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2001 United States Grand Prix 
First Friday Practice Session  

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First Friday Practice Session Report - Results

Michael Schumacher sets the fastest time of the session ahead of David Coulthard and Rubens Barrichello. All three drivers have already gone faster than the Pole position time set here last year. An impressive Giancarlo Fisichella in the much improved Benetton was 4th ahead of the Sauber pair of Kimi Raikkonen and Nick Heidfeld.

For most of the session, the Ferrari duo of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello dominated the session and it was only in the final few minutes that David Coulthard managed to match their pace. It remains to be seen whether Coulthard has set his time on a lighter fuel load than the Ferraris.

The session started fairly quiet with the slower teams going out and laying the rubber on the track. Bernoldi topped the timesheets early in the session until Kimi Raikkonen in his first appearance here went faster. Jenson Button then went fastest showing the potential of the Benetton. But once Michael Schumacher took to the track he topped the timesheets and shared the top spot with Barrichello until the end of the session with Coulthard topping the timesheet for a couple on minutes towards the end of the session.

So far it looks like Ferrari and McLaren are strong with Benetton and Sauber not to far behind. Williams who are expected to be strong here appear to be struggling with the compromise between the high speed oval section and the slower infield section but Williams have shown us so many times that they tend to improve dramatically through the weekend. It doesn't look like Williams are struggling with their Michelin tyres as Benetton seem to be up there and are also running Michelin tyres. Once the temperature goes up - which is forecast for the weekend - the Michelin tyres might prove very strong here.

Huge disappointment for Alesi and Villeneuve both struggling this session with Alesi in 19th and Villeneuve in 21st. Their team-mates did much better with Trulli once again the fastest of the Honda runners in 7th while Panis is in a reasonable 13th place compared to his team-mate.

There were several spins particularly from Trulli who spun 3 times but Coulthard, Montoya and Yoong where among those who also spun. Mika Hakkinen had problems with his car and only managed to set a time lap in the final minutes of the session!.

Eddie Irvine covered the most number of laps with 26 followed by Pedro de la Rosa with 25 and Heinz Harald Frentzen with 24. Mika Hakkinen only managed 4 laps while Jean Alesi covered 13 laps. All other drivers set a time between 14 and 23 laps.

The session was run under partly cloudy conditions with an average air temperature of 14 degrees.

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