Near perfect day for Verstappen The four week break between the Singapore Grand Prix and the race this weekend has done the Red Bull driver the world of good. Max Verstappen was in clear control of the sprint race from start to finish winning the sprint by almost four seconds, his first win since the sprint race at Austria. He qualified for tomorrow’s race in second and he was on a fast lap when qualifying finished prematurely due to Mercedes George Russell’s crashing in the final minute of qualifying. Verstappen still leads the driver championship by 46 points over Mclaren’s Lando Norris.
Perez continues to struggle As Verstappen thrived in the Texan sun the same cannot be said for his Red Bull teammate. Sergio Perez finished outside the points in the sprint with coming in ninth and will finish the start of the race in tenth. He was unable to record a time in Q3 due to the Russell crash. Perez sits in eighth in the driver championship, over 200 points behind his teammate. Even though he has a contract for the next two season there is immense pressure on Perez holding his spot in the team. Red Bull will be expecting a strong result from him in the race tomorrow.
Qualifying brilliance for Norris. McLaren’s Lando Norris will start the USA Grand Prix in pole position after a brilliant final qualifying lap in Q3. This might have been helped by the Russell crash but nothing can be taken away from Norris who said after qualifying to Sky Sports F1 that this was one of his best ever qualifying laps. He finished the sprint race in third after being overpassed by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz on the final lap. He will face competition from both the Ferrari’s as they looked quick in both the sprint and qualifying.
No highlights for Piastri after the first two days in Texas but there is still hope for the race on Sunday. On Friday afternoon it was a horror show who McLaren’s Oscar Piastri who was knocked out of Q1 in the sprint qualifying. On Saturday he would climb up six places in the sprint race but was given a five second penalty for forcing Alpine’s Pierre Gasly off the race track. He will start the race from fifth and is in reaching distance on his teammate who starts from pole.
The Ferrari’s are real contenders for the race win tomorrow. There would have been nervous faces in the Ferrari garage at the beginning of the sprint with their drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz battling back and forth for positions. It was enthralling viewing for the spectators around around the race track as Sainz who will join Williams next season came out on top. Both drivers passed Russell and Sainz passed Norris on the final lap with Sainz finishing second and Leclerc fourth. They will start Sunday’s race on the second row of the grid with Sainz third and Leclerc fourth.
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