Red Bull comfortably quickest in second practice

2013 United States Grand Prix second practice

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Sebastian Vettel led a Red Bull one-two in the second practice session at the Circuit of the Americas.

They enjoyed the best part of half a second in hand over their closest rival, Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes. Team mate Nico Rosberg was fourth.

Heikki Kovalainen was next, ending his first day of running for Lotus in fifth place. The two Sauber drivers separated him from team mate Romain Grosjean.

McLaren were the fifth-fastest team courtesy of Jenson Button while Fernando Alonso could only manage tenth for Ferrari, over a second off Vettel’s pace.

Several drivers reported poor grip during the session. Daniel Ricciardo complained of traction problems at turn one and Paul di Resta said his car’s grip level was “absolutely shocking”.

Pastor Maldonado was especially blunt with Williams, who he will be leaving at the end of the year. Asked to give his comments on the FW35 halfway through the session he simply replied “everything is wrong”.

For the second session in a row a Marussia driver came to grief in the final ten minutes. This time it was Max Chilton, who spun off at the final corner.

“I just had complete brake failure,” he said, “the pedal went completely to the floor”. He had described a brake problem earlier in the session but the team weren’t able to pinpoint it on their telemetry.

The marshals took several minutes to recover Chilton’s car, causing some frustration among the drivers still circulating. “Jesus, how long do they need to get that car away?” asked an exasperated Hulkenberg. The Marussia was eventually moved clear moments before the chequered flag came out.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
11Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’37.30535
22Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’37.4200.11537
39Nico RosbergMercedes1’37.7850.48038
410Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’37.9580.65338
57Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault1’38.0730.76841
612Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’38.2290.92440
711Nico HulkenbergSauber-Ferrari1’38.2540.94940
88Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’38.2550.95033
95Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’38.2690.96434
103Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’38.4611.15633
1115Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’38.7191.41431
124Felipe MassaFerrari1’38.9381.63337
136Sergio PerezMcLaren-Mercedes1’38.9411.63631
1419Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari1’39.2461.94128
1514Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’39.4102.10534
1617Valtteri BottasWilliams-Renault1’39.5122.20737
1718Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari1’39.5792.27436
1816Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault1’39.7842.47933
1920Charles PicCaterham-Renault1’40.3763.07139
2021Giedo van der GardeCaterham-Renault1’40.5633.25835
2123Max ChiltonMarussia-Cosworth1’46.2268.92131
2222Jules BianchiMarussia-Cosworth1’47.98710.68220

2013 United States Grand Prix

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Image © Red Bull/Getty

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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27 comments on “Red Bull comfortably quickest in second practice”

  1. Love the image!

    1. Stunner indeed!

  2. This looks like a battle between Webber and Vettel. Both of them evenly matched on both long and short runs. Unbelivable how both RB’s were quicker in the final sector by at least HALF A SECOND on both Mercedes drivers.
    Looks like Rosberg or Hamilton for 3rd and 4th come Sunday. If this happens, this should satisfy both of them. Or as Rosberg said last race, “depends on how Mark’s luck is”.
    Kovalainen!!! Not bad for this guy eh? 4th and just a 2 tenths of the 2 Mercedes.

    1. Nick Jarvis (@)
      15th November 2013, 20:36

      I actually hope Kovalainen gets the seat over Hulkenburg now. I love Kovalainen, but I could never see any chance of him going anywhere other than Caterham or maybe Force India.

      1. That’s a very audacious hope @nickj95gb: based on a couple of practice sessions? Come on.

        1. (@vettel1 (@nickj95gb
          All of you this is how it will end:

          Heikki: To Lotus
          Hulkenberg: Ditch out of F1. :P :P

          LOL

        2. petebaldwin (@)
          15th November 2013, 20:57

          Very much so but it’s certainly a good start. You’d forgive him for being at least a second slower than Grosjean at this point.

      2. Kovalainen is 32 years old though. It makes more sense to develop and refine a younger rookie.

      3. Heikki’s had his chance at a top team, but unfortuntaly couldn’t impress. Nico has not yet had that chance. Nico more deserves a first chance, than Heikki a second chance.

    2. “normal service has resumed”

  3. petebaldwin (@)
    15th November 2013, 20:36

    Seb to be 5 seconds clear by lap 3, Hamilton to have a poor start from 4th and end up 6th and struggle for the rest of the race. It’ll end up Vettel, Webber, Rosberg with Grosjean 4th.

    1. (@petebaldwin

      Mate, Hamilton had 2 cracks of floor damage to his car in the last race to put that clear…

      1. petebaldwin (@)
        15th November 2013, 20:43

        Yeah I know – having said that he isn’t on the pace of Rosberg just yet and despite getting off the line well recently, he gets blocked by Vettel every time and ends up getting swallowed up by a Lotus or Ferrari.

        Once that happens, he seems to lose interest. I’d love it to be different this time

  4. Kovalainen has proved me wrong, I hope he can keep this up tomorrow and get a P5/P4 start, maybe a podium is possible.

  5. I just realised the Lotus team have two Race of Champion drivers. Kov is lookin good!

  6. They enjoyed the best part of half a second in hand over their closest rival, Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes. Team mate Nico Rosberg was fourth.

    The Mercedes drivers appear to be the wrong way around.

    1. Well it’s better than what Autosport did, they accidentally wrote Kimi in P5 instead of Heikki.

  7. Now that’s a surprise from Heikki !

    1. Well the fat-lady aint sung yet but it does tend to indicate how distorted the driver market is right now.

      1. @hohum sure, it’s only practice, but I expected him to be uncomfortable with the car and all, but he adapted very quickly !

    2. petebaldwin (@)
      15th November 2013, 20:55

      I wonder if that’s sparked the interest of a few teams…. If he can beat Grosjean (and he hasn’t yet to be fair), surely he has to be in with a shout at Sauber and Force India at least?

  8. They enjoyed the best part of half a second in hand over their closest rival, Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes. Team mate Nico Rosberg was fourth.

    @keithcollantine That’s not what the table says, which is right?

  9. You’ve got to remember that if you were Kovalainen, you’d out there giving it some in every single session, even the practices! But still, absolutely solid.

  10. Well if Hekkie is slower than Hulk, then it would be in Romans interest to ensure he gets the easier of the two possible drivers next year. One way to do that is to make Hekki look good!

  11. unbelievable how the negative-nellies are still out for Kovalainen. He just did a solid run and showed his speed and professionalism in a car he’s driven for the first time today. That he beat his teammate is a nice cherry on top of the cake. The man can drive when given a chance.

  12. Ferrari – Completely going wrong..really a team which has huge success is absolutely struggling to get their drivers in the top 10..Really am not sure what exactly is happening with the Ferrari..

    Also 2012 car is the best one compared to the 2013 which by look is the best but in rest absolutely worst..I guess they selected Raikkonen atleast to win the constructors championship..maybe atleast in that angle their dream might come true..If this is the case of the car then winning a Driver’s Title is almost impossible even in 2014 due to Seb’s Current dominance

  13. Ferrari – Completely going wrong..really a team which has huge success is absolutely struggling to get their drivers in the top 10..Really am not sure what exactly is happening with the Ferrari..

    Also 2012 car is the best one compared to the 2013 which by look is the best but in rest absolutely worst..I guess they selected Raikkonen atleast to win the constructors championship..maybe atleast in that angle their dream might come true..If this is the case of the car in the next coming years as well then winning a Driver’s Title is almost impossible for Ferrari due to Seb’s Current dominance

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