Heidfeld leads Webber in first US GP Practice

Nick in fourth
By Andrew Hooper
June 17 2005

BMW WilliamsF1's Nick Heidfeld would lead team-mate Mark Webber in first of the United States GP practice sessions. Nick would finish the session in fourth while Mark was back in ninth. The session would see several drivers go off the track, most notably the McLaren of Kimi Raikkonen.

United States GP Friday 1st Practice

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.

Heidfeld 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.

Webber 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.

Pos  Driver        Team                   Time      Laps
 1.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:12.027  6
 2.  Zonta         Toyota            (M)  1:12.085  18
 3.  Alonso        Renault           (M)  1:12.666  10
 4.  Heidfeld      WilliamsF1-BMW    (M)  1:12.804  9
 5.  Button        BAR-Honda         (M)  1:12.865  11
 6.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:12.913  4
 7.  Sato          BAR-Honda         (M)  1:13.013  9
 8.  Fisichella    Renault           (M)  1:13.024  10
 9.  Webber        WilliamsF1-BMW    (M)  1:13.082  10
10.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:13.242  12
11.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:13.245  12
12.  R.Schumacher  Toyota            (M)  1:13.461  7
13.  Trulli        Toyota            (M)  1:13.683  7
14.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:13.740  8
15.  Speed         Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:13.846  21
16.  Klien         Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:14.444  8
17.  Massa         Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:14.637  7
18.  Villeneuve    Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:14.696  6
19.  Karthikeyan   Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:14.803  18
20.  Monteiro      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:14.978  20
21.  Doornbos      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:15.791  27
22.  Friesacher    Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:16.343  16
23.  Albers        Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:16.357  12
24.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  No Time   3