Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso finished on top of the time sheets in a rather protracted first free practice session for the United States Grand Prix.

The session began by being delayed for 10 minutes due to dense fog and because the medical helicopter was not at the track. 40 Minutes after the scheduled start of FP1 the session began but was shortened to 1 hour. Drivers that were only running in FP1 were keen to get out on track and show what they can do. But 15 minutes into the session, the red flag was out again. Oddly enough, the medical helicopter had not yet arrived at the track.

After another long wait, the medical helicopter finally arrived at the track and the session was restarted. With just a little under 40 minutes of running all the drivers were out on track and setting times.

Alonso set a 1:38.343 to go quickest. McLaren’s Jenson Button finished the session in P2 with a 1:38.371, just 0.028s slower than Alonso. The surprise for the morning was Williams’ Valtteri Bottas who finished the session in P3 with a time of 1:38.388.

Hekki Kovalainen in his first outing for Lotus was 13th with a time of 1:39.487. His team mate, Romain Grosjean finished P11 with a 1:39.238, a gap of 0.105s to Kovalainene.  Not too bad for his first time driving a Lotus.

Rookie Daniil Kyat, driving the Toro Rosso, finished the session in 17th, his team mate Daniel Ricciardo 16th. The gap between the two was just 0.2s. Not to bad for a rookie that just recently obtained his super licence.

Below is the full timing sheet for FP1 for the 2013 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix