The British George Russell (Mercedes) expressed the power of Mercedes in the Las Vegas GP and will start this Sunday from pole position by beating the time of the Spanish Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) by 98 thousandths, who seconds before had set a time stratospheric to threaten the dominance of English, which, however, still improved on its second attempt.
Russell set a time of 1:32.312 with which he destroyed the other competitors in a classification in which only Sainz could approach the level of the Briton, while neither the Mexican ‘Checo’ Pérez (Red Bull), sixteenth, nor the Spanish Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), seventeenth, were able to advance from Q1.
The surprise of Frenchman Pierre Gasly
For his part, the Dutch Max Verstappen, leader of the World Championship and who only needs to equal or even lose two points with respect to the British Lando Norris (McLaren) to be crowned world champion for the fourth time, will start fifth, one position ahead of Norris.
However, the big surprise of the day was the third position of the Frenchman Pierre Gasly (Alpine), who will start third and ahead of the Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), after a ‘quali’ marked by the accident of the Argentine Franco Colapinto (Williams) , who crashed at the beginning of turn 16 in the final seconds of Q2 when he touched the inside left wall, although he was able to get out on his own two feet.
Very competitive race
Mercedes had dominated the three free practice sessions and it only remained to be seen if it could do the same in a ‘quali’ in which neither Ferrari, McLaren nor Max Verstappen were going to hold anything back, after being hidden throughout the weekend.
Although at the beginning of the weekend the protagonist was the Dutchman, who could be crowned world champion this Sunday, the great references of these last two days had been the British Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
Hamilton had set the best time in the first two sessions, while the third free session had been for Russell, a superiority that they also showed in the first two rounds of the ‘quali’, although Norris, Verstappen, Leclerc or Sainz did not sign so fast that starting grid.
But despite everything, George Russell’s first time in Q3 already confirmed the predictions. With a 1:32.8, he was two tenths ahead of Sainz, who until then had led, and even so, the Briton wanted to go for more, because he had touched the wall in turn 5, losing a few thousandths.
The ease of warming up the Mercedes tires and also finding some grip on the cold Las Vegas track, where they roll at 10 p.m. local time, allowed the British team to have a competitive advantage over the other teams. , especially with respect to Verstappen, who had not found his rhythm but wanted to get his fourth World Championship in a row on track.
However, on the second attempt, Leclerc improved his time and took first, although that lead barely lasted a few seconds, the same time that was enough for Sainz to destroy the partials and rise to a momentary first position while waiting for Russell.
However, the Briton, like Mercedes throughout the weekend, gave no option and beat the Madrid man’s time by 98 thousandths, after performing a pinpoint drive that allowed him to take pole position and also surpass Hamilton, who despite Due to his good times during the weekend, he fought with the car and finished tenth, not having a single good attempt in Q3.
He also did not have a good ‘quali’ Checo Pérez was barely able to move from sixteenth position in Q1, a situation that makes things very complicated for the Austrian team to qualify for the Constructors’ World Championship, in which right now they are third thanks to the Verstappen’s effectiveness.
It was even worse for Alonso, who finished seventeenth, one position behind ‘Checo’ and just two tenths away from making the cut. The Spaniard aborted his second and last attempt after a very bad first sector that made him lift his foot and settle for seventeenth place, after the decline of Aston Martin in recent weeks.
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