Round 10: United States Grand Prix

Indianapolis is another distinct circuit like that of the Canadian GP. They are marked by their long straights and slow corners. Indy boast the longest straight in F1 and the longest amount of time on the throttle. Formula1.com has a good brief history of the track and it's F1 heritage.

The oldest track still in use today, Indianapolis is a true motor sport institution. Built in 1908, the original track cost $75,000 to build and was originally constructed of crushed stone and tar. Following a spate of accidents however, the decision was taken to replace the surface with bricks: 3.2 million of them to be precise. Thus the legend of 'the brickyard' was born.

The first Indianapolis 500 took place in 1911 and when Formula One was incepted in 1950, the Indy 500 was a championship round. And so it remained for 11 seasons, its final running as a Formula One event coming in 1960. Formula One teams carried on turning up to Indy for the fun of it and, following the resurfacing of the brickyard in asphalt in the early '60s, the rear-engined cars of Lotus blew the chunky American roadsters out of the water. Jim Clark scored a memorable victory in 1965 and Graham Hill took the spoils in 1966.

In 1998 Indianapolis made a deal with Formula One to host a round of the World Championship again. A brand new infield course was constructed and in 2000, almost a century after the track was built, Formula One racing returned to the world's most revered circuit. With the sport building its fan base up in America every year, this is one race that looks sure to go from strength to strength.

Here we are all together after qualy in the main grandstand along the start/finish straight.

There were pit girls all over the race plaza to take pictures with the fans. Tex turned the photo op into a photo shoot, and the grid girl was loving it. As you can see I was really working the camera as well.

Luke posing with the Michelin man in the same plaza.

Scott Speed pushing hard in Friday practice, representing Americans in Formula 1. He would go on the qualify in 12th place, his best result to date.

Montoya during Friday practice getting round a Midland. He would go on the qualify 11th just outside of the final session.

Dornboos torturing his tires in the Toro Rosso during his Friday duties. That won't make for much useful data.

All the big guns line up at the end of the pit lane waiting for the final qualy session to begin. Alonso would beat Schumi to the first corner, although he would eventually be passed by him and Massa as they cruised around burning off their fuel.


Kimi would also have an off weekend by only qualifying in 9th place, nearly 2 seconds off the pole time.
Nico Rosberg would have a dismal qualy session, knocked out in the first round. No specific problem was announced however the fast rookie was slower that the Super Aguri of Takuma Sato.




Rubens Barichello helps Honda get both of their cars into the top 10

Below are the qualy time for all of the drivers. So, make those picks..