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Formula 1 news, results and statistics when you need it |
2001
United States Grand Prix Second Friday Practice Session |
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Second Friday Practice Session Report - ResultsMika Hakkinen sets the fastest time of the session ahead of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello. David Coulthard, Eddie Irvine and Nick Heidfeld make the top 6. Mika Hakkinen went straight to the top of the timesheets early in the session after suffering major problems with his car during the first session. Michael Schumacher took first place shortly afterwards and remained at the top for most of the session until Hakkinen on fresh tyres managed to go faster. Hakkinen's fastest time today was just under 0.9 seconds faster than the Pole time of last year. Looking at the timesheets, the field is extremely close here with under 0.3 seconds separating the top 4, less than 0.6 seconds separating the top 10 and less than a second separating the top 15. So the order doesn't indicate much given that the teams are running different programmes today. The track temperature remained relatively low but despite that the Michelin runners didn't appear to be at a disadvantage. With higher temperatures expected on Saturday and Sunday, expect the tyres to play a crucial role. Several drivers ran into problems during the session with Verstappen suffering an engine failure and stopping on the track. Frentzen suffered a problem that slowed him down forcing him to return to the pits and limiting his running time. Fisichella spun and got stock in the gravel while Enge spun and stalled and Villeneuve continued to struggle only managing to set the 18th best time in the final 10 minutes of the session. Olivier Panis covered the most number of laps with 30 followed by Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello with 29 laps each. Fisichella only managed 4 laps while Verstappen only managed 9 laps and Frentzen covering 13 laps. Overall today Irvine and Panis covered 52 laps followed by de la Rosa with 50.Fisichella only managed 21 laps while Verstappen covered 26. If the field remains this close during the 2 practice sessions tomorrow, expect an exciting and slightly unpredictable grid! Almost a third of the field are new to this track with Montoya, Raikkonen, Panis, Enge, Alonso, Bernoldi and Yoong all driving here for the first time. The session was run under partly cloudy conditions with an average air temperature of 16 degrees.
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