Drama surrounding world champion Max Verstappen during qualifying for the US Grand Prix in Austin! The Dutchman set a 1:34.718 in Q3, the fastest time of the day. However, his lap time was canceled because he exceeded the track limits in turn 19.
Pole position for Sunday’s race went to Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) ahead of Lando Norris (McLaren) and Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes).
Verstappen himself fell back to sixth position behind Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and George Russell (Mercedes).
How did Daniel Ricciardo’s comeback go?
The Australian returned to the cockpit for the first time since Friday in Zandvoort. From this weekend, Ricciardo will take over the AlphaTauri again from Liam Lawson, who had represented him in the Netherlands since his injury.
However, in his comeback qualifying he couldn’t get past 15th place and thus the last position in Q2. He also ended up behind his teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who missed the jump into Q3 in eleventh place by just 0.018 seconds.
Perez was lucky and narrowly made the cut in tenth place. Also in Q2, the two Alfa Romeo drivers Guanyu Zhou and Valtteri Bottas and Kevin Magnussen were eliminated in positions 12 to 14. A small disappointment for Haas, which had brought both cars into the top 10 in FT1 with the update this weekend.
What was going on with Nico Hülkenberg?
For the only German driver in the field, it was already time for work in Q1. With a 1:36.235, he narrowly missed the jump into Q2 in 16th place by just 0.022 seconds. However, the Haas driver is in good company at the start on Sunday.
Immediately behind him came Fernando Alonso, who finished 17th and missed out on Q3 for the first time this year. Teammate Lance Stroll only finished 19th and missed out on qualifying for Q2 for the fifth time in a row.
Aston Martin had previously had problems with an overheating left front brake on both cars in FT1. In addition, qualifying after Q1 was over for the two Williams drivers Alexander Albon (18th) and Logan Sargeant (20th).
The American ended up behind his teammate again in his home race. In the internal Williams qualifying duel it is now 18-0 for Albon.