It will not be the world champion who starts from pole position on Sunday…
Max Verstappen has won the loot, but that doesn’t actually make much difference to the tension. It was clear all season who would become world champion. It also applies to the United States GP that it is mainly interesting what the rest does. And with that it can go either way. This also became apparent last night, during qualifying for the United States GP. To be clear: this is qualifying for the main race, not for the sprint race.
Q1
While Max was the fastest during the first (and last) free practice, it became clear during Q1 that pole might not be a given for Verstappen this weekend. Both Norris as Hamilton know how to record faster times. That does not count for Alonso, because for the first time this year he is out in Q1. That makes Stroll’s failure to make it to Q2 a little less embarrassing, although it is already the fifth time in a row for him. Both Williams drivers and Nico Hülkenberg can also take a shower.
The dropouts in Q1 are therefore:
16. Nico Hulkenberg
17. Fernando Alonso
18. Alexander Albon
19. Lance Stroll
20. Logan Sargeant
Q2
In Q2 it is once again not Max Verstappen who records the fastest time. This time it is Charles Leclerc. So it promises to be exciting in Q3. Also Perez This time he is allowed to move on to the next round, even if it is close. He is only 18 thousandths faster than Yuki, who is one of the dropouts. The difference between Tsunoda and Ricciardo is a lot bigger: the Australian is almost three-tenths slower. Completely as expected, both Alfas and the remaining Haas are also out in Q2.
The dropouts in Q2 are:
11. Yuki Tsunoda
12. Guanyou Zhou
13. Valtteri Bottas
14. Kevin Magnussen
15.Daniel Ricciardo
Q1
Five teams remain in Q1: Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren and Alpine. Of these, four have a chance of pole. Who oh who will it be? With 8 minutes on the clock, Leclerc sets a time of 1:34.829. This means he has held provisional pole for quite some time. Hamilton is 56 thousandths short, but what can Max still do? At least he can swear, it turns out, because he thinks Perez is hindering him (which isn’t too bad).
In the last two minutes Max goes for it, but Leclerc also makes an attempt to improve his time. So it is an exciting battle in the final phase. Max notes yellow in the first sector, green in the second sector and… purple in sector three. He takes pole with a lead of five thousandths. But then… His time is canceled due to track limits in turn 19. So it is Charlec who still takes pole position, while Max has to settle for sixth place.
The starting line-up for Sunday looks like this:
- Charles Leclerc
- Lando Norris
- Lewis Hamilton
- Carlos Sainz
- George Russel
- MAX VERSTAPPEN
- Pierre Gasly
- Esteban Ocon
- Sergio Perez
- Oscar Piastri
This article United States GP Qualifying 2023: no pole for Verstappen first appeared on Autoblog.nl.
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