The reigning world champion made amends for his disappointing Friday qualifying by taking pole in the Sprint Shootout for the United States GP, in a very close qualifying session which saw him pip Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton to Sprint pole by just over five hundreths of a second.
Photo Credits: Oracle Red Bull Racing
SQ1
All the drivers headed out on medium tyres as it is mandated for the first, shortened SQ1 session, which only gives the drivers 12 minutes to sort themselves and knock out the five slowest.
Lewis Hamilton was the first to complete a flying lap, with a time of a 1:36.402 getting the Briton to the top, just over six tenths clear of Nico Hulkenberg’s upgraded Haas, before Lando Norris slotted his McLaren between the Mercedes and the Haas.
Yesterday’s pole-sitter, Charles Leclerc then quickly took the top spot with a time of a 1:36:302, just two hundreths ahead of his team-mate Carlos Sainz, before Max
Verstappen eventually blistered that time, as he was the first to break the 1:36 barrier, setting a best time of a 1:35.997, just over three tenths clear of the Monegasque.
Oscar Piastri’s first flying lap only got him up to 11th place, with just three minutes of the session remaining.
Before the final runs in SQ1, Fernando Alonso was the driver at risk in 15th place, with the bottom five drivers consisted of Botta, Magnussen, Ricciardo, Stroll and Sargeant.
Lance Stroll was the first to complete his lap from the bottom five and jumped up to P10, and was then beaten by his team-mate Alonso, who jumped to P6, with the two Aston Martin cars going through to SQ2, in contrast to yesterday.
After all the laps were completed, the classified order of the top fifteen was: Verstappen, Leclerc, Albon, Sainz, Russell, Perez, Alonso, Ocon, Hamilton, Norris, Zhou, Stroll, Gasly, Piastri and Ricciardo.
Charles Leclerc went to improve his lap and finished just two milliseconds behind Verstappen, but was heavily impeded by George Russell as the pair reached the final two corners. On the radio, the Monegasque emphatically asked the stewards for a “penalty for Mr. Russell, thank you.”
DRIVERS ELIMINATED SQ1: Hulkenberg P16, Magnussen P17, Bottas P18, Tsunoda P19 and Sargeant P20.
Russell, Albon, Hulkenberg, Magnussen, Gasly, Piastri, Bottas, Tsunoda and Perez will all be investigated after the session for exceeding the maximum delta time during their out-laps in SQ1.
SQ2
Reigning three-time world champion, Max Verstappen set the initial benchmark in SQ2, with a lap of a 1:35.181 getting him just under six tenths clear of his team-mate Sergio Perez, before the two Ferraris of Leclerc and Sainz slotted themselves between the two Bulls.
Oscar Piastri then put his McLaren just behind the quartet, before his team-mate Lando Norris set a 1:35.594 to go P4, just over four tenths back from Verstappen.
Albon, Russell, Alonso, Ocon, Hamilton, Gasly and Ricciardo all chose to do only a single lap at the end of the session, with no time set early on.
Russell was the first across the line, and jumped up to seventh place, two-thirds of a second slower than Verstappen – who spun on the way to turn 10 on his final lap, but managed to get back on track without any major issues.
After the final runs concluded, the classified order of the top 10 was: Verstappen, Leclerc, Sainz, Norris, Perez, Piastri, Gasly, Russell, Hamilton and Albon.
DRIVERS ELIMINATED SQ2: Ricciardo P11, Alonso P12, Ocon P13, Stroll P14, Zhou P15.
Stroll, Albon, Zhou, Piastri, Ricciardo, Norris and Russell will all be investigated after the session for exceeding delta times during their out-laps in SQ2.
SQ3
The drivers slowly made their way out of the pit lane, with the short six-minute session requiring the use of the soft tyres, proving enough for just one flying lap for each driver as they tried to find themselves some space on the circuit.
Max Verstappen was the first to start his flying lap, and set a strong benchmark of a 1:34.538, just a tenth ahead of Lando Norris’ McLaren. Leclerc could only manage second, just over five hundreths back from Verstappen. Lewis Hamilton gave it a good go in his Mercedes – which came alive on the soft tyres – just 0.069s back from the world champion.
Behind the top three, the two McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were separated by a quarter of a second in P4 and P5 respectively, followed by Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari four tenths back from Verstappen and Sergio Perez over half-a-second back from his team-mate in P7.
Rounding out the top 10 for the Sprint race later on were Russell, Albon and Gasly.
Source: Formula 1
