Rossi not feeling under pressure after F1 début

Alexander Rossi has said he's not feeling under any extra pressure heading into his second F1 weekend despite his home race being just four weeks away.

As the first American to race in Formula One since Scott Speed in 2007 he will surely be the focus of attention when it comes to the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas next month, but he doesn't think the home fans will have unrealistic expectations of what he can achieve there.

"People understand the sport and understand that sometimes you're not in a position to be anywhere near the front. That's just the way Formula One works sometimes," said the Manor Marussia F1 driver.

"I don't think anyone's expecting me to go there and be able to get on the podium or in the points or anything."

This weekend will be Rossi's last opportunity in the car before his home race, as Russia will see him revert to his other day job back in the GP2 Series in which Rossi is still in second place in the drivers' championship behind McLaren test and development driver Stoffel Vandoorne.

Despite the odd glitch or two last week - the 23-year-old Californian was still kicking himself for his error in FP1 in Singapore that cut down his practice time - his maiden Grand Prix weekend as a whole went well for Rossi.

"It was good. I think everyone was pleased with how it went, and I think that it got people pretty excited about Austin which is obviously the goal.

"I think it was a very positive reception and I hope that it goes someway to increasing the reception in Austin and the amount of people that come and just the general overall quality of the event for the fans and spectators."

Although he's not raced at Suzuka before and has only had limited time in a simulator from when he was a test and reserve driver with Caterham two years ago, Rossi is banking on on a boost from all the new experience he has acquired having completing a full race distance last weekend.

"After two hours of driving the car consecutively you learn quite a bit about it and pick up on little characteristics and how to drive around elements of the car.

"I feel like I have a whole new starting platform as to where I'm at," he added. "I think I'm going into tomorrow with a whole new understanding and I think that the learning curve is just going up from here."

And Rossi is certainly hoping that this weekend he won't be inadvertently thrown into the deep end in the same way that he was in Singapore when his radio failed mid-race leaving him all on his own in his Formula One début.

"It was hard. I had to remember quite a bit of the drivers' manual that I wasn't expecting to have to!" he laughed. "The team got quite creative with making words up on the pit board - I've been racing for 13 years and never used the pit board before, so I did learn something.

"It was something as simple as the cable came unplugged. It wasn't any massive catastrophic thing, it was just a cable. It happened after the second pit stop which I'm thankful for so it was just about managing the car at that point it wasn't about making strategy decisions.

"It was alright, it actually wasn't that bad. We were able to manage it just fine."

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