United States Grand Prix: Qualifying Recap

Magnussen will start 15th on the grid with Schumacher 18th after Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu, who qualified 14th, takes a 5-place grid penalty bumping the Dane and German up one position each.

Both Magnussen and Schumacher were knocked out of qualifying in the opening Q1 session – where only the top 15 cars advance through to Q2. Magnussen posted a 1:38.144 then a 1:37.438 lap on his first set of Pirelli P Zero Red soft tires. Armed with a second set his final lap improved to a 1:36.949 which was agonizingly close to making it into Q2 but ultimately fell just short.

Schumacher followed a similar run plan with two sets of softs at his disposal. Laps of 1:37.816 and 1:37.111 were banked on his first stint, the latter of which proved to be his fastest as Schumacher failed to better that time on his second set of tires following a spin.

Carlos Sainz earned a second career pole position with a fastest lap of 1:34.356 to beat his Scuderia Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc to the top spot in the final Q3 qualifying shootout.

Kevin Magnussen, Driver No. 20, Haas F1 Team

“Apart from Turn 1, it was actually good. I lost three tenths in Turn 1 because of this bump in the middle that the whole weekend we’ve been ok on and managed to not get too jumpy over, but the car took this massive jump for whatever reason. I lost the rear after that bump and three tenths – we were up by one hundredth, so it’s a little bit unfortunate. It’s a new day tomorrow and it’s a track where you can race on and overtake, so if we have the pace we’ll be able to fight back.”

 

Mick Schumacher, Driver No. 47, Haas F1 Team

“The pace looked alright and we had a car that would’ve been able to get into Q2 with the potential for Q3, so it’s very unfortunate that we haven’t been able to show that. The spin itself, it’s very windy up there, it’s bumpy and those cars are very much on the edge. It’s unfortunate that it happened in Turn 1 because we don’t know what the potential could’ve been but just in terms of a gut feeling, it was high. I didn’t drive much in FP3, so we’ll look at the data from Kevin to be able to learn and put the car together which hopefully gives us the potential to go forwards and fight for points.”

 

Guenther Steiner, Team Principal, Haas F1 Team

“Not the performance we expected today out of the car. It looked like we could make it into Q2 at least, but we didn’t. FP3 was a little bit disrupted by the issues on Mick’s car, with the ERS water pump, he got some running in, but it wasn’t ideal. Both drivers didn’t put their second fast lap together and it’s so tight in the midfield – you can either be in Q3 or out in Q1 and we were out in Q1. The long run today from Kevin seemed respectable so hopefully we can fight in the midfield. Starting in P15 and P18 we can still move up, so now we’re getting ready for tomorrow.”  
 

Today's Data

Event: Qualifying for the United States Grand Prix – Saturday October 22
Location: Circuit of the Americas, Austin
Layout: 5.513-kilometer (3.426-mile), 20-turn circuit
Weather: Sunny
Air Temps: 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit)
Track Temps: 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit)
Team Result: Kevin Magnussen qualified 16th, Mick Schumacher qualified 19th 
Notes: MAG starts 15th and MSC 18th after a 5-place grid penalty applied to ZHO

Free Practice 3 Rundown:

Magnussen: 14th overall (1:37.519), 21 laps completed
Schumacher: 19th overall (1:38.132), 12 laps completed
Fastest: Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing (1:35.825)

Q1 Qualifying: 18-mins with all 20 drivers – Top 15 advance to Q2

Magnussen: 16th overall (1:36.949) 
Schumacher: 19th overall (1:37.111)
Fastest: Carlos Sainz of Scuderia Ferrari (1:35.297)

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

Fastest: Charles Leclerc of Scuderia Ferrari (1:35.246) 

Q3 Qualifying: 12-mins featuring the Top 10 

Pole Winner: Carlos Sainz of Scuderia Ferrari (1:34.356)