United States GP: Williams off the pace in FP1

For the first time the Williams F1 team would run at the Circuit of the Americas as the team commenced their opening Friday practice for the 2012 United States Grand Prix. With the start of the session there would be the normal series of installation laps with Williams F1 driver Pastor Maldonado completing two prior to pitting. Pirelli had brought their medium and hard tyres for this weekend with drivers getting an additional set of hard tyres for this session. Kobayashi would set the first time with a 1m:54.846. After having come in after his installation lap Second Williams F1 driver Bruno Senna would return setting a 1m:56.291 to be second. Several drivers would comment of the slippery nature of the new track. Kobayashi would improve with a 1m:48.517 as more drivers took to the track with twenty five minutes of the session completed.

Webber would go fastest with a 1m:48.182 but Kobayashi would go faster with a 1m:46.960 while Bruno would move into third with a time of 1m:48.713. Kobayashi would improve with a 1m:45.866 as Vettel moved into fifth with a 1m:47.735. Webber would go fastest with a 1m:44.839 with thirty minutes of the session completed. As more drivers took to the track the times would come down with Webber setting a1m:43.671 to be 1.577 seconds ahead of Kobayashi with Di Resta now third. Vettel would join his team-mate moving into second. On his first run Hamilton would go third but on his next lap he would go fastest with a 1m:42.603. Rosberg was now second followed by Vettel and Webber. Also coming up to speed was Alonso setting a 1m:42.538 to go fastest. For Williams Pastor would complain that the low grip made it hard to attack the corners.

Several drivers would run wide at various turns as they came to grips with the new track. Hamilton would find a big improvement setting a 1m:40.918 while Alonso would also improve with a 1m:41.365. Rosberg was now third from Vettel, Button, Massa, Webber, Grosjean, Schumacher, and Hulkenberg tenth. Alonso would return to the top of the times with a 1m:40.603. Button would move up to third with a 1m:40.965 with fifty minutes completed. For the Williams team Bruno was ahead of Pastor with Bruno's time a 1m:46.121 and Pastor a 1m:46.709. With ever improving times Hamilton would set a 1m:40.175 to again be fastest. Pastor's quickest time now was a 1m:43.405 with thirty minutes to run. Pastor would improve with a 1m:42.539 to be eighth. Turn nineteen was proving to be a popular corner for drivers to spin or run wide. Bruno was back out on the track but was down in nineteenth with a 1m:45.180. At the front the order was Hamilton from Button, Alonso, Vettel, Kobayashi, Rosberg, Webber, Grosjean, Massa, and Di Resta tenth.

Pastor had dropped to eleventh as Bruno pitted seeing both Williams drivers in their garages with eighteen minutes remaining. Vettel would improve to be second with a 1m:40.335 with Alonso having set a 1m:40.337. Bruno's stop would be brief and he was back out as Alonso continued to find pace in the first sector. Pastor would follow Bruno out onto the track as Bruno set a 1m:44.458 to improve his time but not his position. Hamilton would improve his time yet again setting a 1m:39.687, while Webber would spin at Turn eighth and Schumacher ran wide at Turn eleven. Bruno would pit still nineteenth. With eight minutes remaining the track was very busy as Hamilton went fastest in sector three setting a 1m:39.670. Only three cars were in their pits one being Bruno. Massa would run wide at Turn nineteen as Bruno returned to the track. Hamilton would set a 1m:39.543 to be 0.792 seconds ahead of Vettel.

Vettel was on a quicker lap setting a 1m:38.692 to go fastest with only a few minutes remaining. Pastor had dropped to fifteenth while Bruno was now twenty first. AS the session came to a close drivers would complete their last laps with Vettel setting a 1m:38.125 to be 1.418 seconds ahead of Hamilton. Hamilton was second followed by Alonso, Button, Webber, Massa, Hulkenberg, Kobayashi, Rosberg, and Perez now tenth. Both Williams drivers would drop down one place with Pastor finishing sixteenth and Bruno twenty second. Even taking into account the tricky track conditions both Williams drivers were well off the pace but they were not the only ones with both Lotus cars well down the order. It still is very early days as the Williams team comes to grips with their setup at the Circuit of the Americas.

Pos  Driver         	 Team		       Time      Laps
 1.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m38.125  30
 2.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m39.543s 28
 3.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m40.337s 29
 4.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m40.528s 29
 5.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m40.650s 30
 6.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m40.966s 26
 7.  Nico Hulkenberg     Force India-Mercedes  1m41.023s 29
 8.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m41.036s 28
 9.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m41.159s 32
10.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari        1m41.473s 29
11.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes  1m41.783s 29
12.  Daniel Ricciardo    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m41.825s 28
13.  Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m41.833s 29
14.  Kimi Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault         1m41.880s 23
15.  Romain Grosjean     Lotus-Renault         1m41.998s 27
16.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Renault      1m42.539s 30
17.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m42.588s 25
18.  Charles Pic         Marussia-Cosworth     1m43.288s 23
19.  Heikki Kovalainen   Caterham-Renault      1m43.443s 28
20.  Vitaly Petrov       Caterham-Renault      1m43.522s 23
21.  Timo Glock          Marussia-Cosworth     1m44.464s 24
22.  Bruno Senna         Williams-Renault      1m44.548s 29
23.  Pedro de la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth          1m46.917s 13
24.  Ma Qing Hua         HRT-Cosworth          1m48.559s 19