Qualifying - 2017 US GP team quotes

Ferrari

A solid team effort and a fine piece of driving on his very last run means Seb will start from the front row of the grid tomorrow. Kimi was unable to fully capitalize on the potential of the SF70H and ended up with fifth fastest, setting exactly the same lap time as Daniel Ricciardo. However, as the Australian set the time first, he starts ahead of the Ferrari man. Now it’s time for Scuderia Ferrari drivers and the whole team to focus on tomorrow’s race, when temperatures are expected to be lower than in Qualifying.

“My final lap in Q3 was good enough for the front row”, Sebastian said “and in the end we got closer than we had expected. I am looking forward to the race, and then tomorrow we’ll see what we can do. The car is good and generally we have a better pace in racing, so it should be better tomorrow. Again, the team did a splendid job in rebuilding the car around a different chassis overnight and not even breaking the curfew! For tomorrow we need a good start first of all and then we need to put pressure on our competitors. I’m not too concerned about starting on the less rubbered-in side of the track, as we’ve seen in the past here that you can attack. We have the car to do so and we can fight”.

“Today the car was better than it had been so far this weekend,” said Kimi. “After the Friday session we made some changes and in qualifying I had a good feeling. We tried our best, but fifth position was the maximum we could get. I think there was more to take out of the car, but in some places it was a bit tricky to get it right. I struggled to put all the corners together, some laps were good and in some others it was more difficult. It was a decent qualifying, but for sure it could have been better, so I can’t be satisfied with the result. At the start tomorrow it will be quite tight; we’ll try to make a good getaway from the line and see what we can achieve at the first corner…”

Mercedes

Lewis storms to pole position, Valtteri to start tomorrow’s Grand Prix from P3

— Lewis claimed his 72nd career pole position as he sets a new track record at the Circuit of The Americas – his second pole position at this track and 11th of the 2017 season
— Valtteri will start tomorrow’s United States Grand Prix from P3 on the grid
— Today’s result marks the 13th pole position of the 2017 season for the Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrows
— Today’s pole position marks Lewis’ 117th front-row start which is a new all-time record in Formula One
— Both drivers completed one run on the SuperSoft compound tyres in Q1, then two runs on the UltraSofts in both Q2 and Q3

Lewis Hamilton

The team have done an exceptional job all weekend to filter the data that we have gathered and put the car in the right place. This is such a fantastic circuit – it’s really challenging, you’re constantly dancing with the car. I’m really happy to be on pole, but we know we’re often strong through practice and qualifying and have found the races tougher this year. I’m looking forward to a nice race tomorrow with Sebastian and Valtteri. This is a track where you can follow and overtake. I remember the race in 2012 when I passed Sebastian for the win – I hope he’s not that close tomorrow, but let’s see.

Valtteri Bottas

It was quite a tricky session; each lap was different because of the wind. Otherwise, it was a pretty straightforward day. We’ve made quite a few set-up changes over the weekend as we work to make the car quicker. There were no big mistakes; I was just lacking that extra bit of pace. I was losing most of the time in the last sector, but that’s not a big surprise as that’s where the slow-speed corners and technical sections are. However, anything is still possible tomorrow. Our race pace looked promising, so it should be a good fight. Three teams can win tomorrow, so we really need to give it everything we’ve got.

Toto Wolff

That was an unusual end to the qualifying session, with neither driver improving on the final run, but we must be very happy with that pole position. Lewis has been faultless in the past few races and this was another great lap – it’s a strong circuit for him and he has enjoyed a healthy advantage all weekend. Valtteri made good progress with the car overnight and was much closer in qualifying than yesterday in practice; but he couldn’t make another step on the final lap, so was beaten to the front row by Vettel. This just shows the fine margins that we are working with when it comes to putting every piece of the puzzle together. However, P1 and P3 are very good starting positions to have a strong race tomorrow.

James Allison

I am delighted for Lewis to have secured pole position – and the team’s fourth in a row at this circuit. Any day when you start a Grand Prix from P1 and P3 is a good one. But after the metronomic progression through each round of qualifying, we were left with the feeling that there was perhaps a tenth or two more in the car on that final run, and that the front row was within our grasp. However, it would be churlish to be anything other than delighted with the result. Looking forward to the race, the combination of good grid positions and our high fuel running on Friday shows that we have a good opportunity for both cars to have a strong race.

Haas F1

Haas F1 Team drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen qualified 14th and 20th, respectively, for the United States Grand Prix Sunday at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas. However, Grosjean will start 12th because of grid penalties incurred by others who qualified ahead of him.

