Juan Pablo Montoya is doing everything in his power to erase his memories of being excluded from last weeks’ Canadian Grand Prix.
Montoya followed up his morning speed with the fastest time (1:11.118) during Friday afternoon practice for the United States Grand Prix.
McLaren were the fastest team throughout the second one hour timed session. Kimi Raikkonen was right behind his team-mate Montoya as he went on to set the second best time at 1:11.228.
Ferrari used their Canadian double podium result as momentum going into the USGP round.
With the circuit temperature dropping from 50 degrees to 41 during the session, Rubens Barrichello (1:11.746) and Michael Schumacher (1:11.758) put their Ferrari’s into third and fourth positions.
The session was marred by a major shunt that appeared to be the cause of a Michelin tyre failure.
Toyota were at the centre of the action with Ricardo Zonta spinning before Ralf Schumacher smashed into the Indy barriers.
As in 2004, Ralf was pushing his car through the Indy first short shoot when his left rear tyre failed causing the German to hit the wall at the banked 13th corner. However, unlike last year, Ralf managed to pull himself from the stricken TF105 and will continue driving this weekend.
As the circuit was cleared Michelin made the extraodinary step of ordering all of their runners to add air pressure to their rear tyres.
After a 30-minute pause the action resumed and Nick Heidfeld (1:11.825) secured fifth place for Williams.
Red Bull Racing showed promise with David Coulthard going six fastest before he was troubled by gearbox problems.
American Scott Speed spent the majority of the afternoon testing the tyre compound that Red Bull will use for the rest of the weekend.
During his 34 lap afternoon run he put his Cosworth powered car up to eighth place (1:12.143) despite being held up by Sauber’s Jacques Villeneuve for most of the lap.
Title race leaders Renault, ullike Scott, didn't seem to have the speed to battle at the top.
Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella finished in ninth and 11th positions.
Written: Fri, 17 Jun 2005 21:00:13
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