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US GP: Sebastian Vettel puts Red Bull on top in Austin practice

Sebastian Vettel led the way for Red Bull in the opening practice session for the United States Grand Prix at the brand new Austin circuit on Friday

Lewis Hamilton ended up second for McLaren, over a second down on Vettel, with Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button and Mark Webber rounding out the top five.

Positions and times are likely to prove irrelevant however as the very green circuit continues to rubber-in - and teams and drivers continue to acclimatise - as the weekend progresses.

The honour of christening the circuit fell to Abu Dhabi Grand Prix winner Kimi Raikkonen, who led a host of drivers out on early, and very tentative, exploratory laps.

Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi meanwhile completed the first flying lap, a very modest 1m54.846s.

That benchmark fell rapidly: next time around he was already more than six seconds faster, while within a quarter of an hour Webber had moved it on by a full 11 seconds, dropping down to a 1m43.672s.

Still though the track was treacherous, with a litany of small offs and rear wheel drifts punctuating the action.

The trend continued even when championship rivals Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso and the two McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button entered the fray in earnest around the one hour mark.

Of the quartet it was Alonso who was up to speed fastest, the Ferrari man lowering the benchmark to a 1m42.538s.

Hamilton was quickly up to speed however, becoming the first man to drop into the 1m40s at the session's halfway mark.

At the same time Nico Hulkenberg enjoyed the dubious honour of becoming the first man to spin at Austin, losing the rear of his Force India as he crested the blind Turn 1 apex. Sergio Perez also had a wild moment as his rear broke traction coming into the pits, although he was able to save the slide.

Alonso and Hamilton swapped top spot again as the session wore on, with the Briton pushing hard enough to run wide at Turn 19. He was not alone however: Vettel, Felipe Massa and a litany of other drivers fell foul of the quick left-hander across the session.

Heading into the final 15 minutes Hamilton suddenly surged clear, a blistering 1m39.687s - from which he then shaved a further 0.1s - moving him over half a second clear of the field.

It appeared that would be enough to keep him top, but with three minutes to go championship leader Vettel celebrated the opening of his 100th grand prix by seizing control.

The German had already proved mighty in the first sector, but was able to improve massively in the second and third splits as he blitzed the field with a 1m38.125s set as the flag fell.

No one else had either the time to muster an answer, leaving Vettel comfortably clear of the chasing pack.

Felipe Massa claimed sixth as the flag fell, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, Kamui Kobayashi and Nico Rosberg, running a non-coanda effect exhaust layout for comparative purposes.

Perez rounded out the top 10 ahead of the second Force India of Paul di Resta, Toro Rosso pair Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne and Raikkonen, who had to be wheeled down the pitlane as the session finished.

Pastor Maldonado finished as the fastest Williams in 16th, while Marussia's Charles Pic claimed the 'best of the rest' tag in 18th ahead of Caterham's Heikki Kovalainen.


Pos  Driver              Team                   Time                 Laps
 1.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault       1m38.125s             30
 2.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes       1m39.543s  + 1.418s   28
 3.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari                1m40.337s  + 2.212s   29
 4.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes       1m40.528s  + 2.403s   29
 5.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1m40.650s  + 2.525s   30
 6.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari                1m40.966s  + 2.841s   26
 7.  Nico Hulkenberg     Force India-Mercedes   1m41.023s  + 2.898s   29
 8.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari         1m41.036s  + 2.911s   28
 9.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes               1m41.159s  + 3.034s   32
10.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari         1m41.473s  + 3.348s   29
11.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes   1m41.783s  + 3.658s   29
12.  Daniel Ricciardo    Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m41.825s  + 3.700s   28
13.  Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m41.833s  + 3.708s   29
14.  Kimi Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault          1m41.880s  + 3.755s   23
15.  Romain Grosjean     Lotus-Renault          1m41.998s  + 3.873s   27
16.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Renault       1m42.539s  + 4.414s   30
17.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes               1m42.588s  + 4.463s   25
18.  Charles Pic         Marussia-Cosworth      1m43.288s  + 5.163s   23
19.  Heikki Kovalainen   Caterham-Renault       1m43.443s  + 5.318s   28
20.  Vitaly Petrov       Caterham-Renault       1m43.522s  + 5.397s   23
21.  Timo Glock          Marussia-Cosworth      1m44.464s  + 6.339s   24
22.  Bruno Senna         Williams-Renault       1m44.548s  + 6.423s   29
23.  Pedro de la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth           1m46.917s  + 8.792s   13
24.  Ma Qing Hua         HRT-Cosworth           1m48.559s  + 10.434s  19

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