Max Verstappen has taken the first non-Mercedes pole of the hybrid era at Austin, edging out his championship rival the very last lap. Lewis Hamilton lines up 2nd, a tantalising prospect for race fans, while Sergio Perez rounded out the top 3.
Q1
Practice left a very mixed message, with it seeming to be too close to call between Red Bull and Mercedes. The weather was beautiful at Austin, with high temperatures and blue skies, but a possibilty of rain later on.
McLaren took the fastest time initially, with Ricciardo pipping Verstappen by just 0.1s. Clearly his reward drive in Earhhardt’s NASCAR had provided inspiration. Norris took 3rd while the Mercedes were surprisingly stuck in the midfield.
Leclerc superbly leapt to the top at the death of the session, just edging about the resurgent Red Bull pair. Riccardo and Norris took an encouraging 4th and 5th, while the highest placed Mercedes was Hamilton, in 6th.
Alpine just scraped out of Q1, while Stroll was the first to be eliminated. Latifi took 17th while Raikkonen ended up 18th, his team-mate taking 15th. Haas yet again rounded out the grid, with Schumacher finishing as the lead Haas.
Eliminated:
- 16th Stroll
- 17th Latifi
- 18th Raikkonen
- 19th Schumacher
- 20th Mazepin
Q2
Verstappen took the provisional fasest time and Hamilton was able to improve to 2nd, albeit 0.333s behind. Numerous drivers were penalised for track limits, Ricciardo and Perez had their initial runs banned, which put pressure on their following laps.
Tsunoda managed to make a Q3 appearance, taking 10th despite many fast drivers behind. Riccardo scraped through with 9th, following his previous deleted lap time.
Ocon finished 11th, which may provide an advantage with a choice of free tyres for tomorrow. Vettel jumped up to 12th late on, while Russell could only manage 13th. Giovinazzi finished an unremarkable 14th, while Alonso didn’t set a competitive time, in response to his grid penalty tomorrow. However, Russell was relegated to 15th after his lap time was deleted and will drop to the very back of the grid after he serves his penalty.
Eliminated:
- 11th Ocon
- 12th Vettel
- 13th Giovinazzi
- 14th Alonso
- 15th Russell
Q3
Perez took an incredibly popular provisional pole, edging out Verstappen by 0.019s, but the Red Bulls were heading Mercedes by a quarter of a second. Bizzarely, all cars lined up in formation of team, Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Alpha Tauri.
It was a tense scene as the top 4 drivers were switching purple sectors. Red Bull had gained pace in sector 2, while Mercedes improved in sector 3, making it genuinely impossible to call the result.
Hamilton took a shock jump to 1st in the dying laps of Qualifying, despite a yellow sector 1. Verstappen snatched it back immediately with a superb lap while Perez dropped to 3rd. Bottas took 4th, but will drop back to the midfield due to a penalty. Leclerc headed the Ferrari duo in 5th and 6th, while Ricciardo was at the head of the McLarens, lining up behind. Meanwhile, Gasly yet again outqualified Tsunoda, but only by one position this time.
- Verstappen
- Hamilton
- Perez
- Bottas
- Leclerc
- Sainz
- Ricciardo
- Norris
- Gasly
- Tsunoda
Yet again, expectant eyes fall to Sunday, but with a hint of trepidation. After all the incidents, Hamilton and Verstappen into that turn 1 could provide fireworks. With Red Bull unexpectedly in front, tomorrow could, yet again, be a huge moment in this phenomenal championship.
Featured Image Credit: @F1 Official Twitter
