United States Grand Prix: Qualifying Recap

Friday kicked off with just the one practice session before Grand Prix qualifying later in the afternoon. Hulkenberg and Magnussen were first out on track with their heavily upgraded VF-23 entries – the 60-minute session critical for an early evaluation of the new-look package. After baseline runs on the Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires, both cars ran their final stint on Red softs with Magnussen logging a 1:36.472 (P5) and Hulkenberg a 1:36.702 (P9).

Knockout qualifying brought mixed results with Magnussen advancing out of Q1 with the seventh fastest time – the Dane producing a 1:36.009 on his second run on new softs to progress to Q2. Hulkenberg encountered traffic on his second Q1 run, his hot lap compromised and subsequently deleted for Track Limits. The German’s opening timed run, a 1:36.235, placed him P16 on the timesheet.

Magnussen’s Q2 opener was a 1:36.001 which he bettered on his second set of soft rubber – a 1:35.880 good for P14 in the session. Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc went on to claim pole position in Q3 with a fastest lap of 1:34.723.

Kevin Magnussen:

“There’s been some positive signs today with the upgraded car, and I don’t think we’ve maximized it, I think there’s more in it and I’m excited to see how it performs in the Sprint tomorrow. The race on Sunday is of course the big question, to see if we can look after our tires a little bit better. I don’t think we were expecting to be much more competitive over one lap, I think we’re hoping to solve some of the inconsistency issues, especially race performance.”

 

Nico Hulkenberg:

“It was an unfortunate second run in qualifying, it was the second lap that mattered with the track evolution that we had today, but we got disturbed. We had both Red Bulls interfering with the lap in awkward places which made me lose quite a bit of time and that made the difference. It’s the first day that we’ve run the new updates and after only one hour of practice and qualifying, we need to go through it and understand it more. This morning I wasn’t happy at all with the car, but we made some good set-up changes and it felt much better. I think we could’ve gone a long way today, so it’s very frustrating.”

 

Guenther Steiner, Team Principal:

“I think there was a little bit more in it for us today, we missed out a bit. I think Q2 for both cars was possible, maybe not Q3, but Q2 for sure. On Nico’s lap, he said it himself, he got spooked by a car in front and lost too much in Sector 1 and couldn’t catch up. If you could put the Sector 1 time from his first lap, he would’ve been in. These things happen, but with the upgrade at least we’ve done it, and I think it was worthwhile to do. There is promise there, we just need to work on it a little more, but we know we can get there.”

 

Today's Data

Event: Qualifying for the United States Grand Prix – Friday October 20
Location: Circuit of The Americas, Austin
Layout: 5.513-kilometer (3.426-mile), 20-turn circuit
Weather:  Sunny
Air Temps: 35.2 degrees Celsius (95.3 degrees Fahrenheit)
Track Temps: 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 degrees Fahrenheit)
Team Result: Kevin Magnussen qualified 14^th, Nico Hulkenberg qualified 16^th 

 

Free Practice 1 (FP1) Rundown:

Magnussen: 5^th overall (1:36.472), 21 laps completed
Hulkenberg: 9^th overall (1:36.702), 21 laps completed
Fastest: Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing (1:35.912)

 

Q1 Qualifying: 18-mins with all 20 Drivers – Top 15 Advance to Q2

Magnussen: 7^th overall (1:36.009) – Advanced to Q2
Hulkenberg: 16^th overall (1:36.235)
Fastest: Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes (1:35.091)

 

Q2 Qualifying: 15-mins – Top 10 Advance to Q3

Magnussen: 14^th overall (1:35.880)
Fastest: Charles Leclerc of Scuderia Ferrari (1:35.004) 

 

Q3 Qualifying: 12-mins – Top 10 Drivers

Pole Winner: Charles Leclerc of Scuderia Ferrari (1:34.723)