Formula One news

Vettel and Heidfeld on the pace at Indy

Sebastian Vettel showed he is ready and well on the pace in his first outing as Formula 1 racing driver. The 19-year-old German ended fourth in the first free practice session and 11th in the second session. Heidfeld finished in the top five in both sessions.

Sebastian Vettel, who steps in for Robert Kubica in Indianapolis, used the sessions to familiarize himself with the car again and learn the track, which is new to him. He did a total of 83 laps, which was more than anybody else. "Obviously today it was going quite well," said Vettel. "We did a lot of mileage and we were able to find out quite a bit about the tyres and the set-up of the car. We have just been trying to progress. I think it is a normal Friday. Of course it is a completely new task for me but so far I am quite happy with what I did. I think now is about working together with the team to find the maximum for tomorrow and Sunday.

"I don't have expectations as today it was important to get used to the car again as the last time I drove it was Friday in Malaysia. The car is not so bad as you could see we were quite quick in Montreal, and here also it doesn't look so bad. I thought the track was quite good with a nice rhythm, and it is quite interesting to drive with the banking. After a couple of times you get quite used to it but it is fun."

Nick Heidfeld said about today's job: "After the first session we looked pretty good on the results sheet, but that was only on the sheet I'm afraid. I don't know who ran on which fuel load and used new tyres. But in any case this morning I was already unhappy with the balance of the car and there was very little improvement this afternoon. We haven't managed yet to get the tyres to work properly. The car is just sliding too much, but we are working on that."

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