US Grand Prix Qualifying: Norris handed pole by Russell crash, Verstappen second
F1 NewsSunday, 20 October 2024 at 01:08
Lando Norris took pole for the 2024 US Grand Prix as Max Verstappen had to settle for second as George Russell crashed in the dying moment of Q3 denying the Dutchman a crack at pole.
Verstappen was in control of qualifying topping Q1 and Q2 but then in Q3 he committed the slightest of errors on his first lap in Turn 19 which meant Norris was on provisional pole.
And as the final runs of Q3 were underway, Verstappen set a purple first sector while Norris was not improving, but then George Russell ended up in the barriers after losing control of his Mercedes at Turn 9 which brought out the Yellow flags and stopped the running.
As such Norris took his seventh Formula 1 career pole while Verstappen's pole drought continues from Austria.
Norris will have a challenge on his hands in Sunday's US Grand Prix which is keeping Verstappen at bay as the triple F1 champion is relishing his improved Red Bull RB20 that seems to be better than McLaren's MCL38 around the Circuit of the Americas.
That is not to mention that "An Angry Max is a dangerous Max" and the Red Bull was clearly irate after losing out on pole, but it has to be said that he shoulders the blame after his error on his first lap.
McLaren have upgraded the MCL38 for this weekend's race but the new parts don't seem to be giving them the edge they have been enjoying recently.
The McLaren, as seen in the Sprint, seems to suffer from more tyre degradation compared to the Red Bull while the Ferraris are a threat as they showed that they had the best tyre management.
With that said, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc will start the race from third and fourth on the grid and will probably be a threat for the top two.
Oscar Piastri was a bit improved compared to Sprint qualifying and made Q3 but was down in fifth. Again, we can only speculate whether he could have improved had it not been for Russell's crash.
Russell was sixth fastest despite his crash that capped off a frustrating qualifying for Mercedes that saw Lewis Hamilton out of qualifying in Q1 (19th) while Russell was pushing hard to remain in contention.
Pierre Gasly was superb in the upgraded Alpine (Esteban Ocon did not get the new parts) and was seventh fastest ahead of Fernando Alonso in eighth.
Kevin Magnussen was ninth fastest with Sergio Perez in tenth, the Mexican failing to set a lap time while his first Q3 attempt was deleted for exceeding track limits.
Norris: It was a beautiful lap
"It was a beautiful lap," declared in the post qualifying interviews. "I was not going to go much quicker than I did.
"When you do a lap and know it's going to be tough to beat that...I put everything on the line. It's what we needed to do. We have been on the backfoot pretty much the whole weekend. We haven't had the pace of the Ferraris or Red Bulls.
"So I had to do something and today I did that. A cool lap and a nice way to start the race tomorrow," he maintained.
Asked how McLaren will deal with their tyre degradation issues during the race, Norris explained: "We changed quite a bit [after the Sprint] and made improvements we needed to make.
"Maybe not the quickest car today as Carlos said he was going to go quicker, Max would have gone quicker. Box number one ticked but tomorrow will be a tough race," the 24-year-old concluded.
Verstappen, on the other hand, lamented his error on his first Q3 lap, he commented: "On the first lap I lost quite a bit of time at Turn 19. That's unfortunate.
"I knew we had another run but unfortunately I couldn't finish the lap, otherwise we had a good shot but that's how it goes.
"We are still on the front row at least but the potential was there to be first, so that's very good," he reckoned.
As to his predictions given he won the Sprint race, the Red Bull ace said: "It seemed like we were competitive. We made some minor changes on the car which felt nice, so I hope that's positive for tomorrow."
Sainz was content with his third place, he added: "That was the target, to do a step in qualifying compared to yesterday. Yesterday we were P5, today we are P3, so we have done a good step in the right direction.
"A bit gutted for that last lap because I was three tenths up on my lap, the 1:32.6, going into Turn 16 with only two corners left. But easy to say now.
"We have done some good progress and we should be in the fight tomorrow if we get a clean start. Then with the two guys in front it should be a fun one," Sainz concluded.
Q1: Hamilton gets eliminated
After the Sprint race and with teams applying some changes to their cars (parc ferme can be broken between the Sprint and qualifying), qualifying started in clear conditions with track temperatures at 39 degrees Celsius and air temperature at 29 degrees.
Now the teams can use any tyres they wanted, not like Sprint qualifying where Medium were mandatory in the first two stages (SQ1 and SQ2), so all the drivers were out on the Soft compound from the beginning.
The drivers from the midfield and lower midfield put in their flying laps first, the Norris went fastest with Sainz following in second.
Piastri then went third fastest while Leclerc had his first lap deleted for exceeding the track limits.
Verstappen then started his flying lap and went fastest while Perez behind him posted the third fastest time.
Russell and Hamilton soon start their first flying laps and went tenth and 14th respectively after opting for used Softs.
Then Gasly took the top spot while Nico Hulkenberg slotted in third while Yuki Tsunoda had his lap time deleted and dropped down the order.
Then the second run of laps started and Leclerc went to the top while Hamilton had his lap time deleted for abusing track limits. Sainz was up to third.
Norris' second lap was good for fourth as Verstappen set out on his second flying lap as well as Russell and Hamilton.
In the end, Verstappen topped Q1 with a 1:33.046, 0.195s ahead of Leclerc in second while Liam Lawson was a surprising third in the VCARB, 0.293s off the pace. Norris was tenth.
The first to drop out of qualifying was Alex Albon in the Williams and missed out by 0.018s with teammate Franco Colapinto 17th fastest, 0.011s behind.
Valtteri Bottas was 18th fastest in the Sauber, 0.090s behind Colapinto.
Then came the shock, Hamilton was out of qualifying, 19th fastest after losing his lap time for track limits after exceeding track limits at Turn 12.
Zhou Guanyu was 20th.
Q2: Gasly puts Alpine in Q3
The 15 remaining cars set out for Q2 and Verstappen was the first driver to set a timed lap on used tyres and went fastest and then Perez went second fastest four tenths behind his teammate and on new Softs.
Gasly then posted the second fastest lap while Sainz was third with Leclerc going fifth fastest on old tyres. Stroll soon drops Leclerc to sixth and took fifth fastest on for Ocon to take the position.
Alonso went sixth fastest the Tsunoda jumped to fifth only for Hulkenberg to take that position with Magnussen in sixth.
Norris went out on new Soft tyres and went fastest, two tenths faster than Verstappen while Piastri went third fastest and Russell fourth.
Order after the first run: Norris - Verstappen - Piastri - Russell - Gasly - Sainz - Perez - Hulkenberg - Magnussen - Tsunoda - Ocon - Alonso - Lance Stroll - Leclerc - Lawson
Lawson did not set a time as he will drop ten positions for a power-unit related grid penalty. He would take part in the second round to give Tsunoda a slip stream.
With less than four minutes, the second run of laps began and when those were over, it was Verstappen who went fastest with a 1:32584, over two tenths faster than Sainz.
Norris who opted for one run on new Soft tyres and did not run again was third fastest ahead of Leclerc in fourth and Perez in fifth.
The first driver to drop out was Tsunoda who lost out by three hundredth of a second despite VCARB's attempt to give him a tow. He was 11th fastest.
Hulkenberg was 12th fastest, while Magnussen made it to Q3, the German 0.038s behind Tsunoda and 0.053s ahead of Ocon in 13th.
Stroll was 14th fastest with Lawson in 15th. The Kiwi will start the race from last on the grid.
Q3: Russell's anti climax
And then there were only ten. Q3 was underway to set the top ten places for the starting grid of the 12th US Grand Prix to be held at Austin.
Russell went first going fastest the Magnussen second fastest. Norris took over the top spot with Piastri second behind him only for Sainz to take second fastest and Leclerc behind him in third.
Then Verstappen went second fastest behind Norris who was on provisional pole by 0.031s.
Round one and the order was: Norris - Verstappen - Sainz - Leclerc - Piastri - Russell - Gasly - Magnussen - Perez - Alonso.
Perez had his first lap time deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 9, while Alonso did not take part in the first round of laps. The Spaniard went for his solitary lap just before the second round with all other drivers in the pits.
With less than three minutes remaining from Q3, the second round of laps started and just as Verstappen and Norris were doing their final runs, Russell crashed at Turn 19 and brought out the Yellow flag.
That meant, Verstappen who was improving could not complete his lap and had to settle for second place while Norris took pole by 0.031s.
Sainz was third fastest in the Ferrari, 0.322s off the pace while Leclerc was 0.088s behind him in fourth.
Piastri was fifth fastest in the other McLaren, 0.620s off the pace while Russell was classified sixth after his crash.
Gasly was seventh fastest in the Alpine, a decent result for the Frenchman, while Alonso was eighth fastest ahead of Magnussen in ninth.
Perez whose first lap time was deleted and could not complete another due to Russell's crash will line up tenth on the grid for Sunday's US Grand Prix.
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