15/06/2007
NEWS STORY
Hot on the heels of Montreal's podium, AT&T Williams opened their United States Grand Prix weekend with two positive free practice sessions today at the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway. With no GP2 commitments in Indy, Kazuki Nakajima returned to the cockpit for the first of the practice sessions alongside Nico Rosberg. The pair enjoyed a trouble free morning, setting the 12th and 6th fastest times respectively while working through set-up options. Alex, who joined Nico for the afternoon session, lost time with an oil leak but both the drivers successfully worked through a comprehensive programme in preparation for tomorrow's qualifying and the race.
Nico Rosberg: Practice was pretty good. I was encouraged by the car as soon as I went out on the track and just really enjoyed myself. It looks like some of the problems that we've been experiencing at other tracks this season just weren't there today. That is a very good feeling. We now have a strong platform to work from to go into qualifying tomorrow. We've obviously made progress and didn't look bad at all.
Alex Wurz: I just drove in second practice today on the used set of tyres from Kazuki's run in the morning. Just as I was starting to get into a rhythm and tune the car in, I had a gearbox oil leak. That lost us about half an hour so it was a real rush at the end to get some timed laps in. Despite the setback, we have a good idea as to the set-up we'll go for, we will just have to wait and see now how qualifying goes.
Kazuki Nakajima: Throughout the morning session we worked on the car's balance and various different set-up options. It all went well and I'm particularly happy because I completed the programme as planned. This was my first time at Indy so going round the banking was pretty exciting, but then you get used to it and it becomes normal. It's a fairly challenging track, due to the twisty and slow speed sectors, but it's just a legendary circuit to drive.
Rod Nelson, Chief Operations Engineer: A reasonably normal Friday morning. Kazuki was driving the T-car in the first session, as is normal when there isn't a GP2 race. He gave us some useful feedback on set-up direction and had a first look at the tyres. Nico, who drove in both sessions, did a good job looking at aero levels to gauge where to go for the race. We also carried out some mechanical set-up work, which we transferred over to Alex's car for session two. Unfortunately, Alex had a slightly more fraught session in the afternoon as we had a problem with a gearbox oil leak which limited our track time, but he did a good job with the little running he had.
To check out our Indianapolis practice gallery, click here