#USGP Qualifying: @Max33Verstappen beats @LewisHamilton to pole. #F1
Max Verstappen, #33, Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB16B, Qualifying, Formula 1 Aramco United States Grand Prix 2021, Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas. Image credit to Sutton Images. Verstappen US GP pole, 2021 US GP Qualifying, US GP Qualifying Results.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen claimed pole position in qualifying at the US GP ahead of title-rival Lewis Hamilton who was second for Mercedes and his team-mate Sergio Perez who rounded out the top three in the second Honda-powered RB16B.
Despite some light drizzle hitting the Circuit of the Americas as the final stints in the top ten shootout were taking place, Verstappen and Hamilton managed to gain time on Perez and locked out the front row of the grid.
Eight of the top ten, except for Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, ran Q2 on the yellow side-walled C3 medium compounds and will start Sunday’s Grand Prix on the more durable rubber at the Texan circuit, where the final qualifying stage did not feature any track limits infringements, after Verstappen and Hamilton had their lap-times invalidated in the earlier FP3 session.
Perez set the pace in the final hour practice session and somewhat stunned team-mate Verstappen to lead the way for Red Bull Racing after the initial stints in Q3 on a 1:33.180, the Mexican kept his soft tyres alive long enough compared to the leading runners and posted the quickest effort in the sector three.
But Perez fell back on the final flyers as Verstappen was able to gain enough with the fastest Q3 effort in sector one – where light drizzle was falling in the last sector – and the Dutchman held on through the lap to plant a 1:32.910.
Hamilton’s personal best – where the reigning world champion set the quickest middle time – was a 1:33.119, which was 0.209 seconds slower than Verstappen as Mercedes missed out on pole position at COTA for the first time since the 2014 season.
Perez wound up 0.224 adrift of his Red Bull team-mate, but he did beat Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas to take third, with the Finn unable to improve on his final flyer.
Bottas will start the race five places back in ninth on the grid due to taking on a new Internal Combustion Engine.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc lead team-mate Sainz as the Scuderia locked-out the third row in fifth and sixth places respectively, with their rivals from McLaren Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris in seventh and eighth. Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly qualified in eighth place. However all five are promoted up one place due to the aforementioned grid penalty for Bottas.
The other Honda-powered AlphaTauri AT02 entry of Tsunoda was the slowest of the Q3 runners in tenth place.
In Q2, a back-straight slip-stream from Alpine team-mate Fernando Alonso, who ended up in 14th with a best sector two effort and was 11 seconds off Verstappen’s pace as the double world champion did not post a competitive time as the Spaniard will be relegated to the back of the pack for the Grand Prix due to taking on a new engine, was not enough to propel his team-mate Esteban Ocon to a place in Q3.
The Frenchman qualified 11th and only 0.024 off a place in the top-ten shootout.
Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel will be leading the three drivers demoted to the back of the grid because of the engine-change penalties – the other being Williams Racing’s George Russell – as he did post a competitive effort in the second qualifying segment, which was only good enough for 12th.
Then came Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi, with Russell losing his time that would have taken the Briton 13th for a track limits infringement at turn nine, so the Williams driver wound up 15th without a time posted in Q2.
In the first qualifying stage, it was Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll who was knocked out in 16th by late improvement by Alonso, missing out on Q2 by just 0.063 seconds.
Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi ended the session 17th despite posting a personal best effort on his final hot-lap.
Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen was 18th and in-front of the two Haas F1 Team VF-21 entries of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin who brought up the rear.
Mazepin also endured the wrath of Vettel halfway during Q1 when the latter came upon the slow-moving Haas through the Esses in sector one.
The stewards noted the decision, but it did not call for an investigation.
2021 US GP Qualifying – The Top Three
2021 US GP Pole Position – Max Verstappen, #33, Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB16B, 1:32.910:
“It was quite exciting out there, in Q3 my first lap wasn’t amazing. In the final lap, I started slipping, there was a bit of drizzle, I wasn’t sure I could hold on to my lap time. P1 and P3 for the team is a strong result. We’ll work together as a team to get the best possible result.”
2nd Place – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, F1 W12 EQ Performance, 1:33.119:
“I gave it everything today, a bit of a struggle through qualifying. Since FP1 we fell backwards a bit. I was happy with my Q3 lap, it was everything I had. Mindset tomorrow is to win this race.”
3rd Place – Sergio Perez, #11, Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB16B, 1:33.134:
“We were really close, on that final lap… Unfortunately it wasn’t as good throughout the lap, the rain hit me too hard in the final sector, I lost a bit of grip. Tomorrow is a very long race, there will be a lot of degradation on these tyres. I’m looking forward to it!”
In the earlier FP3 session it was Red Bull’s Perez on top of the time-sheets and ahead of Ferrari’s Sainz who was second, his Red Bull team-mate Verstappen in third, McLaren’s Norris fourth and Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas completing the top five. Both championship contenders Verstappen and Hamilton had their best efforts invalidated for exceeding track limits at the penultimate and turn nine corners respectively. You can see the full Formula 1 Aramco United States Grand Prix Free Practice 3 2021 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1102/united-states/practice-3.html
#USGP FP2: @SChecoPerez tops time-sheets ahead of @LandoNorris. #F1
#USGP FP1: @ValtteriBottas leads @MercedesAMGF1 one-two. #F1
