United States – Free Practice 1: Vettel Discovers America!

Welcome! For the first free practice session, the sun is shining in the Texan sky despite the cool temperatures: 15°C in the air with a maximum of 23°C on the track. For the return of F1 to the United States, many drivers have special helmets: this is the case for Lewis Hamilton with an American flag on the top or Sergio Pérez, who is inclined to acknowledge the proximity of his country of origin, Mexico, to the Texas border. Mario Andretti, on his side, strolls through the pit lane. Let’s remember that the former world champion drove on this track in the famous 1978 Lotus.

To each his own, the first driver to hit the track is none other than the latest winner, Kimi Räikkönen, in his Lotus. Timo Glock is the first driver caught out in the Esses. Kamui Kobayashi is surprised by significant understeer. Felipe Massa announces on his radio that the track is very, very slippery, which is logical for a new circuit. It is noteworthy that the Brazilian is already conducting aerodynamic tests on the F2012. Nico Hülkenberg also comments on the grip: “It’s super slippery, it’s worse than rain.” Sebastian Vettel, after a first installation lap, makes a slight drift as he returns to the pits. The dust inherent to the track’s inactivity and its novelty is not the only reason for this low grip: used for the first time, the track has not benefited from a rubber deposit that would make the racing line smoother. The cars spin their wheels upon acceleration. The increased number of passes will gradually mitigate this problem throughout the weekend.

After 15 minutes in this first session, still no time has been set. In the pits, Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes is already being examined, especially its rear part. The seven-time world champion authoritatively dismisses the cameraman who was beside him before getting back into his seat. One driver seems well on his way to being the first to put his name on the time sheet, it’s Kamui Kobayashi, who is the first to take some risks: he significantly misses the apex on a few corners while his Sauber C31 is very unstable under braking. He clocks in at 1:54.856, while the simulations conducted by McLaren notably place the reference times around 1:37/1:38. He then improves by more than six seconds to 1:48.517. The chief engineer of Mercedes explains to Nico Rosberg that the surface of the track is slippery in itself and that it might take some time to find an acceptable level of grip this weekend. Kobayashi continues to improve, now with 1:46.960, but Mark Webber takes the lead with 1:45.918. The Japanese driver responds by doing better by five hundredths.

**After half an hour** of trials, Webber takes the lead by improving Kobayashi’s time by more than a second. Following him are Di Resta, Senna, and Pérez. The Australian continues to improve, clocking 1:44.237 then 1:43.672. Vettel, on his part, is overly optimistic in the last sequence before the main straight and goes too wide, though without consequence. In the following lap, he narrows the gap to his teammate by five-tenths, as does Lewis Hamilton a few seconds later. The Brit then improves the provisional best time to 1:42.603, one second ahead of Webber. Fernando Alonso takes the lead in turn, with a 65-thousandths advantage over the McLaren driver. Hülkenberg, meanwhile, tries a wider trajectory at the entrance of turn 1 but ends up spinning. The first of the weekend at that spot. Hamilton takes the opportunity to break the 1:41 barrier, with 1:40.918, placing him in P1 provisionally, before heading to the pits. Heading to the pits, an exercise not as simple as it seems, as shown by Pérez, who misjudges and narrowly avoids hitting the barrier at the pit lane entrance.

After 45 minutes, Alonso takes the lead from Hamilton by three-tenths, ahead of Rosberg, Vettel, and Button. Romain Grosjean sets the sixth-fastest time, ahead of Schumacher and Massa. It’s worth noting that the penultimate corner, turn 19, is causing a lot of trouble for the drivers: Vettel, Hamilton, and Button have all gone too wide there. The 2008 world champion records a 1:40.175, thus reclaiming the top spot. It should be noted that, at the moment, only Pedro de la Rosa has not set a time. His teammate for FP1 is Ma Qing Hua, who is the only third driver taking part in these initial trials. Narain Karthikeyan will have to, in addition to the usual re-acclimation work, learn a new track and start properly setting up his car, all during the second free practice session.

After one hour, Hamilton leads Button, Alonso, Kobayashi, and Rosberg. Grosjean, Schumacher, and Maldonado add themselves to the list of victims of turn 19, while some drivers seem to be doing their first stints with heavy fuel loads. The times are no longer improving, at least at the front of the pack. In the middle of the pack, Vettel is in an astonishing tenth place, but the German improves with each lap. He then takes fourth place, then second, two-tenths behind Hamilton. Alonso, for his part, falls two-thousandths short of the Red Bull driver.

Fifteen minutes from the end of these first free practice sessions of the United States GP since 2007, Hamilton improves the fastest time by half a tenth and thus consolidates his first place. The drivers are seeking the limits, still unknown to the track: Kovalainen and Hamilton respectively spin out and run too wide at the exits of turns 8 and 9. This does not hinder the Briton, who records 1:39.687 and, a few laps later, 1:39.543. This does not account for Vettel, who completes a lap in 1:38.692, with the best sectors 1 and 2, and takes the lead of the timing sheets for the first time. No one improves thereafter, except the double-champion himself, who shatters his previous time with 1:38.125, 1.4 seconds ahead of Hamilton and 2.2 seconds ahead of Alonso.

At the very end of the session, Kimi Räikkönen experiences a problem in the middle of the pit lane and stops his Lotus.

Free Practice 1 Classification of the 2012 United States Grand Prix: