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Max Verstappen, the winner of
the last sprint in Belgium this year as well as the last two sprint races in
Austin, is on pole for the sprint race at the Circuit of the Americas again
tomorrow, with the Red Bull driver edging out championship leaders McLaren
for the fourth qualifying session in a row.
The Dutchman beat Lando
Norris, who was quickest in both SQ1 and SQ2 sessions, by less than a tenth
of a second, while the other McLaren of Oscar Piastri was third. Sauber’s
Nico Hulkenberg continued his impressive run from FP1 by claiming fourth.
In unseasonably high temperatures that led to a ‘heat hazard’ being
officially declared, the drivers used only the medium tyres in the first two
sessions and exclusively the soft in the final pole shoot-out, as mandated
by the rules.
Despite ambient temperatures in excess of 30 degrees
centigrade and drivers having very little running on the soft tyre in FP1,
Verstappen’s sprint race pole of 1m32.143s was nearly seven-tenths of a
second faster than his equivalent sprint pole from last year. Tomorrow’s
sprint race takes place at 12:00, in weather conditions that are expected to
be similar to today – ahead of qualifying for the grand prix later in the
afternoon.
Track evolution was high, which led to many drivers
delaying their runs until the closing moments to benefit from a faster
surface: a tactic that sometimes paid off, but also caught some drivers out.
THE DAY ON TRACK
The single free practice session, held in high track temperatures of up to
39 degrees this afternoon, was topped by McLaren’s Lando Norris on the soft
tyre. Lewis Hamilton led for most of the session on the hard tyre – used
throughout the bulk of FP1 – before drivers switched to the soft in the
closing minutes to maximise track evolution.
Ferrari instead chose to
run to the medium tyre at the end to practice for sprint qualifying
(mandated in SQ1 and SQ2): a tactic echoed by Racing Bulls and Mercedes.
The surprise of the session was P2 for Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg, thanks
to a quick run on the soft right at the end.
SIMONE BERRA – PIRELLI CHIEF ENGINEER
“As expected, all the teams chose to start the day on a set of C1 tyres: a
compound probably not thought of as a competitive race option, and so used
mainly in FP1 to help drivers familiarise themselves with the initial track
conditions. The real performance gap to the other two compounds is actually
less compared to the pre-event simulations, but it’s still significant.
Nonetheless, the C1 offered good grip during the performance runs and
underlined its consistency in the long runs carried out by some of the
teams. Even though asphalt temperatures were higher than last year, the
fastest soft tyre laps in FP1 and SQ3 were faster, which is mainly down to
the technical evolution of the cars. Verstappen’s sprint pole today was
two-tenths faster than the pole time from Norris for the 2024 grand prix
here at COTA. The performance gap between medium and soft is slightly bigger
than predicted, but that’s not unusual during a sprint weekend, with the
teams having limited time to optimise car setup and maximise overall
performance."
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