From a track, perhaps the last of the season, which on paper seemed to be the perfect hunting ground for the Mercedes W12s, Max Verstappen mocked everyone by signing an unexpected pole position, beating Lewis Hamilton by 2 tenths.
The 100 times author of a pole start in Formula 1 struggled to take advantage of the Soft tires especially in the last sector, precisely the point where Verstappen won his 12th career pole in the top open-wheel series of motorsport.
In the first 2 sectors Hamilton and Verstappen fought on the edge of the cents, resulting paired until the start of the last, the decisive one. Precisely at that point Verstappen and his RB16B made the difference, making Hamilton pay the gap of 2 tenths that deprived him of a pole that seemed already written on the eve of the weekend.
At the end of Qualifying, the 7-time world champion once again underlined that he had lost the right path in the set-up after yesterday’s Free Practice 1, in which he had literally dominated. The wind also played its part but, although a series of problems slowed it down, the confidence of being able to win tomorrow still seems to be intact.
“It was a big effort in Qualifying. After Free Practice 1 we lost our way and our rivals did better than us. The wind changed direction today and made us struggle a lot. It wasn’t my best day, but we can fight for victory tomorrow “.
One of the crucial moments of the race could be the start. Hamilton will start alongside Verstappen and ahead of Sergio Perez. In practice, in an entirely Red Bull Racing vise. The RB16Bs have shown over the course of the season that they have a very interesting starting point and Lewis knows this well. Tomorrow he will try to start as best he can from the second box of the grid and create an overtaking opportunity at the first corner.
“Tomorrow I will certainly give everything and I hope to have a good start. They generally start better than us, Max in particular. I will try to give my best at the start and Turn 1 is an opportunity for us”.
“Tomorrow we will have to be careful with the tire degradation, because in Austin we saw him being very aggressive. It will be interesting to understand the various strategies and understand what we will be able to do in this regard. Tomorrow I will have to be really strong, because I am fighting alone against 2 Reds. Bull. Valtteri will not be able to help me because of the penalty. We will have to prepare well tonight, “concluded Hamilton.
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