George Russell qualified for Sunday’s United States Grand Prix in 1st place after previously qualifying 2nd in the F4 Sprint.
Meanwhile, Kimi Antonelli will sit 8th in tomorrow’s 56-lap race after battling for 7th place and one point earlier in the day.
George qualified 5th for the Sprint and gained three places when a multi-car crash eliminated both the McLarens and Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber.
He made a hopeful attempt to pass leader Max Verstappen in the early stages but had to settle for 10th, the team’s 2nd Sprint podium and the third of George’s career.
Meanwhile, Kimi improved from 11th to 8th and took the final point after Ollie Bearman was judged to have left the track and gained the advantage while defending against Kimi.
george russell
It’s frustrating to end the day on the front row and just 0.026 seconds away from being two places up on the grid. 4th place is still a solid result but when it’s this close you always feel like you could have done a little more. However, I was happy with my lap. It wasn’t a perfect effort but I managed to squeeze a lot of performance out of the car and when I crossed the line I felt like I did a good job. Getting 2nd place would have been a good way to end the day, especially after finishing the Sprint there this morning, but that’s just the way it goes sometimes.”
The wind is likely to change 180 degrees tomorrow, which will be interesting. We expect the McLarens and Verstappen’s Red Bull to be particularly quick, but hopefully we can be in the mix for the podium. We know we are in a tight fight for second place in the Constructors’ League and every point is important. So I can’t wait to see the race and what we can do.
Kimi Antonelli
I was hoping to do a little better than 7th place in qualifying today. In Q3 we were unable to max out both laps and ended up on the wrong side of a few cars. 5th place today was definitely possible if we managed to put everything together. This was difficult to do, especially at the end of Q2 and the final segment, as wind conditions varied from run to run. It was combative and we will work hard to carry that forward.
With all this, I’m still looking forward to tomorrow. The wind will turn for the race and this will likely affect the balance. As we tried to optimize the car for qualifying, we made sure we didn’t do it at the expense of our race car. Our pace in the sprint looked good, so hopefully we can use that tomorrow and gain some positions.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO
It’s frustrating to finish qualifying with both drivers on the wrong side of a tight group of cars. For George, he was milliseconds away from getting to the front row. His lap was good; We didn’t have the single-lap pace to challenge the top two this weekend, so getting this close was a solid effort. Hopefully we can use the useful race pace we saw in FP1 and the Sprint to fight for the podium with him.
It was also about what might happen on Kimi’s side of the garage. The Q2 lap was the best of the session and there was probably more time left in the first Q3 lap, which was the fastest in that segment. He may have managed to get ahead of Hamilton and Piastri, but he was certainly not the only driver unable to put in his best lap as the wind picked up in the closing stages. There is still a good chance of advancing from 7th place and achieving a solid result.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
Qualifying was certainly an example of what could happen today. Both George and Kimi felt there was more time to find it in Q3, albeit marginally in George’s case. In the best case scenario, we could be looking at P2 and P5 but instead it’s P4 and P7. This highlights how close the field has become in recent times and the importance of offering the maximum at critical moments. It’s an exciting challenge and we hope we can enjoy another strong race tomorrow with a podium finish and double points in this morning’s Sprint.
We gathered some useful data on the Intermediate tire from this 19-lap contest. There will still be many unknowns heading into the Grand Prix. Hot weather will put a strain on the rear tires and management will be crucial. We showed a solid pace despite pushing very hard in the first laps of the sprint race, so we hope that thanks to car performance and strategy we can progress with both drivers tomorrow.
Automobile Magazine – English
