Montoya Quickest in Practice 1

Juan Pablo Montoya put his troubles behind him to set the pace at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Friday morning when he finished fastest in the opening practice session for Sunday's United States Grand Prix.

Montoya, who was disqualified from the last race in Canada after ignoring a red light at the exit of the pitlane, was back on top with a time of 1:12.027, a rare occasion that a race driver has topped the Friday times.

Toyota test driver Ricardo Zonta was on the pace again, setting the second fastest time of the morning and finishing just 0.058 seconds behind the lead McLaren with Fernando Alonso third for Renault some 0.639 seconds back.

Nick Heidfeld was fourth in the Williams, 0.777 seconds back, with Jenson Button, determined to get a podium this weekend, in fifth for BAR-Honda just ahead of McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa.

Spanish driver de la Rosa had set the early pace but soon after he set his lap time of 1:12.913 he pulled off the track at turn two and parked up to end his session early but his time was still good enough for sixth.

Takuma Sato made it two BAR-Hondas in the top seven with Giancarlo Fisichella eighth in the second Renault, Mark Webber ninth in the second Williams and World Champion Michael Schumacher just closing out the top ten for Ferrari.

Narain Karthikeyan pushed over the limit just before the halfway point and went off track at turn 11 then made another mistake two minutes later when he slid into the gravel trap at turn six but recovered to return to the pits.

Dutch driver Christijan Albers went off the track in his Minardi at turn four with 37 minutes gone and with 15 minutes to run De la Rosa was still in top spot with Alonso moving into second, Fisichella third and Button fourth.

Zonta finally moved ahead heading into the final ten minutes but Raikkonen, trying hard to put McLaren back on top, slid wide at turn 11 and went over the gravel on his first flying lap and failed to set a time in the session.

Montoya then went top with five minutes to run and under-pressure Villeneuve made a mistake and went over the gravel at turn 11 then Barrichello went off at turn one when distracted by Jenson Button behind him.

Pos  Driver        Team                  Time                  Laps
 1.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:12.027                6
 2.  Zonta         Toyota            (M)  1:12.085  +    0.058   18
 3.  Alonso        Renault           (M)  1:12.666  +    0.639   10
 4.  Heidfeld      Williams-BMW      (M)  1:12.804  +    0.777    9
 5.  Button        BAR-Honda         (M)  1:12.865  +    0.838   11
 6.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:12.913  +    0.886    4
 7.  Sato          BAR-Honda         (M)  1:13.013  +    0.986    9
 8.  Fisichella    Renault           (M)  1:13.024  +    0.997   10
 9.  Webber        Williams-BMW      (M)  1:13.082  +    1.055   10
10.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:13.242  +    1.215   12
11.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:13.245  +    1.218   12
12.  R.Schumacher  Toyota            (M)  1:13.461  +    1.434    7
13.  Trulli        Toyota            (M)  1:13.683  +    1.656    7
14.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:13.740  +    1.713    8
15.  Speed         Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:13.846  +    1.819   21
16.  Klien         Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:14.444  +    2.417    8
17.  Massa         Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:14.637  +    2.610    7
18.  Villeneuve    Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:14.696  +    2.669    6
19.  Karthikeyan   Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:14.803  +    2.776   18
20.  Monteiro      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:14.978  +    2.951   20
21.  Doornbos      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:15.791  +    3.764   27
22.  Friesacher    Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:16.343  +    4.316   16
23.  Albers        Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:16.357  +    4.330   12
24.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  No Time                 3

All timing unofficial