At least Kimi Raikkonen had faced the NASCAR Cup experience once before, arriving at the Circuit of the Americas having been booted out of last year’s race at Watkins Glen and into the tyrewall, so at least he knew what he could expect.
Fellow F1 world champion Jenson Button joined him at COTA, and they were quickly lapping at a decent pace in practice and qualifying – where the pair were separated by just 0.033s – but would start outside of the top 20.
