Carlos Sainz was the man to beat over one lap on Saturday, after an excellent lap in tricky driving conditions. USGP 🇺🇸 F1
The Ferrari driver also started from P1 at this year’s British Grand Prix and went on to win – and will be aiming to maintain that 100% record when he starts alongside Max Verstappen on the front row, with Charles Leclerc dropping down the order due to engine penalties.
Less than an hour before the start of qualifying, news was confirmed that Red Bull company founder Dietrich Mateschitz had died after a long illness at the age of 78. Verstappen and fellow driver Sergio Perez were among the entire team staff who were called together for a sombre meeting to inform them of the sad development.
But then attention quickly had to revert to matters on track, with Perez knowing he was facing a five-place grid penalty for taking new engine parts more than the permitted maximum for the season. His drop was the same as those affecting Fernando Alonso and Zhou Guanyu – but Charles Leclerc had a 10-place penalty for he took a new turbo as well as an ICE.
As the air temperature reached its peak for the day, drivers were having to eke out the limited life of their soft tyres and Sainz did that superbly as he went almost half a second faster than anyone in Q1 entering the final seven minutes and remained at the top of the standings.