Feature
What the teams said – Qualifying in Las Vegas
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Mercedes
Russell finished on top in the final practice session, which sent Mercedes into qualifying as favourites for pole. Russell cashed in on having a fast car, grabbing both provisional pole with his opening run then opting to come out late and bagged pole proper with his very last lap. Hamilton though had a poor Q3. A mistake on his opening run left him in P10 without a representative time, and then he ran wide on his second lap as well to wind up down in 10th. Had he managed to match his Q2 time, he would have been third on the grid.
Lewis Hamilton, 10th, 1:48.106
"The car was feeling great today, and it has been a good weekend up to the final segment of Qualifying. I was quickest in Q2 but unfortunately, I had two bad laps in Q3 and that left us P10. The conditions were still good, but I didn’t get the job done. It’s really disappointing as we definitely had the pace for pole position today. Congratulations to George who did a great job to take P1. It will be difficult starting from where we are in P10, but I will try and get up to the podium tomorrow. I will be giving it my best to do so."
George Russell, 1st, 1:32.312
"It feels incredible to be back on pole position. We’ve been so quick all weekend, but I knew that, coming into Q3, it was going to be that last lap that counted and nothing that had happened before mattered. On my first effort, I had a little bit of a moment out of turn five and clipped the wall. The mechanics did a great job to switch the front-wing quickly before our final run, but there was a brief moment where I thought we wouldn’t get back around and make the flag. I felt confident in myself though and knew that if I put together a clean lap that pole was possible and that was what we were able to deliver.
"Ultimately though we’ve had a few good qualifying sessions recently and we need to convert them into good results. It will be a long race tomorrow, and there will be plenty of unknowns, but I am hopeful that we can fight for victory. I’m excited for the Grand Prix; it’ll be a great atmosphere on Saturday night racing down the Strip in Las Vegas. I’ll have a good night’s sleep this evening and come back raring to go tomorrow."
Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
"The car has been really strong all weekend. We seem to be able to extract good performance in these cold temperatures, as we saw at Silverstone and Spa earlier in the season, and that has helped us today. Taking pole position is great but it is also a little bittersweet with Lewis in P10. We definitely had the speed to be on the front row with both cars, but I am sure he will bounce back tomorrow.
"It is difficult to say how the race will go tomorrow. We saw on Thursday that graining is a risk; nobody has had a proper look at the Hard tyre either, so there are going to be plenty of unknowns. Hopefully our single lap speed translates into race pace, and we have a competitive Grand Prix and fight for victory. Let’s see what we can do."
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
"We’ve had a fast car all weekend and there was a real possibility of us locking out the front-row. It was a tricky session and George did a great job to take pole position. Lewis had shown fantastic speed throughout and was unlucky to have issues on both his laps in Q3. Unfortunately, that left him P10 for tomorrow.
"The car has been working really well on a single lap; that has been the case from the first laps of FP1 all the way through to the final lap of Q3. However, it's a lot harder to read where we will be on long run pace. The graining caused by the cool temperature is dominating the degradation and because some pushed early in their runs in FP2, whilst others managed their tyres, it's hard to know where everything will fall out tomorrow. We will have to be live to how the race is going and react well if we want to fight for victory."
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Ferrari
Ferrari looked a shade behind McLaren in practice, but were able to extract more from their car in qualifying trim. Both drivers looked quick throughout, making the top 10 with ease. They had chances, but didn’t quite have the pace to match Russell out there. Sainz grabbed P2 though with a brilliant late lap, while Leclerc was just pipped by surprise-package Gasly. But with both cars ahead of both McLarens, it was a job well done for Ferrari.
Charles Leclerc, 4th, 1:32.783
"It wasn’t a great qualifying. We struggled quite a bit with grip and couldn’t get the tyres in the right window, so we will be looking into this. It shouldn’t be an issue during the race and after we clear the first few laps things should look slightly different, but we will have to be careful at the start as graining will be high.
"On the upside, we qualified ahead of both McLarens which is our target, so we will give it our all to keep it that way tomorrow."