Grosjean set the 15th-fastest time in Q1 with a lap of 1:36.835 around the 5.513-kilometer (3.426-mile), 20-turn track. Magnussen was 20th quickest with a lap of 1:37.394. Just the top-15 drivers move on to Q2.

In Q2, Grosjean earned the 14th fastest time with a lap of 1:35.870. Only the top-10 drivers from Q2 advance to Q3.

Both Grosjean and Magnussen ran exclusively on the Pirelli P Zero Purple ultrasoft tire throughout qualifying.

Taking the pole for the United States Grand Prix was Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. His fast lap of 1:33.108 was .239 of a second better than runner-up Sebastian Vettel of Scuderia Ferrari and it set a new all-time fastest lap at COTA. It was Hamilton’s 72nd career Formula One pole, his 11th of the season and third in a row. It was Hamilton’s second career pole at COTA, as he was the pole winner for last year’s United States Grand Prix.

Before Grosjean, Magnussen and the rest of their Formula One counterparts participated in knockout qualifying, they had one final, 60-minute practice (FP3) to dial in their racecars for a quick lap around the track.

Magnussen set the 16th-fastest time with a 1:37.271 on his 16th and final lap. Grosjean tallied nine laps and earned his best time on his sixth lap – a 1:37.891 that put him 19th overall.

Grosjean’s FP3 session was cut short when a spin in turn seven sent him into the gravel trap with just under 30 minutes remaining. The car was relatively unharmed, but it was stuck. A crane had to lift his Haas VF-17 out of the gravel and place it onto a flatbed for delivery back to the garage upon the conclusion of FP3.

Both drivers began FP3 on the Red supersoft tires. Magnussen switched to ultrasofts in the final 12 minutes to make some mock qualifying runs.

Quickest in FP3 was Hamilton, whose fast lap of 1:34.478 was .092 of a second better than next best Vettel.

Romain Grosjean

“It’s been a tough weekend up to qualifying. I hadn’t run any ultrasofts before qualifying. Yesterday we broke a part on a quali run, and today I spun in FP3 before I could try them. The incident with Lance Stroll (unnecessarily impeding another driver) was unexpected, and pretty close. I was lucky not to spin on the grass, which would’ve been a disaster. It would’ve been the end of qualifying. We went through to Q2, which was good as it was the maximum we had in the car. We pushed really hard and closed the gap from seven tenths to two tenths to the guys in front, but we still haven’t really been performing well this weekend. I think it’s more tire related, and that’s where we’ve got such a strong swing of performance. We need to get on top of that. Hopefully, we can give the fans something special for tomorrow.”

(Stroll was going slow on the outside of the track between turns 19-20 while Grosjean was on a qualifying run. As Grosjean came off turn 19, he was suddenly upon Stroll’s Williams. Grosjean had to take evasive action to avoid him, darting right onto the grass and then deftly wheeling his Haas VF-17 back onto the racetrack. – Ed.)

Kevin Magnussen

“Something wasn’t right. I mean, we haven’t had it right all weekend, but suddenly I didn’t have any grip at all and I have no idea why. I don’t have any answers for why I was the slowest car on track. It’s very disappointing. It felt like the tires weren’t even new. It felt like a used set – it was new, but the feeling was very bad. And then, of course, I got in the way of Sergio (Perez). He was on an out lap and I didn’t let him through, so I can understand if he’s pretty angry with that, but I can only say it was a mistake."

Gunther Steiner

“Not the easiest of days for us today. It looked like Kevin just couldn’t find a balance on his fast lap. Romain did the best he could do with the car to get his fast lap. With Romain starting 12th after penalties for the other guys, we’ll try to get in the points tomorrow with him. It’ll be more difficult for Kevin starting in the back, but with the starts he’s had in these last races, you never know where he could end up by turn one. Now we get prepared for tomorrow and try to do our best.”

Toro Rosso

Daniil Kvyat

“I’m very pleased with today’s qualifying. We did a good job with the limited information we had and set the car up well after missing out on a lot of this morning’s FP3 – I think we reached the limit of the car with my last Quali lap, so we can be happy – the engineers did a fantastic job! I feel good in the car and we’ll try and turn today’s P12 into points tomorrow. Anything can happen in the race so we will just need to stay cool, look after the tyres, keep the strategy open and give it our all!”

