UNITED STATES GP – Max Verstappen beats Lewis Hamilton to pole by two tenths
Max Verstappen has beaten his championship rival Lewis Hamilton by two-tenths of a second to take pole position for the United States Grand Prix. There was little between the two teams throughout practice, but the Red Bull driver put himself ahead his final run, while Hamilton couldn’t find enough to take pole.
Both drivers pushed to find the limits and had times deleted for exceeding track limits, in the last two races the title rivals have started on pole they have crashed during the race. Many are predicting a very close race, Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez starts third, ahead of the two Ferrari’s.
Verstappen and Hamilton are separated by six points in the drivers championship setting the picture for a great battle in the race. The seven-time champion went out early for his final run and pulled out an excellent lap to leap ahead of the Red Bulls, but Verstappen proved too strong to reclaim the place on his final lap.
It’s the first time in Austin that Mercedes have been beaten to pole position in the hybrid era, adding to the suggestions that Red Bull may now have the upper hand in this championship battle. Hamilton appeared to lose time in the middle section which cost Mercedes pole in Austin for the first time in the hybrid era.
However Mercedes looked better on race pace, the build up to the race weekend had been about whether the world champions had made gains. But at a circuit they have largely dominated at Red Bull have looked to match if not be faster than the two Mercedes.
Perez was over a quarter of a second faster than the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas, but the Finn takes a five-place grid penalty for changing parts of his power unit. The Mexican was looking to take his maiden pole position, having been in brilliant form all weekend. It gives Red Bull the upper hand in the race, if they can get Perez past Hamilton early on.
That promotes the two Ferrari’s and McLaren’s who are locked in a battle for third in the constructor’s championship. Perez had set the pace in FP3, the Mexican looking the better on the soft tyres, but lost time in the middle sector, retaining third after Bottas didn’t improve on his final lap.
It was arguably Perez’s most competitive showing of the year in what is effectively a second home race, showing that he is continuing to get more comfortable with the car.
Hamilton said, “I gave it everything. It was a bit of a struggle through qualifying. From first practice onwards, we fell back a little bit, and those guys were incredibly quick in qualifying. I was happy with my last lap. That was pretty much as much as we had.”
Verstappen added, “In Q3, my first lap wasn’t amazing but in the final lap it starting spitting, like a little drizzle in the last sector especially, so [I was] not sure if I was going to hang onto my lap time but it was enough.”
Charles Leclerc going almost two tenths faster than his teammate Carlos Sainz, while Daniel Ricciardo was a hundred behind managing to go seven hundredths ahead of his McLaren teammate Lando Norris. Sainz however will be more vulnerable in the race because he used the less durable soft tyres to get into Q3, while the rest start on the medium tyres.
The two Alpha Tauri’s rounded out the top ten with Pierre Gasly going eight tenths faster than Yuki Tsunoda. Esteban Ocon was the fastest of those knocked out in Q2, the Alpine using the tow of his teammate Fernando Alonso to put himself a tenth ahead of Sebastian Vettel.
Alpine attempted to use the tow to help get Ocon through to Q3, with the Spaniard never made a serious attempt for pole, he starts at the back thanks to an engine penalty.
Alonso and Vettel will be joined by George Russell at the back, the Williams driver setting a time good enough for twelfth. Vettel had been annoyed with Nikita Mazepin through the Maggots and Becketts style section, he complained that the Haas driver was going too slowly.
However, Russell’s fastest time was deleted dropping him to fifteenth if he didn’t exceed track limits the Englishman could have gone thirteenth but failed to set a time, following qualifying he said his target was to out qualify the two multiple champions.
Antonio Giovinazzi was thirteenth almost three tenths behind Vettel in thirteenth. Lance Stroll was fastest of those knocked out in Q1, the Aston Martin driver was knocked out by Alonso after missing out by six hundredths of a second.
Nicolas Latifi was another driver to miss out despite setting a personal best, he was shuffled down the order and finished a hundredth behind. Mick Schumacher was almost four tenths faster than his Haas teammate Nikita Mazepin.
Related
UNITED STATES GP – Sergio Perez Sets Pace By Quarter Of A Second Ahead Of Lando Norris In FP2
UNITED STATES GP – Valtteri Bottas Leads Mercedes One-Two In First Practice