F1 United States GP: Sainz secures pole ahead of Verstappen

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz secured pole position and will start the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, after grid penalties are applied.

How qualifying unfolded…

Q1

When the pit exit light went green, the Williams of Alexander Albon and Mick Schumacher (Haas) were the first drivers to get out onto the Austin circuit, the Circuit of the Americas. Naturally, the two drivers were the first to set the benchmark for the field to beat.

After the first initial laps, from the early runners, Schumacher topped the timing board with a 1:37.816 which was under one-tenth of a second quicker than Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou who sat in second place.

It wasn’t long before the big hitters came out to play as Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, smashed Schumacher’s time out of the park with a 1:35.864. However, this time was beaten by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who went straight to the top of the timing board, quicker by 0.069 seconds.

After a preparation lap, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz quickly jumped to the top of the timing sheets with an incredible lap of 1:35.297 which demoted Leclerc and Verstappen down to P2 and P3, respectively.

Eliminated:

20. Nicholas Latifi, Williams

19. Mick Schumacher, Haas

18. Esteban Ocon, Alpine

17. Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren

16. Kevin Magnussen, Haas

Q2

Although the pit exit light went green, to signal the start of Q2, no one was eager to get out onto the circuit.

After one minute had expired on the clock, Albon was the first driver to put rubber onto the asphalt. In a similar instance to Q1, Albon was the first driver to set a lap time on the board with a 1:37.124.

The Williams time was soon beaten by the majority of the field. Only the Alpha Tauri (Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly)  and Aston Martin’s (Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel) drivers weren’t even able to beat Albon’s time.

Although Gasly and Vettel hadn’t set a lap time on the board after a mistake on their respective hot laps.

In the final moments of Q2, Leclerc stood as the fastest man of Q2 ahead of Verstappen and Sainz, respectively. Whereas McLaren’s Lando Norris stood on the edge of being shown the door in qualifying, in P10.

Eliminated: 

15. Yuki Tsunoda, Alpha Tauri

14. Guanyu Zhou, Alfa Romeo

13. Pierre Gasly, Alpha Tauri

12. Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin

11. Alexander Albon, Williams

Q3

Although Russell was the first driver out onto the pit lane, Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas quickly pipped his former seat out onto the track. Both drivers were quickly followed out onto the circuit by the remaining seven cars.

While the top nine competitors raced around COTA for their banker laps in Q3, Stroll found himself out of sync with the rest of the field as he remained within his respective garage.

After the first set of flying laps, Leclerc as the fastest man but he was set to serve a grid penalty in Sunday’s grand prix. However, Sainz sat second, in provisional pole, ahead of Hamilton (in third) while Verstappen and Perez occupied fourth and fifth respectively.

Top 10:

10. Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo

9. Fernando Alonso, Alpine

8. Lando Norris, McLaren

7. Lance Stroll, Aston Martin

6. George Russell, Mercedes

5. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

4. Sergio Perez, Red Bull

3. Max Verstappen, Red Bull

2. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

1. Carlos Sainz, Ferrari

That’s it for the article; F1 United States GP: Carlos secures pole ahead of Verstappen! With the grid set, who do you think will lead the race into the first corner? Let us know in the comments!

Read more Formula 1 here:

• F1 United States GP: Verstappen clears final practice in Austin
• Logan Sargeant to race for Williams in 2023 pending super licence points
• F1 United States GP: Sainz tops first practice late on
• Senna: a testament to a great racing driver
• Red Bull disappointed and surprised with FIA financial findings

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