Brendon Hartley

“A difficult qualifying session – still a lot to learn! – but I’m smiling! These cars are incredibly fast and awesome to drive and when you go out on low fuel and new tyres it’s such a peak in performance! I didn’t quite nail the session, but I can’t forget that I’ve been thrown in the deep end here, so I’m pretty satisfied with how the weekend has gone so far. My long-run pace is pretty good – I guess that’s what I know how to do well anyway from endurance racing! I feel quite confident managing tyres, so I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow. I haven’t done a standing start in a long time, but hopefully I can manage a clean start and see what we can do after that. I’m really enjoying my Formula 1 debut! There’ll be a few butterflies in my stomach tomorrow for sure, but I’ve been pretty relaxed all weekend – I’m trying to tell myself it’s just another race, even though I know it’s obviously not…it’s really my F1 debut! But I’ll sleep well tonight and push as hard as I can. I’m excited to see how far we can move up the grid tomorrow!”

Jody Egginton (Head of Vehicle Performance)

“Overall today has been slightly more difficult than it should have been due to the issue with Daniil’s car in FP3, but we have done a reasonable job to get him back up to speed from this setback. The set-up changes made overnight provided the expected performance improvement on both cars, however, the windy conditions have contributed to some changes in car balance and the drivers have had to adapt to this.

Brendon made a good step in his short run performance in FP3, taking more from the two ultrasoft tyre sets and making another step with this in Qualifying. This was important as it was one of the areas which we could not manage to fully explore during Friday due to limited tyre sets and the damp conditions. Unfortunately, Daniil’s FP3 ran less smoothly because of an issue with the front suspension significantly effecting car balance and, with insufficient time to resolve the issue, he was not able to set a clean baseline or run the ultrasoft.

We elected to allow for three runs in Q1 and Daniil made the most of the final Q1 run and progressed to Q2. Brendon’s progress was also good and looking at his runs it’s fair to say that if he had one more run in Q1, he probably would have made the cut for Q2. Daniil’s final run in Q2 was very tidy and within a tenth or so of what was possible. With penalties applied, Daniil will start ahead of his qualifying position so we are in the mix and well placed to be able to race our closest competitors.

We now switch focus to the race strategy with the target to get both cars as far forward in the race as possible. In the case of Brendon, given his PU penalty, we will be investigating options for alternative race strategies which, if the opportunity presents itself, we can utilise to allow him to move forwards and gain track position. With Daniil starting ahead, the approach will be slightly different as we will need to give more consideration to potentially undercut or overcut our closest competitors in order to move forwards or consolidate track position.

Looking ahead to the race, tyre allocation for both drivers provides a good level of flexibility so we can adapt if required. With our long run pace on Friday looking reasonable, and the basic package working in line with expectation, we have the possibility to score points if we can optimise our race. However, the midfield is super tight and even a small mistake can cost points so we need to stay focused.”

Renault F1

Carlos Sainz was eighth-fastest on his Renault Sport Formula One Team qualifying debut at the Circuit of the Americas today whilst Nico Hülkenberg was ninth fastest in Q1, but sat out the rest of the session for strategic reasons in Austin for the United States Grand Prix. Due to various penalties through the field, Carlos is expected to start from P7 on the grid and Nico P19 tomorrow.

Nico Hülkenberg

“We have a twenty-place grid penalty for the race, so regardless of where I qualified, I’ll be at the back of the grid tomorrow. We opted to have flexibility on strategy as we can choose our starting tyres, and this also saves car and engine mileage through not running to the end of the session. The car felt competitive today, as we saw by my being in the top ten with a single Q1 run. It’s a track where you can overtake, so tomorrow has interesting possibilities. I’m looking forward to a good bit of racing.”
Carlos Sainz

“There’s been a lot to adapt to over this weekend but I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve been able to achieve; it’s not a bad effort for our first qualifying together! It wasn’t the easiest session with the changes in temperature and with the wind as I didn’t know how the car would react to this, but we did a good job so I’m very happy. Coming to a new team late in the season was always going to be a challenge, but everyone at the team and back in the factory has made things very easy for me. I’m looking for a clean race tomorrow. There’s more speed in the car and in me as I adapt further, so to finish in the top ten higher than where I start is the target.”

Alan Permane, Sporting Director

“Qualifying was a little bittersweet today. First, congratulations to Carlos; he is having a fantastic first weekend so far. He went comfortably into Q3 and had a good lap for P8. Carlos will start seventh with Max Verstappen’s penalty. For Nico, we specifically elected to do one run in Q1 as his penalties mean he would start from the back regardless and avoiding Q3 means a free choice on starting tyres tomorrow. We are optimistic for both drivers to get into the points on Sunday. The car is working very well here; we made some decent aero progress on Friday and we feel we’ve made a step forward with the car this weekend.”