Carlos Sainz, 2nd, 1:32.410
"I'm happy with qualifying today as it was one of the trickiest Saturdays of the season and we performed well. I would have obviously preferred to be on pole, but Mercedes has been very fast all weekend on a flying lap. Overall, we are in a good position for the race and in terms of pace I’m confident we can put up a fight.
"Maximising points tomorrow is also key for the Constructors’ Championship battle, so full focus on the race!"
Fred Vasseur, Team Principal
"To be second and fourth on the grid is good for the race, especially as we were struggling for one-lap pace and found it difficult to get the tyres up to temperature. It’s true that Charles was perhaps expecting to do better but he struggled a bit more than Carlos to prepare the tyres. Now we have to focus on ourselves and on the race in which I believe there will be plenty of overtaking opportunities as, last year, this was the race with the most overtaking moves.
"For most of the season, we have had a car that has better race than qualifying pace, and certainly our long run pace yesterday was strong. For sure, the most important thing tomorrow will be tyre management and keeping the graining under control, trying not to push too much at the beginning of the race and managing the tyres as well as possible in order to have more strategy choices."
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Alpine
Alpine’s late season improvements continued, with one car in Q3. While Ocon was pleased with what he extracted from the car for 11th, Gasly’s performance in the top 10 shootout defied belief. He grabbed a season’s best third, out-qualifying a Ferrari, a Red Bull, both McLarens and a Mercedes. He starts quite a few places ahead of his midfield rivals too, on a weekend where Alpine have every chance of extending their advantage in the fight for sixth in the constructors’.
Esteban Ocon, 11th, 1:33.221
“Firstly, congratulations to Pierre and the team on the great result in Qualifying. On my side, I am very happy with the lap in Qualifying today and, though it is a pity that we missed out on Q3 by just a tenth of a second, we will be starting in eleventh, which puts us in a position to try and fight for points. It will be interesting to see how tyre degradation will play into the results of the race tomorrow. Hopefully it will open up the door to some good opportunities for us to move forward. We struggled a bit with traction and grip in the sessions today, but we are working hard to improve, and we will give it everything tomorrow to keep the tyres alive and maximise any opportunity that comes our way. We did it last year from further back on the grid so we have confidence we can come away with a good team result.”
Pierre Gasly, 3rd, 1:32.664
“I’m very happy to qualify in the top three today. The lap felt incredible and it was one of those when you cross the line and you know that everything was thrown at it. I never imagined that we would be in the top three, though, that was a surprise. This track is all about fine margins and it’s tricky with the low downforce with a lot of sliding but I just had a lot of fun out there too. We had one set of new Softs for Q3 so it was kind of a last lap shot, plenty of adrenaline, and I’m just pleased we put it together. Tomorrow, we will give it everything but we know where our fight is. It’s a tough race for tyre degradation and graining. We have to stay on top of it as last year at this race it cost us. We’ve worked hard as a team to understand it and there is more hard work tonight to prepare ourselves. We will go for it tomorrow with the target of taking some points.”
Oliver Oakes, Team Principal
“From the get-go this weekend we have looked competitive, especially in these cooler conditions. But the field is so competitive, and the gaps are so tight, you never know where you’re going to stack up until you get into Qualifying. Pierre did a perfect job to put the car on the second row and it puts us in a strong position for tomorrow’s race. It’s encouraging to again reach Q3 for a fourth time in a row, but we know anything can happen in the race and the points are handed out tomorrow. With Esteban just missing out on the final part of Qualifying in eleventh place, our goal is to get both cars in the points tomorrow. Similar to last year, we expect the conditions will be tricky with the lower temperatures and tyre management, so we need to analyse how we can get the most out of our strategy.”
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Red Bull
Verstappen cut a very unhappy figure in FP3, calling his car “undriveable” over team radio. He rallied once on the soft tyres though and carried some better form into qualifying. Once there, he managed to drag his car all the way to Q3 and grab fifth on the grid – not a bad result considering where he started the day. There was also the bonus of out-qualifying championship rival Norris, but Red Bull’s race pace remains uncertain. As for Perez, he had another tough day at the office, exiting in Q1 after complaining about a lack of grip.
