Max Verstappen receives a warning from Lewis Hamilton regarding the Austin GP.
Max Verstappen won the pole in Austin, but Lewis Hamilton qualified third, three positions ahead of him, as Mercedes hailed the success of their new upgrades.
Following his victory over Max Verstappen in qualifying for the US Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton vowed to do everything in his power to break his winless streak in Formula 1.
The seven-time world champion will start Sunday’s race third on the grid. He might have even done better than that but Charles Leclerc was quick enough for pole while Lando Norris produced an excellent lap to pip his fellow Brit to a place on the front row
Hamilton, however, was in a good mood and responded to the outcome with a smile. I must extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone at the factory, he said. “They have worked so hard to improve our car, and this weekend we moved up the standings.
I am aware that everyone is giving it their all to achieve that, and I appreciate their efforts. Unfortunately, we weren’t quite at the front today, but we’ll try again tomorrow.
He was referring to his weekend-only upgraded car, which has a brand-new floor. Although it is too soon to draw any firm conclusions, Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin expressed optimism following qualifying.
“Sprint races are always difficult with the limited practice time we have,” he said. “It’s particularly challenging to try and bring an update kit into one. Going through the data, the upgraded floor looks to be giving us what we hoped for, and the drivers are feeling a benefit. That is encouraging…
“Lewis has had a fairly easy day with regard to running on the track. We occasionally believed we might win the race, and ultimately, it was very close. Sadly, he was unable to get any more out of it on his final attempt, but he still received a strong P3.
It was a good enough outcome to guarantee Hamilton will start Sunday’s race in front of Verstappen and with a cushion. The Dutch driver appeared to have won pole, but that lap time was deleted, lowering his best to sixth place on the grid, sandwiched between Carlos Sainz and George Russell.
Despite the fact that Red Bull is likely to still have a much faster race pace, Hamilton allowed
