The Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton has claimed Pole for tomorrows US Grand Prix and he attempts to ignite a fight back for the world championship.
Both Hamilton and Rosberg have been trading fastest times this weekend, though when it came down to it Hamilton was the faster Mercedes, resulting in him taking his first pole position at the Circuit of the Americas. Hamilton’s final lap in Q3 put him two tenths of a second ahead of his team mate and championship leader Nico Rosberg. The time, a 1:34.999, was also the fastest ever recorded at Austin.
“I could hear the crowd cheering when I crossed the line, the energy on that slow-down lap from everyone was much, much appreciated,” Hamilton said in the press conference after qualifying. “I’m going to give it everything I’ve got tomorrow – now I just have to put thoughts to action. Tomorrow l need to have a real big one.”
Rosberg had to settle for 2nd in the end today, though with a 33-point buffer over Hamilton he has the advantage. To win the championship Hamilton must win every race between now and Abu Dhabi, but even this is not enough to assure the Brit of a fourth world title. Rosberg would need to finish lower than 4th one of those races, or suffer a DNF. Starting 2nd may just help Rosberg here if Hamilton makes a poor getaway.
Behind the two Mercedes drivers, Red Bull have once again locked out the second row, with Daniel Ricciardo beating Max Verstappen to 3rd respectively. Interestingly Red Bull have split their strategies for Sundays race in regards to the tyre the driver’s will start on. Ricciardo will start the race on the faster but more brittle supersoft tyres. While Hamilton, Rosberg and Verstappen all reached the top ten shoot-out on the slower but durable soft compound. When asked about the split decision and the fact he was starting the race on the faster but more brittle tyres in the press conference, Ricciardo was surprisingly confident.
“I’m sure that tyre won’t last as long, but it might give me a bit of an advantage at the start,” said the Red Bull driver.
His team mate in 4th did not seem as thrilled, though that may be over the fact he has received a telling off. Off the track, the sport’s governing body, the FIA, have issued a crackdown against drivers moving in the braking zone, such as Verstappen’s move on Hamilton in Japan. The accusations of this breaking zone moving has dogged feisty teenager throughout the year and reputedly sparked a heated drivers’ briefing on Friday night. The result is now a crackdown and harsher punishments for incidents of this nature, which may see Verstappen take a more cautious approach to defending this weekend.
Behind the Red Bulls, the Ferrari’s managed a lock out of the third row of the grid, however the team barely offered an opposition to the leading two teams. While Kimi Raikkonen once again out-paced Sebastian Vettel to 5th place. The biggest issue the team faced was their worrying lack of pace. The team were around six tenths behind Red Bull, while Raikkonen’s lap for 5th was 1.132 seconds off of Hamilton’s fastest lap.
Elsewhere Nico Hulkenberg qualified an impressive 7th in his Force India ahead of the Williams of Valtteri Bottas in 8th and Felipe Massa in 9th respectively. The result is important, in what is sure to be another decisive battle between the two teams for that 4th spot in constructors. While Carlos Sainz squeezes into the battle in his Toro Rosso in 10th. Sergio Perez qualified 11th, but with a fresh choice of tyre could be a genuine threat for the Williams team tomorrow.
Meanwhile, outgoing McLaren driver Jenson Button was forced to bring his qualifying to an end after the end of Q1. The 2009 world champion turned the airways blue when complaining about a dithering Jolyon Palmer on the racing line to his team. Though Palmer was equally irate with his Renault crew for not alerting him to the oncoming traffic.
Tomorrows race is all about the start. Hamilton needs to win this race to keep his championship hopes up, which means he nails the start as best he can. While many drivers are driving for their drives next season and need a good performance to convince teams to put pen to paper. Expect a tougher crackdown on questionable moves defending like Verstappen has demonstrated this season. All in all the race should be interesting, and one to watch definitely.
United States GP Qualifying
1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:34.999
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, + 0.216
3. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, + 0.510
4. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, + 0.748
5. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, + 1.132
6. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, + 1.359
7. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, + 1.629
8. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, + 2.117
9. Felipe Massa, Williams, + 2.270
10. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, + 2.327
Q2
11. Sergio Perez, Force India, 1:37.353
12. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 1:37.417
13. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1:37.480
14. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas, 1:37.773
15. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1:37.935
16. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1:39.356
Q1
17. Romain Grosjean, Haas, 1:38.308
18. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 1:38.317
19. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:38.327
20. Pascal Wehrlein, Manor, 1:38.548
21. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, 1:38.583
22. Esteban Ocon, Manor, 1:38.806
Feature Image Credit: Scuderia Ferrari Press Release.
