The Silver Arrows did not have an easy morning with both drivers struggling with the car during FP1, leading to spins for Hamilton and Russell.
Despite this, George Russell managed to claim P2 during Sprint Qualifying, just 0.012s behind championship leader Max Verstappen later in the day.
The Mercedes driver left the session with confidence following the team’s impressive and quick improvement from the morning struggles.
This will be the first time Russell and a Mercedes have qualified on the front row since Silverstone. With only 19 laps for the Sprint, the odds for a podium and even a victory is highly in the Brit’s favour.
Russell himself was surprised with the progress that was made considering the balance difficulties they faced during first practice.
“It was definitely a handful [in FP1], but I think we managed to get on top of it. We knew we had potential in the car because I don’t think we made the most of our quick laps this morning.
“The car’s been feeling really great so far with these upgrades. It’s clearly close out there, but definitely surprised ourselves a little bit with that P2.”
He is also confident that the newly upgraded W15 is in the mix for a win later on Saturday in the Sprint.
“If we manage to qualify here in second place a couple of tenths ahead of everyone else, I’m feeling good. I’m just excited to be back in this position. It’s been a little while and this is what excites me about Formula 1 – going out there fighting for poles, hopefully fighting for a win tomorrow.”
On the other side of the Mercedes garage, however, teammate Lewis Hamilton didn’t enjoy the qualifying session as much. The 39-year-old’s only quick lap was interrupted by a yellow flag, resulting in the Briton being forced to lift around the 150m board before turn 12. The time loss was compounded as he ran deep into the corner once the green flag came out.
The yellow flag was brought out after Williams’ Franco Colapinto spun out at that turn in SQ3. Hamilton qualified P7 with a lap time of 1:33:378.
The seven-time World Champion had blitzed the first sector as he did a 24.8, 0.2s quicker than anyone else through there.
“I just got unlucky with the yellow flag. And that’s what it is. I was four tenths up, but anyhow, it is what it is.”
Russell called the situation “a real shame”, stating that he believed his teammate “should have been up there” with him in the top 3, as the team works on maximising the potential of the new upgrades they brought with them to COTA.
Hamilton himself praised the team during the post-qualifying interviews, thanking the team for its efforts on the upgrades.
“The good thing is the team’s made a step with the car,” Hamilton said after the session. “The upgrade has clearly worked and I’m really grateful to everyone back at the factory for all their hard work over this period of time because it’s been a tough slog for everyone to get the upgrades and make sure that they’re working.
Hamilton is still optimistic that the car will only continue to improve over the weekend and that Qualifying on Saturday will be better.
“It’s not the end of the [weekend]. Tomorrow we get another chance. We did a great job in between [sessions] to make changes to the car.
“It’s always a bit of a gamble because you don’t know whether it’s going to work or not, the changes that you make, but you hope they do what you aim to do with them. As soon as I got out, the car was like night and day different so it was great work from the guys in the garage.”
Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin reflected on the session as the team’s updates brought to the US look to be working extremely well.
“We can take many positives but ultimately, we end the day slightly frustrated. Lewis was on for a lap that would have been more than enough for P1.
“We had opted to go on the early side to avoid any interruptions with yellows on a busy track at the end of the session. Unfortunately, and ironically, Lewis caught a yellow flag following a spin for the Williams of Colapinto at turn 12. That put paid to his challenge for the front-row and he will line up P7.
“George wasn’t as comfortable with the car today as Lewis but it’s a clear sign of progress that he was still able to take P2.
“We have brought an update kit this weekend and its introduction has been straightforward. It is of course only one day of running but it does look like we are seeing the gains we hoped for. We will look to continue that momentum into the rest of the weekend.”
