Heidfeld Happy after Promising Start

German Nick Heidfeld enjoyed a promising start to his United States Grand Prix on Friday at the Indianapolis circuit, where the Sauber driver set the sixth quickest time of the day.

Heidfeld, who is currently in eighth place in the drivers' standings with eleven points in fifteen races, continued with his impressive form, finishing the session less than half a second off the quickest time, set by Finn Mika Hakkinen in the McLaren.

The 24-year old was pleased with his progress at the historic circuit, and after a trouble-free day, Heidfeld revealed he was also able to work on set-up for Sunday's race.

"I'm happy with sixth place, especially since we were able to run near the front all day," said Heidfeld. "We made a lot of changes to the car during the two sessions, and most of them made it better. With the car running so reliably today we were able to get a lot of race preparation work done."

Teammate Kimi Raikkonen, who announced at the Italian Grand Prix that he will drive for McLaren in 2002, was exactly two tenths of a second slower than Heidfeld, but in a very close session, the young Finn finished the day in 11th place. Despite that, Raikkonen was also happy with his performance at Indianapolis, where he drove today for the first time.

"We did everything that we had planned in the two hours that we ran today, and worked on little things in the set-up," Raikkonen said. "I'm satisfied with what we achieved. It's an interesting track, but the banked final corner is really just part of the straight because it's flat out all the way."