Vettel takes top time off Hamilton in first practice

2012 United States Grand Prix first practice

November 16, 2012 at 4:42 pm by Keith Collantine

Sebastian Vettel led the first practice session at the Circuit of the Americas by over a second.

His final two laps were the quickest of the session, the last putting him 1.4s clear of second-placed Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton led the way for much of the session but pitted a few laps before the end reporting a loss of grip from his front-left tyre. Fernando Alonso was third fastest for Ferrari, 2.2s slower than Vettel.

Lap times improved quickly throughout the 90 minutes of practice on the slippery track. Drivers reported very little grip when the session began.

Turn 19 was the most common scene of problems with driver after driver running wide at the corner. Vettel went off there more than once and Felipe Massa was one of several other drivers to have problems at the corner.

Nico Hulkenberg had two spins in his Force India, one of them at turn one at the top of the hill.

Ma Qing Hua was the only non-race driver to participate in the session, taking over from Narain Karthikeyan at HRT. He ended the session 1.7s slower than team mate Pedro de la Rosa.

Pos.	No.	Driver	Car	Best lap	Gap	Laps
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1’38.125		30
2	4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1’39.543	1.418	28
3	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1’40.337	2.212	29
4	3	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1’40.528	2.403	29
5	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1’40.650	2.525	30
6	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1’40.966	2.841	26
7	12	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1’41.023	2.898	29
8	14	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1’41.036	2.911	28
9	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1’41.159	3.034	32
10	15	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	1’41.473	3.348	29
11	11	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1’41.783	3.658	29
12	16	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’41.825	3.700	28
13	17	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’41.833	3.708	29
14	9	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus-Renault	1’41.880	3.755	23
15	10	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1’41.998	3.873	27
16	18	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1’42.539	4.414	30
17	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1’42.588	4.463	25
18	25	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth	1’43.288	5.163	23
19	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault	1’43.443	5.318	28
20	21	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham-Renault	1’43.522	5.397	23
21	24	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth	1’44.464	6.339	24
22	19	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault	1’44.548	6.423	29
23	22	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth	1’46.917	8.792	13
24	23	Ma Qing Hua	HRT-Cosworth	1’48.559	10.434	19

2012 United States Grand Prix

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56 comments on Vettel takes top time off Hamilton in first practice

schooner (@schooner) said on 16th November 2012, 17:37

The circuit looks great. All that artificial grass has me a bit concerned though. Hope they’ve got it glued down well!

- Max Jacobson (@vettel1) said on 16th November 2012, 17:56
  
  @schooner – good point, it may deter drivers form running wide possibly knowing what happened in Korea (although I doubt it)!
  
  - AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner) said on 16th November 2012, 18:05
    
    @schooner @vettel1 I can’t see them making the same mistake to be honest. The circuit will have been recently inspected so Whiting would have anything like that under control…I hope.
    
    - Max Jacobson (@vettel1) said on 16th November 2012, 18:20
      
      I hope too, turn 13 at Korea looked like a wet rugby pitch would look a.k.a destroyed!
      
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner) said on 16th November 2012, 18:02

HRT best be careful, they’re well outside the 107% threshold by around 2s. I’m sure they will improve and maybe such a long lap will go in their favour (less likelihood of too much traffic) but it’s something to keep an eye on.

Difficult to read into much else but we shouldn’t get excited by any times considering some drivers have barely even touched the circuit in a simulator.

- Max Jacobson (@vettel1) said on 16th November 2012, 18:44
  
  @andrewtanner – I think the gaps will probably decrease as the track rubbers in but yes that is a worrying sign for them; it doesn’t help that they have no money to develop! You never know though they might be saved by the front-runners trying to do a lap on the harder tyre in Q1.
  
  - AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner) said on 16th November 2012, 22:58
    
    @vettel1 That’s true about the harder tyres. I fully expect they will be OK but should they have a bad qualifying they might not have the FP results to allow for a dispensation.
    
Robbie (@robbie) said on 16th November 2012, 18:23

I wonder if even SV’s time is not that impressive for now as all teams might be thinking that until the track rubbers in and they get a bit of data going nobody wants to crash out and end up virtually qualifying and racing on a track that they have barely put any laps around. I think they will take more risks in the second session as it nears it’s second half so they can compile data, and if they make a mistake they will have time to fix the car for tomorrow but will at least have gotten some useful running in today.

racerdude7730 (@racerdude7730) said on 16th November 2012, 18:51

So what do you all think of the track? I think it looks AMAZING! Some of the helicopter shots from the front straight all the way back to turn 11 looks sick. Its like a roller coaster its so up and down. On a 1-10 i would give it a 9. Whats everyone ones opinion on your favorite and least favorite part? and to keep with the post topic i think they times will pull closer together but i think vet will have them all covered

azanardi said on 16th November 2012, 19:21

Any idea about Vettel’s last sector time ? It is almost 1s better than any other driver …

electrolite (@electrolite) said on 16th November 2012, 19:22

I’m reading nothing from any of this. First session, brand new track…