US GP – FRIDAY PRACTICE RESULTS – KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN SPACE

PRACTICE TWO

Report – Fernando and Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen finished the second free practice session for the United States Grand Prix in third and sixth places respectively. Temperatures had risen slightly since the morning, while the Scuderia Ferrari drivers continued working on set-up and were able to round off their tyre evaluation, also using the Soft compound in this session.

Fernando completed 29 laps this afternoon, the quickest in 1.40.189. Kimi did 32, the best being a 1.40.543. Both men ended the session with some long runs to simulate race conditions. Once again, Lewis Hamilton set the benchmark time of 1.39.085, with his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg second with a 1.39.088. In between the two Ferraris came the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo and Felipe Massa in the Williams.

Once again, in the second session, the Virtual Safety Car system was tried out. On the Ferrari front, it was Kimi Raikkonen’s turn to try out the FIA’s new safety measure.

FP2 Times:

Pos	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1m39.085s	–	18
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1m39.088s	0.003s	34
3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1m40.189s	1.104s	29
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	1m40.390s	1.305s	30
5	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	1m40.457s	1.372s	36
6	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1m40.543s	1.458s	32
7	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m40.631s	1.546s	34
8	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren/Mercedes	1m40.641s	1.556s	38
9	Jenson Button	McLaren/Mercedes	1m40.698s	1.613s	36
10	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India/Mercedes	1m40.800s	1.715s	25
11	Valtteri Bottas	Williams/Mercedes	1m40.828s	1.743s	37
12	Romain Grosjean	Lotus/Renault	1m41.054s	1.969s	31
13	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m41.110s	2.025s	36
14	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	1m41.123s	2.038s	35
15	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus/Renault	1m41.158s	2.073s	37
16	Adrian Sutil	Sauber/Ferrari	1m41.332s	2.247s	33
17	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber/Ferrari	1m41.420s	2.335s	34
18	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull/Renault	1m43.980s	4.895s	19

PRACTICE ONE

Report – Fernando Alonso was sixth and Kimi Raikkonen was twelfth come the end of the first session of free practice for the United States Grand Prix. The track was still damp at the start of the session, following overnight rain, while air and track temperatures were much lower than expected.
The Scuderia Ferrari drivers concentrated on set-up work and on evaluating the Medium Pirelli tyre. Both men also tested some parts on the car, completing 50 laps between them.

Fernando did 27 of them, the best in 1.41.065, while Kimi did 23, stopping the clocks with a 1.41.965. Fastest was Lewis Hamilton who managed a 1.39.941, with his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg second and Jenson Button third for McLaren.

At the end of the session, Alonso and several other drivers, tried the new Virtual Safety Car system, which the FIA is evaluating, and which involves drivers not dropping below a reference time when yellow flags are waved for an accident.

FP1 Times:

Pos	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1m39.941s	–	28
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1m40.233s	0.292s	32
3	Jenson Button	McLaren/Mercedes	1m40.319s	0.378s	27
4	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m40.887s	0.946s	33
5	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren/Mercedes	1m40.987s	1.046s	29
6	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1m41.065s	1.124s	27
7	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull/Renault	1m41.463s	1.522s	20
8	Luiz Felipe Nasr	Williams/Mercedes	1m41.545s	1.604s	19
9	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India/Mercedes	1m41.722s	1.781s	24
10	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m41.785s	1.844s	32
11	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	1m41.907s	1.966s	21
12	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1m41.965s	2.024s	23
13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus/Renault	1m42.329s	2.388s	28
14	Adrian Sutil	Sauber/Ferrari	1m42.333s	2.392s	23
15	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	1m42.359s	2.418s	23
16	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber/Ferrari	1m42.516s	2.575s	24
17	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	1m42.598s	2.657s	5
18	Romain Grosjean	Lotus/Renault	1m43.229s	3.288s	26

QUOTES

Kimi Raikkonen: “The day began with a few difficulties in the first free practice session, in which we concentrated on analysing various aerodynamic components. I did not feel comfortable with the set-up we had and controlling the car wasn’t easy. In the afternoon, we made some changes and the handling of the car was definitely better. On the Medium compound, I managed to do a good lap and I think if I had not been held up in traffic, I could have done even better. We still have a lot of work to do before tomorrow’s qualifying, but the improvement we saw from one session to the next seems to indicate we are going in the right direction. We just have to continue doing our best.”

Pat Fry: “Contrary to what we saw at the two previous races here, today the track surface was less slippery and that means we can expect a further evolution in terms of grip. However, before we can confirm anything, we must wait and see over the next couple of days. Overall, it’s been a positive day and we managed to complete our planned programme without any problems, including carrying out some tests aimed at 2015. Obviously, the priority was working on the settings of the two cars, looking at finding the best aerodynamic configuration, working on the power unit control units, so as to adapt them as well as possible to the characteristics of this track. It wasn’t easy finding the right balance and a set-up that suited both drivers, partly down to the strong winds which had a major effect during the second session. This evening, the engineers will assess the various solutions we tried today. Tyre behaviour is definitely different to the last race in Sochi: this means we can look at different strategies for the race, while we are aware that we are up against extremely competitive opponents.”