The team from Milton Keynes received some sad news just before qualifying. Dietrich Mateschitz, the man who bought the Jaguar team in late 2004, renamed it Red Bull Racing, and turned it into a championship team in just 6 seasons, has died.
Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were worthy opponents, but in the end the Ferraris had the extra hundredths to break ahead. Carlos Sainz Jr. beat Charles Leclerc by 0.065 and Max Verstappen by 0.092, confirming how close battle we had in today's qualifying.
Sergio Perez wasn't far off either, less than three tenths behind, with the Mercedes AMG cars in the background. On the other hand, Lance Stroll surprised in Q3 with an excellent lap to be the best of the rest, ahead of Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso who performed at a very high level during qualifying.
This is because the organizers of the United States Grand Prix offer an extensive entertainment program to the fans, so qualifying started late at 17:00 local time and the sun set at 18:52.
Any longer interruption risked rescheduling the session for the next day. On Friday, drivers complained that the setting sun was blinding on some of the curves.
Before the start of qualifying, it became known about the death of the owner of two Red Bull teams, Dietrich Mateschitz. Formula 1 representatives and team leaders expressed their condolences.
Charles Leclerc had the fastest time in Friday practice sessions, but Max Verstappen was dominant in Saturday practice.
Just like last year, four drivers started qualifying knowing they would lose their positions at the start of Sunday's race. Let's remind that Leclerc, Perez, Alonso and Guanyu have penalties for changing parts of the power unit.
Pirelli brought the C2, C3 and C4 compounds to the role of white, yellow and red tires for the weekend in Austin. In qualifying, everyone used only the red ones.
Mick Schumacher had a spin on the track, destroying his tires, and fast lap. Kevin Magnussen, Daniel Ricciardo, Esteban Ocon, Mick Schumacher and Nicolas Latifi dropped out of the fight.
In the Q2 session, Pierre Gasly locked up his tires and ended his fast lap, returning to his garage. In the first attempt, Leclerc posted the fastest time, driving a lap five hundredths faster than Verstappen's.
Sebastian Vettel had his time deleted for going off track. Leclerc, Sainz Jr. and Perez gave up on the second attempt, and the rest went to the track. Verstappen returned to the pits without completing the lap.
Zhou Guanyu had a lap deleted due to going off the track limits by a millimetres, knocking him out of the top 10. McLaren driver, Lando Norris, returned to the top 10 fastest drivers.
Alex Albon, Sebastian Vettel, Pierre Gasly, Zhou Guanyu and Yuki Tsunoda did not make the final qualifying segment.
In the Q3 session, Charles Leclerc had the fastest time after the first fast laps, but Carlos Sainz Jr., during the second exits on the track, had an extremely fast lap that earned him the pole position.
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