Sauber

The Sauber F1 Team finished qualifying ahead of the United States Grand Prix at the “Circuit of the Americas” in P16 (Marcus Ericsson) and P19 (Pascal Wehrlein). Ericsson was close to entering Q2, missing P15 by only 0.008 seconds. Due to several penalties received by other drivers, Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein start tomorrow’s race from P13 and P15, respectively.

Marcus Ericsson

“It was a positive day for us. During FP3 this morning we made some steps forward by bringing the tyres into the right operating window. That helped us to extract the maximum out of the car. I also put in a good lap at the end of Q1. It is a satisfying result compared to the last GP weekends. We are going into the race with a good feeling.”

Pascal Wehrlein

“I am not satisfied with today’s qualifying. Things were looking good yesterday, but today I did not feel comfortable with the car balance in FP3. At the beginning of qualifying, I started off OK but in my last lap in Q1, I went off the track. We are now looking into the data in order to make progress for tomorrow’s race.”

Force India

Force India showed well at the Circuit of the Americas today as Esteban Ocon qualified in seventh place ahead of Sergio Perez in tenth for tomorrow’s United States Grand Prix.

ESTEBAN OCON

“I’m happy with the result today. The team has done a fantastic job once again and we have been strong in every session. We have a great chance to pick up a big bunch of points tomorrow. It was not an easy qualifying session for me because I did not feel well. I had a very bad headache and problems with my stomach. So I am glad to have made it through the session with a strong result. I now need to get some rest and try to recover to be ready for the race tomorrow.”

SERGIO PEREZ

“It’s quite disappointing to end up tenth because I know I had the pace to be at least seventh or eighth. My qualifying was compromised in Q1 when Kevin [Magnussen] blocked me. It cost me an extra set of tyres in Q1 and it meant I went into Q3 with just a single set of fresh tyres. I had to do my final lap on used tyres and had to settle for tenth place. I can’t wait for the race tomorrow. I hope we can get a good start and make up for some of the ground we lost today.”

ROBERT FERNLEY, DEPUTY TEAM PRINCIPAL

“Another strong performance with both cars making it through to Q3 this afternoon. After the grid penalty for Verstappen, we expect to line up in sixth and ninth places tomorrow, which gives us a great opportunity to score good points. We had to work hard yesterday and this morning to dial the car into this circuit – much more so than in Malaysia and Japan – but the team did a fantastic job overnight and took the right decisions ahead of qualifying. Sergio was a bit unlucky during the session and didn’t maximise the car’s potential, but the race pace is very encouraging for tomorrow. Esteban was a little under the weather during the session so to qualify in seventh place is a tremendous effort.”

Williams

— Felipe Massa qualified 11th and Lance Stroll 17th for the United States Grand Prix
— Lance was hampered by an energy deployment issue and was unable to get out of Q1, meanwhile Felipe finished the first session in sixth
— In Q2, Felipe’s time put him inside the top 10 before late improvements from others knocked him down to 11th
— Both drivers qualified on the ultrasoft Pirelli tyre
— Felipe and Lance will both benefit from other drivers serving grid penalties however Lance has also been given a three-place grid penalty for impeding Grosjean during Q1

Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer

It’s disappointing not to get either car into Q3 as we felt we had the potential to do so. Lance had a problem in Q1 on his second run with the lap trigger which caused some problems with energy deployment. He lost eight tenths down the back straight, which clearly would have been more than enough to put him into Q2, but, unfortunately, he was knocked out in P17. In Felipe’s case, it was a very close fought battle at the end of Q2 for the final spots in the top 10. He missed out by about half a tenth, so he finished in 11th place. We will benefit from a number of grid penalties which puts us within touch of the points tomorrow, so we look forward to seeing what we can do in the race.

Felipe Massa

My lap was clean. There was little difference between three teams today but, unfortunately, we were the car behind. We need to analyse everything. My lap was clear, no mistakes, but, unfortunately, we couldn’t get to Q3. I was happy and confident with the car the whole weekend, the only thing I expected was to improve more.

Lance Stroll

It was a bad day. It was a problem with the power unit not deploying its energy correctly. It cost me eight tenths of a second on the back straight and it cost me my last lap. It is just one of those things, not a human error, just an unlucky situation. With these very complicated power units this sort of thing can happen, as the energy went into a saving mode and not a qualifying mode. I am obviously very disappointed, but now we can see what we can do tomorrow as there was more pace in the car. It’s another race, we are starting near the back and we will go forward.

