Mercedes sets the pace in Texas

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg are setting have set the pace during the first 3 practices in Austin, Texas. With many concerns about reliability issues coming into effect for the last 3 races, the drivers set into the first three sessions (Practice Sessions) to try and find the best set up for both racing and qualifying. First victim, already announced, Sebastian Vettel, with a new power unit that will see him starting from the pitlane and that is the reason in the following chart with the practice times you will see him mostly on the bottom as he limited only on setting the car for race pace only, not qualifying. This could definetely work to his advantage, because he is investing all of his time in practice towards a specific set un instead of going for two, this and a good strategy will definetely be on his favor if perfected by Red Bull.

The rest of the times mark the contenders as they should be marked according to the results and showings this year, Williams follow the Mercedes, Alonso, Ricciardo and Hulkenberg follow with very similar times for Ferrari, Red Bull and Force India, then a very optimistic Adrian Sutil managed to put an underdog (this season) Sauber in 8th place, clearle denoting an improving package as they focus on the 2015. Another team that has focused its efforts on 2015 is McLaren, with Button and Magnussen proving to be competitive and definetely focusing on race pace, so don´t missjudge them from their practice times just yet. Maldonado and Grosjean are improving with the Lotus and are close to the midfield. Mexican drivers Gutierrez and Perez for Sauber and Force India also focused on race pace and so it should be a killing qualigying session with all these drivers in very similar times.

Caterham and Marussia are absent from the USGP due to financial difficulties, so the qualifying will take 4 from the 18 drivers off in the first session, then another 4 to leave 10 for the final 15 minutes. All drivers have expressed their joy to race at COTA, a circuit that flows and allows for a lot of overtaking so it pretty much looks set to be a very interesting and exciting race.