renault in 19th this could be a hard weekend for them. Anthony Davidson finishes 20th for us with but was hampered with a engine and gear box problem which permitted track time. Albers out paced his team mate in 21st and Sutil finished and rounded up the runners in 21st

Takuma Sato

"It was a good day. There was a problem with Anthony's car in the morning so we had to change to a combined programme which was not what was originally planned. In the end I think we got what we wanted to achieve and were able to evaluate the different wing levels and the tyres. It was normal, smooth-working Friday."

Anthony Davidson

"It was a really interesting day with the track changing a lot from start to finish. The track really came to our car as the rubber kept coming. We found a good balance and I'm happy with our day's work and looking forward to tomorrow's Qualifying."

Graham Taylor, Sporting Director

"Anthony lost a little bit of time in Free Practice 1 when we had to change the engine and gearbox. The boys got the car back out within the session which was an excellent effort. The track was not very kind to us at the beginning, but it improved later in the day. During the first session there did not seem to be any circuit improvement, but during the afternoon, even though the temperature was higher, everyone looked as though they were able to lap a little bit quicker. I think that there is a lot of work to do to understand the speed that we need on the straights and how much drag we need to leave on the car, so we shall be concentrating hard tonight."

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1	F. Alonso	McLaren	1:11.925	16
2	N. Heidfeld	BMW	1:12.391	24
3	L. Hamilton	McLaren	1:12.628	21
4	S. Vettel	BMW	1:12.869	33
5	K. Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:12.966	21
6	N. Rosberg	Williams	1:13.020	24
7	F. Massa	Ferrari	1:13.040	22
8	D. Coulthard	Red Bull	1:13.159	22
9	J. Button	Honda	1:13.597	23
10	M. Webber	Red Bull	1:13.682	26
11	J. Trulli	Toyota	1:13.777	32
12	K. Nakajima	Williams	1:13.786	27
13	R.Schumacher	Toyota	1:13.819	27
14	V. Liuzzi	STR	1:13.907	28
15	S. Speed	STR	1:13.990	24
16	G. Fisichella	Renault	1:14.000	19
17	T. Sato	Super Aguri	1:14.037	20
18	R. Barrichello	Honda	1:14.052	23
19	H.Kovalainen	Renault	1:14.189	18
20	A. Davidson	Super Aguri	1:14.632	10
21	C. Albers	Spyker F1	1:14.636	28
22	A. Sutil	Spyker F1	1:14.810	27