READ MORE: Verstappen concedes Red Bull ‘too slow’ around Las Vegas as he takes P5 in qualifying
Max Verstappen, 5th, 1:32.797
“The day started off quite tough but we did our best and maximised everything that we could. The tyres are our main issue as we were struggling quite a lot with the grip throughout the day. Our long runs have not been that great and we were too slow on the straight. However, I think we did execute everything really well in qualifying and worked well as a Team. I am ultimately happy with how it went; I left everything out there and we ended up in P5. Everything looks a lot better than yesterday and hopefully with the things that we changed on the car, we are a bit more competitive tomorrow in the race. Let’s hope that the changes will make an impact and we can put together a good performance tomorrow."
Sergio Perez, 16th, 1:34.155
“The whole weekend we have been struggling with the grip, it is weirdly difficult to put a lap together, with sliding and grip with the tyres. I did expect a very difficult qualifying and it turned out to be a very tricky one. We have been lacking a lot of low-speed performance and we haven’t been able to put the tyres in the right window, that was the main issue and has been very costly in this session. I wanted more today but the progress was not enough. Max managed to put a very good lap together and they seem to have found a bit of performance over one lap, whereas from our side we didn’t. I think it is going to be quite a tricky one tomorrow, I believe that our race pace is a lot more competitive than over one lap though so we should be able to come through the field."
Christian Horner, Team Principal
"A tricky qualifying. The low temperatures and track are challenge with our tyres. Our performance has been improving with each session and we are starting to find where we have lost but the window for the tyres is still quite small. Max managed to lay down a good time and I know he was hoping to be higher up the grid but this track, you can definitely overtake at and the way the tyres behave between qualifying and the race are totally different challenges, anybody in the top four rows can win this race and it will be very exciting to see how it plays tomorrow."
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McLaren
McLaren certainly looked in the mix, both their drivers finding a good rhythm out there. But the team opted to fit a second set of softs in Q1 – unlike their rivals. They were playing it safe after some disasters at the same stage here last year, but it left them with only one set of new tyres for Q3. It seemed to make a difference, with both Norris and Piastri bumped down the order and crucially behind not just their constructors’ rivals, but also Verstappen’s Red Bull. There is work to do tomorrow for them to climb up the order now.
Lando Norris, 6th, 1:33.008
“Not a great Quali, in terms of position. We’ve been struggling all weekend; we’ve not had the pace of some of our competitors, and things didn’t come together in Qualifying. I’m happy with my performance in the end. I feel I put in a reasonable lap. It was just too difficult to do a perfect lap. It’ll be difficult tomorrow, but it’s a long race, so we’ll see what we can do.”
Oscar Piastri, 8th, 1:33.033
"It was a bit of a tricky Qualifying, I just struggled to extract more laptime in Q3. We’ve still got a long race tomorrow and I think it’s going to be an interesting one with overtaking and tyres, so let’s see."
Andrea Stella, Team Principal
“A tricky Qualifying session for us here in Las Vegas. Conditions are unusual here in terms of the low temperature, very low grip, and to some extent in terms of the drag level required for the long straights. We were not the team that coped best with that and likely we never put a perfect lap together all the way through Qualifying. That’s down to the behaviour of the car, rather than the drivers. Certainly, there’s a lot we need to review and learn.
“First, however, focus shifts to the Las Vegas Grand Prix. It’s a completely different regime: continuous laps and harder compound tyres. It’s going to be tricky too, but for different reasons. We’ve seen quite a lot of graining, even on the Medium tyre, and we’d expect the race to be eventful. Our job is to improve the behaviour of the car, maximise any opportunities that come our way, and score as many points as possible.”
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RB
Lawson was slightly unlucky, caught out by Colapinto’s crash in Q2 and thus unable to set his final lap time. Nonetheless, he looked a shade behind his team mate today so Q3 might have been a stretch. Tsunoda did make the top 10, and once there managed to beat a McLaren to grab a brilliant seventh. RB are desperately trying to fight back in the constructors’, so they could do with Tsunoda converting that grid slot into a decent haul of points tomorrow.
