Coulthard encouraged by practice times

Coulthard kicked off his preparations for the Indianapolis race in promising style after finishing the afternoon session with the sixth fastest time.

"They were pretty hectic sessions today," said Coulthard. "We have very high track temperatures and with the low down force that we run here, the car's quite tricky to drive.

"I didn't actually go off the circuit, but there were a lot of moments. The times are encouraging."

Teammate Mark Webber's day was not so positive after the Australian was unable to complete his programme due to a gearbox failure.

Webber posted the 12th fastest time.

"Today didn't quite go to plan, especially in terms of completing our programme," said Webber. "We were working quite hard on the balance, trying to adjust it and get it to a place where I was happy with it.

"We needed a bit more track time, but then we had a transmission failure, which cut short the day. It's pretty tight between all the cars, it always is round here, so now we'll just look to tomorrow."