Rosberg seventh fastest in second US Practice

With Nico Rosberg finishing the first Friday practice session for the United States Grand Prix in sixth and test driver Kazuki Nakajima in twelfth the AT&T Williams team would see Alex Wurz return to his normal driving duties for the afternoon Friday practice. Alex would be playing catch-up as he uses this session to fine tune his car.

Both Alex and Nico would take to the track early in the session joining a large number of drivers including the likes of Alonso, Hamilton, Massa, Raikkonen, and Heidfeld. early in the session Alonso was fastest but was some time off his earlier Friday best. But team-mate Hamilton would move to the top of the times with a lap a tenth faster than his earlier session time. With twenty five minutes of the session complete Alex was slowest and again appearing to struggle to set a quick time. Massa was now fastest but his time was set on the softer tyre. So the order was Massa from Hamilton and Alonso.

With fifty minutes of the session complete Nico was in eighth and Alex remained in twenty first. Nico would put in a quick lap and move into fifth. Heidfeld would push Nico down one place when he moved into fourth ahead of Coulthard and Nico. Several drivers were to have off-track moments, including Hamilton and Heidfeld at Turn eleven, but were able to continue. Barrichello went off at Turn one. With twenty minutes remaining Webber would stop on the circuit with a problem with his car. He was ninth.

With ten minutes remaining Alex would return to the track in an attempt to improve on his slowest time. He was able to move ahead of the two Spyker cars but still was way down the order. At the front Hamilton had gone fastest but Alonso would move ahead so the order was Alonso from Hamilton, Massa, Raikkonen, Coulthard, Nico, and Kovalainen. Alex would finish the session in sixteenth with a time of 1m:13.539. Nico was in seventh with a best lap time of 1m:13.057. Despite been way down the order Alex was just 0.5 seconds behind his team-mate. It was later found that Alex had suffered from an oil leak with his car that restricted his track time.

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time     Laps
 1.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:12.156  35
 2.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:12.309  34
 3.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:12.435  36
 4.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:12.587  38
 5.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  1:13.026  43
 6.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:13.042  41
 7.  Rosberg       AT&T Williams-Toyota (B)  1:13.057  35
 8.  Kovalainen    Renault              (B)  1:13.110  48
 9.  Barrichello   Honda                (B)  1:13.144  40
10.  Button        Honda                (B)  1:13.202  46
11.  Vettel        BMW Sauber           (B)  1:13.217  50
12.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:13.263  21
13.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:13.332  41
14.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  1:13.364  46
15.  Fisichella    Renault              (B)  1:13.394  44
16.  Wurz          AT&T Williams-Toyota (B)  1:13.539  29
17.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:13.692  42
18.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:13.712  34
19.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  1:13.753  46
20.  R.Schumacher  Toyota               (B)  1:13.765  39
21.  Albers        Spyker-Ferrari       (B)  1:14.225  30
22.  Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari       (B)  1:14.513  33