Alonso tops opening practice in Austin

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was fastest in the fog delayed opening practice of the USGP in Austin. His lap of 1m38.343s topped Jenson Button's McLaren and Valtteri Bottas in the Williams. Esteban Gutierrez was fourth fastest for Sauber ahead of Mercedes' Nico Rosberg.

Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel was down in 18th position and it was assumed he was running on full tanks.

American Alexander Rossi was down in 19th place in the slug Caterham. However, he was 0.7s faster than his teammate Charles Pic who has been a regular driver all year, which means Rossi has the speed to be an F1 driver, and he is always faster than his teammate in every series, but being straddled with Caterham means his career is going nowhere fast – an incredible waste of a talent.

Results

Pos Driver Team Time Behind Laps
1. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m38.343s +0.000s 16
2. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m38.371s +0.028s 25
3. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 1m38.388s +0.045s 17
4. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1m38.532s +0.189s 18
5. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m38.657s +0.314s 21
6. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m38.979s +0.636s 21
7. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m39.005s +0.662s 17
8. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m39.083s +0.740s 17
9. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 1m39.158s +0.815s 17
10. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m39.200s +0.857s 15
11. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m39.238s +0.895s 13
12. Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes 1m39.256s +0.913s 17
13. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1m39.487s +1.144s 18
14. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m39.699s +1.356s 15
15. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m39.836s +1.493s 15
16. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m39.863s +1.520s 19
17. Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m40.065s +1.722s 20
18. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m40.662s +2.319s 21
19. Alexander Rossi Caterham-Renault 1m41.399s +3.056s 21
20. Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 1m41.605s +3.262s 19
21. Charles Pic Caterham-Renault 1m42.054s +3.711s 19
22. Rodolfo Gonzalez Marussia-Cosworth 1m43.716s +5.373s 17