Carlos Sainz Claims Second Pole Position in Austin

Carlos Sainz Jr. secured pole position for only the second time in his Formula 1 career, after putting together a great lap to beat Charles Leclerc in Austin.

Qualifying also saw a number of shock results, including an exit for Esteban Ocon, a season-best qualifying result for Aston Martin and new-found pace for Alfa Romeo ORLEN F1 Team.

Q1 – Shock Exits For Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon, Home Favourites Haas Disappoint

The first part of qualifying saw a number of shocks, including another twist in the BWT Alpine F1 Team and McLaren F1 Team battle for fourth place in the Constructors Championship.

Sainz was the early pacesetter going 0.498s quicker than Leclerc with a laptime of 1.35.297s. Mercedes also looked competitive in the first session, with Lewis Hamilton managing to secure fourth, ahead of Sergio Perez even with his final laptime being deleted. It was a disappointing day for Haas F1 Team, as they saw both their drivers not make the cut for Q2 in their home Grand Prix. Mick Schumacher struggled for pace, while Kevin Magnussen was just a few tenths off making the next session.

It was a shock exit for Ocon, who only managed to secure eighteenth on the grid for Alpine. The Frenchman could not hook his lap together, which led to him being knocked out. Daniel Ricciardo also got knocked out in the first session of qualifying for the third time in five races, the Australian driver was unable to capitalize on Ocon’s effort in the battle for fourth in the constructors and it was a disappointing end for Ricciardo as he nears his McLaren exit.

Q2 – AlphaTauri Exit, Norris Scrapes Through

The second qualifying session was one of excitement and one that saw a number of surprises.

Leclerc once again showed the pace of the Ferrari and went quickest with a time of 1.35.246s but Max Verstappen picked up his pace to finish just 0.048s behind the Monaquise driver. Mercedes continued to show their pace, with George Russell putting his W13 in fourth place, just ahead of his experienced teammate in fifth.

It was a disappointing session for Scuderia AlphaTauri. Yuki Tsunoda could only manage a fifteenth-place finish, making him the slowest of the drivers that made the second part of qualifying. There was even more issues for the departing Pierre Gasly, who was complaining about warming up the tyres throughout the day.

Alfa Romeo showed quality pace throughout the session and thought they had both cars into Q3, but a laptime deleted for Guanyu Zhou saw him drop to thirteenth, which allowed McLaren’s Lando Norris to scrape through to the final part of the qualifying session.

Lance Stroll has struggled in qualifying this season but the Canadian driver did manage to make it through to Q3, for the third time at the Circuit of Americas. While one side of the Aston Martin garage was thrilled, the other was disappointed with their efforts as Sebastian Vettel failed to get the car into Q3, only managing to finish twelfth.

Q3 – Sainz Puts It On Pole, Hamilton Misses Front Row Chance

The third and final qualifying session saw Sainz put his Ferrari on pole position for only the second time this season, beating his teammate and the World Champion.

Sainz put in a laptime of 1.34.356s, which was enough to deny his teammate the chance of claiming pole position and limiting the damage of his ten-place penalty.

It was a day of disappointment for Red Bull, who saw their drivers finish third and fourth. Verstappen will start on the front row after Leclerc’s penalty and despite only finishing third, the two-time World Champion was less than a tenth slower than Sainz on pole. It was a different story for Sergio Perez though, who qualified fourth and a further tenth away from his teammate. The Mexican driver will start further back however due to a five-place grid penalty and may find it hard to work his way through the pack on race day.

Mercedes should be pleased with their performance but it was a session of ‘what-ifs?’ for the German outfit, with Hamilton clearly having the pace early on to challenge for pole position, however, due to grid penalties the two W13 cars will start third and fourth on the grid and may look to attack the two drivers on the front row early on in tomorrow’s race.

It was the best qualifying result of the season for Stroll and Aston Martin, who managed to qualify seventh, keeping Norris, Alonso and Bottas behind him despite not doing a final run in the session.