Liam Lawson, 15th, 1:34.257
"We struggled a lot with overall grip. It’s frustrating, but it’s not excuse, we’re all on the same track. I was sliding around most of the lap and had a massive slide in turn 14, meaning I had to abort the lap, which is a shame. It’s a little bit puzzling, because through different points the car was good, we felt strong, it definitely felt better in Q1 than it did in Q2. We’ll dig into it and see what’s going on. For everybody tomorrow it’s going to be about protecting the tyres and stopping them from graining in these cold temperatures, which is going to be quite tough but that’s the target. These conditions are tricky, but we’ll look into what we did yesterday in the long runs and try and make something work for tomorrow.”
Yuki Tsunoda, 7th, 1:33.029
“I’m really happy about our performance today. Coming to qualifying we didn’t expect to get through to Q3, and compared to the start of the weekend we made a quick turnaround, so thanks and well done to the team for the big effort. We were able to understand our upgrades, and once we found the direction to follow, we were able to improve session by session. Our main competitors have also done a good job, so it won’t be an easy race tomorrow, but anything can happen, especially in a street circuit. We’ll stay focused and do as much as we can.”
Guillaume Dezoteux, Head of Vehicle Performance
“Since the start of the weekend, we found it very difficult to find the correct balance and extract the grip from the tyres. We also suffered from front tyre graining, a wear pattern impacting car balance and costing us performance. The engineering groups here and back at base have been great, analysing every aspect of the car’s behaviour and finding changes which were improving the balance and the speed. Yuki's seventh place on the grid rewards these efforts and is a morale booster for the troops going into the race."
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Haas
Haas looked quick and were the only midfield team to make it through Q1 on just the one set of softs which showed their confidence. But Magnussen was caught out by the timing of Colapinto’s crash and didn’t get to complete his final flying lap in Q2. Hulkenberg did make the top 10, but once there couldn’t quite manage to match his rivals, although there was very little in it with just 0.054s separating sixth from ninth.
Nico Hulkenberg, 9th, 1:33.062
“Around this track you always think there could’ve been more, but it’s tough. With the low-grip feeling, sometimes you try more and massively overstep and lose it, it’s a very fine line here and it’s challenging for everyone. All in all, it was a decent qualifying but I would’ve liked to have been a bit more ahead – I think P6 was only half a tenth away – so that would’ve made me happier, but we’ll try and race well tomorrow. We have a good race car, so I’m optimistic.”
Kevin Magnussen, 12th, 1:33.297
“There were some decent laps there, it just didn’t seem like we had the pace from practice. There’s a bit of a question mark there, as I had expected us to be best of the rest, and suddenly I was behind a few others and not sure why. P12 is still a spot we can score points from, it’s a long race and it’s not over at all.”
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal
“Qualifying was a bit disappointing; I think we underperformed a little bit. P9 and P12 is still a decent position for tomorrow to go and fight for points from – that’s the aim.”
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Kick Sauber
Bottas knew he had a five-place grid drop for the race, and thus didn’t push overly hard in qualifying. But Zhou managed to beat the Finn for just the second time this year as he made his first Q2 since Silverstone back in the summer. The Chinese racer lines up 13th for a season’s best start, as Kick Sauber chase a first point of the year.
Valtteri Bottas, 19th, 1:34.430
"It was quite a messy session for me; we knew the track was always going to be the best towards the end of Q1, but then on my first lap of the final run, it just didn’t come together. I knew that I could improve a big chunk on the second lap, but I unfortunately just ran into lots of traffic. It was a bit unlucky, but also not the cleanest lap on my side, which is a shame. In any case, we always had a five-place grid penalty for tomorrow, so it would have been difficult to move away from the back rows anyway. Now we have a bit of a mountain to climb, but we'll give it everything we can tomorrow. We have seen this circuit can provide opportunities for action, and we’ll need to make the most of that."
Zhou Guanyu, 13th, 1:33.566
"It’s great to be back in Q2! We’ve made solid progress throughout the weekend, and I’m very satisfied with today’s session. Considering the limited practice in FP3, I’m really happy with my qualifying lap — it felt quite strong, and I believe we extracted most from the car. Starting in such a competitive position creates an opportunity for us, and it’s a testament to the team’s hard work. Tomorrow, we’ll give it everything we’ve got to capitalise on this strong starting point and fight for a great result."
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative
"Our team did a good job overnight: we were able to improve our setup from yesterday and, throughout FP3 and then qualifying, we found a good balance. We saw that the new floor that has been introduced helped us, and especially Zhou, to find more stability under braking, which was one of the elements we were missing yesterday. We are happy for Zhou, who performed solidly in Q1 on both his stints and then confirmed his performance in Q2. Of course, we're disappointed we couldn’t place two cars in the top 15: we felt we had the potential to do it, but traffic prevented Valtteri from improving on his final Q1 stint. Starting in P20, he will need all his experience to recover positions. It's too early to draw conclusions, but we need to pay tribute to our people in Hinwil that has produced this upgrade: we have seen it is helping us to find additional performance, and to come back to the fight for the points, hopefully tomorrow."
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Aston Martin
Aston Martin’s poor run of form pace-wise continued, with both cars exiting in Q1. Stroll stopped out on track in FP3 after losing power, with his Energy Recovery System needing to be replaced. The team did a great job to get him out at the end of Q1, but with only time for one flying lap. As for Alonso, he just couldn’t find any pace out there. Down the order, the Grand Prix looks a tough ask for the boys in green.
Fernando Alonso, 17th, 1:34.258
"We have been uncompetitive the whole weekend so far and expected it to be a struggle heading into Qualifying. We have been struggling with the balance and managing the tyre temperatures in these colder conditions here in Las Vegas. We’ve had a few races of being uncompetitive now, but we need to improve and keep learning for next year. As we saw in last year’s race anything can happen, so we will be ready to capitalise on any incidents or Safety Cars that come up."
Lance Stroll, 20th, 1:34.484
"It was a really good effort from the team to get my car ready for Qualifying after the ERS failure. We managed to get out on track for one lap, but it's tricky when the tyre temperatures aren't there, and I got held with a bit of traffic at Turn 12. I think it’ll be a tough day tomorrow. It's a race that requires a lot of tyre management and our car can be quite hard on tyres, but we’ll see what we can do."
Mike Krack, Team Principal
"A tough evening under the lights in Las Vegas. We had an ERS failure on Lance's car which brought him to a stop on track in the final practice session. That put us under pressure to change the ERS pack in the short gap before qualifying. The mechanics did a fantastic job to get the car out for the final few moments of Q1. Lance only had time for one flying lap and he was always going to be up against it. Fernando's session was looking more promising until the cars ahead of him [Magnussen and Leclerc] caused a yellow flag which hampered his final effort. That’s the way the cards are dealt sometimes. We believe we had the pace to be higher up the grid today. Let's see what tomorrow brings. There's a long street race ahead of us."
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Pirelli
Mario Isola, Motorsport Director
“A spectacular and very closely contested qualifying, the teams evenly matched, producing surprises from start to finish. As was easily predictable, the track is still very dirty and it gets significantly quicker with every passing lap. As previously mentioned, this aspect, combined with the preparation phase prior to the flying lap, played a very important role in determining the outcome of the session.
“In terms of strategy, on paper a one-stop is clearly the quickest, with the Medium and Hard the obvious choices. It’s true that no one has really used the C3 so far this weekend, but this compound is absolutely the one the teams know best and it was also extensively tried here in Las Vegas last year. It is therefore no coincidence that all the drivers have kept two sets of the C3 for tomorrow night’s race: they will definitely use one, while the other can be regarded as a back-up in case the race is neutralised, which is always quite possible on a street circuit. As was the case last year, the majority of drivers will start on the Medium before switching to the Hard as from lap 14. Those going for a more cautious approach, especially if they have been relegated to the back end of the grid, could opt to start with the Hard, going past the halfway point before pitting for Mediums. It’s difficult to imagine the Soft coming into play, apart from anyone planning right from the start to go for a two-stop, to make the most of the Hard with a clear track ahead.
“Graining will make itself felt, especially in the early stages, partly because, as we saw today, track conditions will again be reset as the track will have been reopened to city traffic.”
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