After a chaotic Sprint, it was all about 1-lap pace as the teams and drivers looked to nail a lap around the Circuit of the Americas!
Q1
In Qualifying 1; Alex Albon, Franco Colapinto, Valtteri Bottas, Lewis Hamilton, and Zhou Guanyu were the five slowest drivers! Williams will be disappointed with their afternoons work, but it was clearly all they could manage with Alex Albon just 11 thousandths ahead of teammate Franco Colapinto! Valtteri Bottas actually did a decent job to find himself not that far off a Q2 appearance whilst the same could not be said for Lewis Hamilton as the 7-time World Champion had an absolute shocker! Zhou Guanyu once again ended up slowest in Qualifying, but in fairness to him, he wasn’t that far away either! Max Verstappen topped Q1 for Red Bull, just a couple of tenths ahead of the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc!
Q2
In Qualifying 2; Yuki Tsunoda, Nico Hulkenberg, Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll, and Liam Lawson all failed to make it into the Top 10 shootout! Yuki Tsunoda will have been disappointed to miss out on a Q3 spot by just 3 hundredths of a second whilst Nico Hulkenberg really should’ve done better than P12! Esteban Ocon will start 13th for Alpine, ahead of the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll who had a pretty disappointing day, and Liam Lawson didn’t end up doing a competitive lap time in Q2 due to starting at the back anyway! Max Verstappen once again topped a session, but this time it was ahead of the other Ferrari of Carlos Sainz!
Q3
In Qualifying 3, a storming 1:32.330 was enough for Lando Norris to take a much-needed Pole Position! Lando’s first lap was incredible, and with the help of a crash at the end, it was enough for the McLaren driver to take Pole by just 31 thousandths (of a second)! Due to that crash, Max Verstappen had to settle for second whilst Ferrari locked out the second row of the Grid with Carlos Sainz ahead of Charles Leclerc (both men will fancy their chances today)! Oscar Piastri’s disappointing first lap means he will only start from 5th today whilst George Russell will start from P6 after smashing his car into the barriers at Turn 19! Pierre Gasly pulled out arguably the performance of the day to take P7 for Alpine, ahead of the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso, whilst Kevin Magnussen had another strong showing to place ahead of the other Red Bull of Sergio Perez (who failed to get a legal lap time on the board)!
Starting Grid for the 2024 United States Grand Prix and My Qualifying Grades
Lando Norris: 10
Max Verstappen: 9
Carlos Sainz: 9
Charles Leclerc: 8
Oscar Piastri: 6
George Russell: 4
Pierre Gasly: 10
Fernando Alonso: 8
Kevin Magnussen: 9
Sergio Perez: 4
Yuki Tsunoda: 7
Nico Hulkenberg: 6
Esteban Ocon: 5
Lance Stroll: 2
Alex Albon: 2
Franco Colapinto: 2
Valtteri Bottas: 3
Lewis Hamilton: 1
Zhou Guanyu: 2
Liam Lawson: 6
My Predictions for the 2024 United States Grand Prix
Max Verstappen
Carlos Sainz
Lando Norris
Oscar Piastri
Charles Leclerc
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