Fernando Alonso topped the timing screens at the end of the first free practice session of the United States Grand Prix weekend, at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
Dense fog caused a half hour delay to the start of proceedings, and when they finally got underway the running was brief before the red flag waved to stop the action, because the medical helicopter was not at the venue for some odd reason the result was that what should have been a typical 90 session was truncated to around half an hour.
Alonso, who was nursing a back injury, set the session best in the opening laps, but it quickly became apparent that the likes of Red Bull, Mercedes and Lotus were not trying to go for hot laps in the limited remaining time.
| Pos. | Drivers | Teams | Time | Laps |
| 01. |  Fernando Alonso |
Scuderia Ferrari | 1:38.343 | 16 |
| 02. |  Jenson Button |
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes | 1:38.371 | 25 |
| 03. |  Valtteri Bottas |
Williams F1 | 1:38.388 | 17 |
| 04. |  Esteban Gutiérrez |
Sauber F1 | 1:38.532 | 18 |
| 05. |  Nico Rosberg |
Mercedes AMG Petronas | 1:38.657 | 21 |
| 06. | Lewis Hamilton |
Mercedes AMG Petronas | 1:38.979 | 21 |
| 07. |  Felipe Massa |
Scuderia Ferrari | 1:39.005 | 17 |
| 08. |  Mark Webber |
Red Bull Racing | 1:39.083 | 17 |
| 09. | Nico Hulkenberg |
Sauber F1 | 1:39.158 | 17 |
| 10. |  Pastor Maldonado |
Williams F1 | 1:39.200 | 15 |
| 11. |  Romain Grosjean |
Lotus F1 | 1:39.238 | 13 |
| 12. | Sergio Perez |
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes | 1:39.256 | 17 |
| 13. | Heikki Kovalainen |
Lotus F1 | 1:39.487 | 18 |
| 14. | Adrian Sutil |
Sahara Force India | 1:39.699 | 15 |
| 15. | Paul di Resta |
Sahara Force India | 1:39.836 | 15 |
| 16. | Daniel Ricciardo |
Scuderia Toro Rosso | 1:39.863 | 19 |
| 17. |  Daniil Kvyat |
Scuderia Toro Rosso | 1:40.065 | 20 |
| 18. | Sebastian Vettel |
Red Bull Racing | 1:40.662 | 21 |
| 19. |  Alexander Rossi |
Caterham F1 Team | 1:41.399 | 21 |
| 20. | Max Chilton |
Marussia F1 | 1:41.605 | 19 |
| 21. | Charles Pic |
Caterham F1 Team | 1:42.054 | 19 |
| 22. | Rodolfo Gonzales |
Marussia F1 | 1:43.716 | 17 |
