United States Grand Prix – Qualifying: Red Bull and Verstappen at the top!

After a Friday dominated by the Mercedes, Red Bull managed to find some pace in Free Practice 3 with Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen posting similar lap times. The question was therefore whether Red Bull could bring the German giant, who has never been beaten in qualifying in Austin since 2014, to his knees?

Q1:

After the first few laps of both Red Bull and Mercedes, the advantage was with the drivers of the Austrian team, with Max Verstappen three tenths ahead of his rival, Lewis Hamilton.

But the big surprise of this start of Q1 was the excellent form of the McLarens with McLaren Ricciardo setting the fastest lap and his teammate Lando Norris in 3rd position.

An achievement cut short by Max Verstappen who set a time of 1’34’352 confirming his good form. Sergio Perez, who is having a very good start to the weekend, is only 17 thousandths behind his garage neighbor.

The Mercedes cars finish this first part of qualifying only 8th and 9th, four tenths behind the fastest lap set by Charles Leclerc.

Lance Stroll was also disappointed to be eliminated in Q1 while his teammate Sebastian Vettel placed his Aston Martin in 10th position.

List of eliminated: Nikita Mazepin, Mick Schumacher, Kimi Räikkönen, Nicholas Latifi and Lance Stroll.

Q2:

With the very strong tire degradation on this Austin circuit, it was not surprising to see all the drivers go out with medium tires in order to extend their first stint as much as possible. Only Carlos Sainz and Yuki Tsunoda will start tomorrow’s race with soft tires.

Great performance by Lando Norris who placed his McLaren in front of the two Ferraris, his team’s direct competitors for the third place in the driver’s championship.

Alpine showed good teamwork in this second part of qualifying. Condemned to start at the back of the grid following a change of two engine parts, Fernando Alonso provided a tow to Esteban Ocon. A commendable effort from the French team but it was not enough to see the Normand driver make it to Q2. A disappointing but unsurprising elimination given the poor form of the blue cars since Friday.

List of eliminated: George Russell, Fernando Alonso, Antonio Giovinazzi, Sebastian Vettel and Esteban Ocon.

Q3:

Red Bull was hitting hard from the first laps of this last part of qualifying, with Verstappen first beating both Mercedes and then with Sergio Perez securing the provisional pole position.

Not wanting to be distracted by other cars or potential yellow flags, the Mercedes were the first to take to the track.

Taking temporary possession of the fastest time, Lewis Hamilton did not resist against a unleashed Max Verstappen who takes a new pole position this season.

Dutch driver can count on Sergio Perez tomorrow on the grid who delivered a very good performance finishing 3rd. The two Red Bulls are in a strong position for tomorrow’s race with Valtteri Bottas starting 9th due to an engine penalty.

The best of the rest is therefore Charles Leclerc who will start from 4th place tomorrow ahead of his teammate Carlos Sainz, Daniel Ricciardo, Lando Norris, and Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri.