Feature
What the teams said – Sprint Qualifying in the United States
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Red Bull
Verstappen started this triple header in perfect fashion, by grabbing pole for tomorrow’s Sprint and crucially beating his championship rival Norris. His Red Bull looked solid all day long, and reportedly has good long run pace too. Verstappen’s serene progress wasn’t matched by Perez though, the Mexican enduring a messier session. He had a lap time deleted for track limits and then couldn’t extract enough pace from the car to make SQ3 – and from P11, will have to work hard to make it back to the points tomorrow.
Max Verstappen, 1st, 1:32.833
“It was a positive day. From lap one the car was in a decent window and I felt quite comfortable. I could attack the high speed corners and I think we were quite quick there. Going into a Sprint quali is always a tricky one as you do two mediums and then a soft tyre: with the mediums you get a bit of reference but then you go into SQ3 with the soft tyre which is only really one lap. You can’t really push to the limit and you have to leave a bit of a margin. Looking at the lap, there are a few little balance issues to sort out, but to be ahead of the others is really positive. I’m aware that there are a lot of fast cars around me but I’m happy and it’s definitely a positive return. Looking to the rest of the weekend, we just want to make the car a bit more driveable and that we are all good on the tyres in the race.”
Sergio Perez, 11th, 1:34.244
“Today was very frustrating, especially from SQ1 to SQ2, we didn’t have any progression and if anything, we took a step back with the tyres - that made things a lot tricker. I am struggling too much early on in the lap, through sector one and we need to look at that. I think I am suffering quite a bit with ride issues in high speed and that’s something we also need to look into. Hopefully we can learn quite a bit today from the car and make sure in qualifying tomorrow that we are able to put it together. We still have some work to do for the rest of the weekend, the main target is to be strong in the race and our long run pace looked very promising this morning.”
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Mercedes
The Mercedes was another car that looked a handful in practice, Hamilton and Russell both spinning on different parts of the track. But they managed to find a better set-up for Sprint Qualifying, with Hamilton in particular looking fast. He was the pick of the two drivers until SQ3, when the team sent them out earlier than the rest. That was a masterstroke as they seemed to have the better conditions, and while Russell nailed his lap to sit top – only beaten late on by a great effort from Verstappen – Hamilton was forced to lift off for yellow flags as Colapinto spun in front of him. That cost him any chance of pole today.
Lewis Hamilton, 7th, 1:33.378
"That was a real shame today as I got unlucky with a yellow flag. I was four tenths up on my lap and looking good for P1, but it is what it is. The good thing is that we seem to have made a step forward with the car. The update we have brought here was working well and I am really grateful to everyone back at the factory for their hard work. The last few races haven’t been straightforward, but everyone has done a great job to bring this upgrade.
"We also did some strong work after FP1 to improve the car for Sprint Qualifying. Sprint weekends add an extra level of jeopardy with a second parc fermé, but as soon as we took to the track, I knew we had made some good choices. Despite our disappointment today, we have another go at it tomorrow and we will be giving it our best."
George Russell, 2nd, 1:32.845
"I’m really happy with how today went. It has been a while since we qualified on the front-row so we can be pleased with the progress we have made. The update kit we brought here seems to be working well although it has surprised us a little how competitive we were today. Sprint Qualifying was a tricky session, but I was able to put my lap in SQ3 together. The final sector in particular was strong and that is what enabled us to take P2.
"Lewis was very quick today, and he was unlucky to be caught out by a yellow flag. We both should have been up there but it’s great that, as a team, we were back in the mix today. It is also clearly very close with several other outfits including Red Bull, Ferrari, and McLaren. Hopefully we can continue this form into the weekend and look forward to fighting at the front."
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
"We can take many positives but ultimately, we end the day slightly frustrated. Lewis was on for a lap that would have been more than enough for P1. We had opted to go on the early side to avoid any interruptions with yellows on a busy track at the end of the session. Unfortunately, and ironically, Lewis caught a yellow flag following a spin for the Williams of Colapinto at turn 12. That put paid to his challenge for the front-row and he will line up P7.
"George wasn’t as comfortable with the car today as Lewis but it’s a clear sign of progress that he was still able to take P2. We have brought an update kit this weekend and its introduction has been straightforward. It is of course only one day of running but it does look like we are seeing the gains we hoped for. We will look to continue that momentum into the rest of the weekend."
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Ferrari
Sainz topped FP1 with Leclerc not too far behind, Ferrari starting the weekend strongly. Both cars made it through SQ1 and SQ2 easily and looked in the mix for pole. But they came out late in SQ3, well after the Mercedes cars and it looked like the track went away from them slightly. Third for Leclerc and fifth for Sainz are still good starting slots, but they might have hoped for slightly more given how quick they looked in practice.
Charles Leclerc, 3rd, 1:33.059
"Not the ideal result, but P3 is not too bad as a starting position for the Sprint Race and we will push to make up some places tomorrow. Our pace looked good on the Medium, but on the Soft we didn’t quite have the pace to challenge for P1 today. The lap was a bit scrappy, but overall, the feeling wasn’t great which happens, especially when you’ve had limited running time in practice.
"We still don’t have a clear picture of everyone’s race pace so I hope we have a strong Sprint Race as that would be a positive sign for Sunday."
Carlos Sainz, 5th, 1:33.089
"It was a very tight Sprint Qualifying and overall the session wasn’t too bad. We did good laps in SQ1 and SQ2 with the Medium tyre, but we missed a bit with the Soft. On the last flying lap in SQ3 it was all about the slightest of details but we still have tomorrow to go at it again.
"On the race pace I think we could be competitive so I expect an interesting Sprint Race tomorrow where we will fight to gain some positions."
Fred Vasseur, Team Principal
"So far so good I would say, even if it was not the result we expected after we were heading the field this morning on the Hard and the car was also okay on the Soft. SQ1 and SQ2 went very well and then in SQ3 we lost a bit with the Soft, but overall the pace is there and it shows continuity from Monza, Baku and Singapore.
"As usual, it’s very tight and we saw Mercedes and Verstappen much better on the Soft than the Medium, while it was the opposite for us, which bodes well for our race pace on Saturday and Sunday as we won’t have to use the Soft in the race. Tomorrow, starting from P3 and looking at our pace on the Medium we have the pace to fight for the win."
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McLaren
McLaren’s day started badly, with Piastri involved in a bizarre incident in practice where he missed the pit lane entry after carrying too much speed – the Australian forced to cut across the white line and back out onto the race track. Norris was struggling with a car that looked a handful, and they didn’t seem to find many answers before Sprint Qualifying. Piastri exited at the first time of asking after losing his lap time to track limits, his car stepping out and sliding around to make it the first time he’s failed to make SQ3 this season. Norris did progress to the top-10 shootout, but once there had a messy last run and could only manage fourth.
Lando Norris, 4th, 1:33.083
“A frustrating Sprint Qualifying this afternoon. My lap could have been cleaner, so I’m disappointed. We’ll look into it tonight and find the areas to work on ahead of tomorrow’s sessions. We’re in the mix though and within touching distance of the leaders with only a couple of cars to overtake, so that’s my plan for the Sprint with the aim of scoring strong points in our push for the Championship.”
Oscar Piastri, 16th, 1:34.881
“It’s a shame to be out of Sprint Qualifying so early. Most of the lap was good, but I just made a few mistakes in the last sector. In the second to last corner, I tried to carry a bit too much speed and just exceeded the limits of the track. It’s a shame but one of the good things about Sprint weekends is that we have another chance to show our true pace tomorrow. It’s going to be tough to get back up into the points from where we are, but we’ll do what we can and try to secure some valuable points for the team.”
Andrea Stella, Team Principal
“The first weekend of this triple-header starts again with a very tight field, and four different teams in the first four positions after the Sprint Qualifying session. We didn’t have the smoothest day. Oscar had a lap deleted and was eliminated in SQ1 as a consequence. On Lando’s side of the garage, we were able to progress to SQ3 comfortably. He looked like he was on course to set a very competitive lap, but a couple of issues in the final sector pushed him down to P4. It’s still a good position from which to score points, and we’ve also gathered good information that will allow us to extract a little bit more from the car, while learning about the updates we have brought here to Austin.”
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Haas
Haas had a very solid day on home soil, as they managed to get both cars into SQ3. Not only that, but they both qualified in the top eight – with points only available tomorrow for the top eight finishers. And if that wasn’t enough, Haas also have both cars starting ahead of championship rivals, RB. So all in all, it was a good day for the American outfit, who will be looking to try and overtake RB in the championship tomorrow.
Nico Hulkenberg, 6th, 1:33.183
“I’ll have to let that sink in for a bit. It was a very tricky qualifying as it was really up and down. In SQ1 I didn’t feel very good in the car, and I think we were lucky to make it through, so I didn’t expect that. We got lucky, and in SQ2 it got better, and it got better again in SQ3 on the soft tyres. We still need to look into the update as it currently feels tricky to drive with the wind and everything, but we now have a lot more data to look at.”
Kevin Magnussen, 8th, 1:33.398
“I think it’s been looking good all day really, so I’m not too surprised that we’re up there. I’m really glad that we got both cars into SQ3, with Nico just acing it when he needs to on that last lap. P6 and P8 for tomorrow’s Sprint is a decent start to the weekend. Nico is running with the upgrade so it’s extra nice to see him up there because we want to see that car go quicker, and I’m getting the update after the Sprint. It’s good to get data and split the cars, it's definitely the right decision. I did the best I could today so we can be on for points tomorrow.”
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Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal
“That was an amazing result. On the medium tyres, Kevin was on top of it and doing really well and Nico was actually playing catch-up, he wasn’t as happy with the car as Kevin. Towards the end of SQ2, Nico had quite a big water leak issue so it was really touch and go to whether we could send him out in SQ3 but everyone in the garage did an amazing job to get him out; when we left the garage, there was only a 10 second margin. On used softs he delivered a great lap again to get P6, whereas Kevin was slightly disappointed to be P8 on the new tyre, but if you’re disappointed with P8, that’s a good place. I think the thing is we have more potential, so it’s a really good day.”
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RB
Lawson hadn’t driven at the track before, so he spent much of his day learning. He got close to his team mate though, in an encouraging showing. He was close to making SQ3 despite admitting his last lap was a bit messy, but he then lost that time to track limits so was bumped down to P15. As for Tsunoda, he was the man responsible for knocking Perez out of the top 10 in SQ2, and wound up a very decent ninth – but the team won’t be happy to see their rivals’ Haas have both cars ahead of the Japanese racer.
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Liam Lawson, 15th, No time set in SQ2
"It was good to be back in the seat today. We were up to speed pretty quickly and we were building and building, but then I think I found the limit a little bit, I went wide on the curb and got massive wheel spin and then obviously you’re trying to make up from the rest of the lap because you know you’re at a delta. It was a scrappy lap, which is a shame because the car is really fast and to be honest, I actually felt really good and comfortable, so we’ll learn from it to take into tomorrow."
Yuki Tsunoda, 9th, 1:33.802
“It was tricky today, but we managed to get into SQ3, which is good. There’s still a gap from Haas and Williams and it seems they have quite a lot of pace. We have to review what we could have done better today and probably improve our car, to try and get into Q3 tomorrow afternoon. Starting P9 we’ll do as much as we can to try and score points in the Sprint.”
Alan Permane, Racing Director
“A great effort from Yuki to get into SQ3, although ultimately we didn’t have the pace of the Haas cars who are our main rivals in the championship today. But we will give it our all in the Sprint, after which we have another shot at qualifying tomorrow evening for the main race. A good job from Liam today, as he was straight on the pace in free practice. He was a little bit unfortunate to very marginally go off track at turn 1 and lose his lap time in SQ2. Without that he would have been 12th, less than two tenths behind his team-mate. So it was a very good first day for him and he can now build on that tomorrow.”
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Williams
It was a mixed bag down at Williams, as Colapinto continued his impressive run by making it all the way to SQ3. Once there, he unfortunately spun on his first flying run and then had to set his lap time on flat-spotted tyres so had to settle for a still very decent P10. Albon though had a trickier time of it. He spun 360 degrees right at the end of SQ1 when on his last flying run, which wrecked any chance he had of progressing further.
Alex Albon, 18th, 1:35.054
"It was my mistake today; I should’ve been able to avoid that kerb, however we went for a bit of a stiffer car in Sprint Qualifying compared to FP1, so I just found it a bit too stiff from one session to the next. The car would’ve got us into SQ2 so I don’t think we need to make too many changes, it’s more about the tyres which are flat-spotted and can’t be used for the race tomorrow. We’ll have to see what we can do with the race run now as it feels slightly compromised."
Franco Colapinto, 10th, 1:34.406
"It was a good Sprint Qualifying session, but I’m frustrated with myself as we were in a good place to beat the cars around us, but I made a mistake in Turn 1 which cost me. I tried to recover the time, but it wasn’t enough. Sadly, it wasn’t a clean lap in Q3, and it felt like we should’ve been in the top eight. I need to learn from this and continue to understand the limit of the tyres. However, after having only an hour to learn the track with this car, I made some good progress but felt like there was more there. We are starting close to the points tomorrow so let’s see what we can do."
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Sven Smeets, Sporting Director
"There is always a lot of pressure on the Friday of a Sprint weekend. With only having one Free Practice you need to have the car in the right window straightaway. Both drivers were reasonably happy after Free Practice and confident to get into SQ2. Unfortunately, Alex made a mistake in his last push lap in SQ1 taking a bit too much kerb and could not avoid spinning. Franco passed into SQ2 with a good lap and went through into SQ3 with his only push lap. In SQ3 he made a mistake and had to settle for P10 in the end. A great performance at a new track with only one Free Practice session. We have one car in a good position to fight for points and with the other one we will focus on fine tuning the setup for Qualifying and the race on Sunday."
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Alpine
Gasly is the lucky driver to have the upgraded package at this race, and it seemed to make a difference as he made it to SQ2. Ocon couldn’t follow suit, exiting at the first time of asking. Their positions are in stark contrast to their starting slots for the last Sprint in Austria, but this track looks trickier for the Alpine car. Gasly spun off in FP1, with the track surface and the windy conditions catching more than just the Frenchman out today.
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Esteban Ocon, 17th, 1:34.917
“We did a solid morning’s work in Free Practice 1 to prepare for Sprint Qualifying. We were quite close to reaching SQ2 but we are still lacking some pace. There are usually opportunities in Sprint races, so we will do our best to be in a position to capitalise on those. We will continue to do the best we can and hope to come out with some conclusions for the team on ways to further improve the car and extract more performance from what we currently have.”
Pierre Gasly, 12th, 1:34.363
“We did a reasonable job today as we prepare for the Sprint weekend in Austin. It’s the first time with our new package with some upgrades on the car. At this stage, it’s important that we continue to keep understanding the car, continue gathering valuable data and really push development, which will also benefit us for next season. It is going to be a challenge to score points from starting in the middle of the pack but we will always give it our best as you never know what can happen in racing.”
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Aston Martin
Aston Martin sent their two cars out late in SQ2, opting for just the one run. It didn’t work out, as both drivers lost their lap times to track limits. In the end it didn’t matter as neither driver was able to set a quick enough time to progress, even if they hadn’t had their times deleted. Starting down the order, points in the Sprint look a tough ask but Alonso has previous of going for a bold start, and Turn 1 can cause some chaos so it isn’t beyond the realms of possibility that they can move forward.
Fernando Alonso, 14th, No time set in SQ2
"We wanted to experiment a little with the car today and made some setup changes ahead of Sprint Qualifying. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to make it through to SQ3 and we also had some deleted laps due to track limits at the end. We will evaluate these changes and the new package tonight and see what we can do tomorrow. The top eight positions score tomorrow, so it will be very difficult to fight for points, but we'll see what we can learn."
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Lance Stroll, 13th, No time set in SQ2
"The car felt alright in SQ1, but in SQ2 it became very tricky to drive and we got caught out by track limits. We've got more work to do tonight to look through the data we've collected and understand how we can optimise the updates we’ve brought to the car. I think pace-wise we're in a similar place to where we have been all season."
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Kick Sauber
It was a difficult day for Kick Sauber in Austin, with Zhou losing track time in the only practice session thanks to a loss of power. That led to his car being dismantled, but he had at least run the soft compound tyre early in FP1 so has that information to fall back on. Bottas was the only driver to opt for the medium compound in practice, but that experience didn’t stand him in good stead in Sprint Qualifying. He couldn’t extract enough pace when it mattered, falling in SQ1 as Kick Sauber locked out the final row on the grid.
Valtteri Bottas, 19th, 1:35.148
"Qualifying was quite difficult today, with the wind picking up and affecting my consistency. The end result doesn’t look different from recent rounds, but the feel in the car is improved: the upgrades we brought to this race have put us in a better position and we are closer to the competition. We still need to find more stability, so the plan is to fine-tune the setup after tomorrow’s sprint, before qualifying for Sunday, with the goal of doing something more tomorrow and putting us in a better position for the race."
Zhou Guanyu, 20th, 1:36.472
"It was a very tricky day, straight from the morning with some technical issues costing us some track time, and few laps completed in FP1. On a Sprint weekend, losing any track time is something we cannot afford, so we knew the day would be hard. My best lap in Sprint Qualifying was deleted, but on that attempt, I was just half a tenth behind Valtteri: still, it wouldn’t have been enough to move up from the last row. It’s frustrating to feel you’ve got the most out of the car and you’re close to your team-mate, but both of us are at the back of the field: it shows that, as a team, we still have a lot of work to do. However, I'm hopeful that by solving the issues we've faced so far this weekend, we can have a cleaner Saturday and Sunday."
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative
"We can't avoid being disappointed with the performance in today's sprint qualifying session, where Valtteri and Zhou struggled to find the right balance, particularly in the first sector. The margins between going out in SQ1 and progressing to SQ2 are minimal, but this doesn’t hide the fact that we couldn’t make the progress we needed to make the cut. Earlier today, we received positive feedback on the new package we introduced on Valtteri's car, including a new front wing. However, we were unable to maximize the potential of these updates during the session. We acknowledge the challenges of the sprint format in optimising the package and the setup, but this is not an excuse for today’s results. Moving forward, we will work closely with our drivers to find more potential in the car through setup adjustments. Our goal is to extract maximum performance for the upcoming qualifying session tomorrow and the main race on Sunday, as we continue our push to the end of the season."
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Pirelli
Simone Berra, Chief Engineer
“A Friday which saw lap times clearly quicker than those from last year at this track and also lower than the simulations going into the event based on the average of data received by Pirelli from the ten teams. In fact, today’s pole was also two seconds quicker than last year’s (1’34”723) and a little over seven tenths faster than the predicted time of 1’33”600.
“With the same tyres as last year, several factors contributed to the significant reduction in lap time, apart from the normal evolution of the cars: the resurfaced track offered more grip, there was a marked reduction in the number of bumps, which meant the teams could lower the car’s height to the ground, while temperatures were also cooler than last year’s.
“As for the difference in performance between the compounds, an initial analysis would suggest that they are pretty much in line with our predictions, even if it has to be said that, particularly in Q3, it wasn’t easy for the drivers to get all the potential out of the softest compound, partly because of the gusts of wind, which at times got close to 30 km/h.
“Tomorrow, we expect that, as was the case in 2023, the Medium will be the absolute favourite (last year only Sainz used the Soft). On Sunday too, the C3 will be the most used tyre, which explains why in today’s free practice, with the exception of the Sauber duo, all drivers used at least one set of Hards. In a race where the quickest strategy is a two-stop, with the Soft apparently not a valid option, it’s clear that the Medium will rule the roost.”
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