Red Bull

DANIEL RICCIARDO

“I was happy when I crossed the line and could see I was fourth. But then I was only a hundredth off Valtteri so I was kind of happy but then I was like: a hundredth is nothing, but I felt with what I had that was all I could do. Q1 I was miles off the pace and even this morning in FP3 so it hasn’t been the easiest weekend up until now. The wind was a big struggle for everyone today. The track is really open and the wind blows from all directions so it’s quite strong. That factor combined with the track being a bit bumpy and slippery is why the lap times are not crazy fast this year. But then towards the end of Qualifying on the last lap we managed to find a little bit more so that was positive and I’m happy to end there. Second row is good enough to fight tomorrow.”

MAX VERSTAPPEN

“Today did not go as planned. The car balance was good so it was definitely possible to go quicker but I made a mistake. I’m not happy with that so I would class this as a very disappointing qualifying. In the last sector I lost a lot of lap time which is really frustrating, I think if not I could have been up with Sebastian in P3 which makes it even more disappointing. I had a new engine which felt ok; I need to check the data but everything seemed to work well. I qualified on the Supersoft so we will have to wait and see what I can do on that tomorrow. We have the car and the performance is there so even though I am starting at the back of the grid I’ll try to overtake as many cars as possible and move through the field. To get back to sixth would be good and anything higher would be great. My long runs have felt strong all weekend so we will see how the degradation goes and start from there.”

CHRISTIAN HORNER, Team Principal

“Overall, a satisfying Qualifying, particularly for Daniel, who extracted the maximum from the car in Q3 today to pip Kimi for fourth place and take a place on the second row. Max unfortunately made an error in the final sector which cost him but it is relatively immaterial knowing he will be starting towards the back of the grid for tomorrow’s grand prix. COTA offers opportunity for overtaking, and our drivers are not shy of that, so we will be hopeful both drivers can make an impression on the race tomorrow.”

McLaren

FP3 went to plan on both sides of the garage this morning in Austin. Fernando and Stoffel completed two trouble-free runs in dry and sunny but blustery conditions, finishing the session in 13th and 14th respectively.

In qualifying, the field faced similarly windy conditions out on the circuit, but with track temperatures five degrees Celsius higher than in the morning session.

Q1 was a straightforward session for both cars – Fernando opting for one run and Stoffel two. Both cars comfortably passed through into Q2, Fernando in eighth and Stoffel in 13th. Q2 was also drama-free for both drivers, but the differences in the handling between the two cars due to new components became more apparent as the session progressed, Stoffel struggling more with the balance of his car than his teammate. He finished the session in 13th, while Fernando slipped through into Q3 in ninth place.

Fernando started Q3 with a few tweaks to the set-up, and found good track position between cars to post the eighth-fastest time. After a second run and a slightly improved time to stay P8, he eventually finished the session in ninth on the timesheets.

Fernando will ultimately start tomorrow’s race in eighth place due to [Max] Verstappen’s penalty. Stoffel will start 14th due to his own five-place grid penalty, but benefits from penalties for Verstappen, [Lance] Stroll, [Nico] Hulkenberg and [Brendon] Hartley.

FERNANDO ALONSO

“We had some concerns before coming here about how competitive we could be, but we put the car on track and immediately performed quite well, being in the top 10 in every single session, and that was a nice surprise. We also brought some updates here and they are working fine.

“The car felt great today. We had difficult conditions out there – it was very hot and windy in qualifying and the grip level was lower than we expected. In those conditions our car performs extremely well, so our lap in Q2 was good and we were able to make it into Q3, with ninth place overall.

“Tomorrow we’ll start eighth, due to Verstappen’s penalty, so I think it’s a great chance to score points.

“We know we still have a deficit on the straights compared to other teams and we’ll probably be a little exposed on the first lap because we’re in a group, but after the first lap has settled I think we could open up the gap in the high-speed section and maybe defend a little bit better.

“We’re definitely happy to race here in front of the US fans and I think they’ll see a great race tomorrow!”

STOFFEL VANDOORNE

“The result is probably as much as we could have expected today, as I’ve been struggling a bit this weekend. From FP2 I haven’t really felt comfortable in the car and it was quite difficult today. FP1 was good – I had a busy aero programme with a new front wing and I finished fifth in that session. We then swapped it to the other car after that, and ever since we returned to the previous spec we’ve been on the back foot a bit and struggling with the car balance, which has continued up to qualifying.

“I haven’t really found the right balance across the corners or been able to get the car together as I’ve wanted it, but as I have a five-place penalty it made sense to give the front wing to Fernando as he has a better chance to finish in the points. With the penalty we’re not really in an ideal position, but that’s the way it is, and hopefully we can have a better day tomorrow. It’s a challenging track and a long race, and hopefully with the degradation there are some opportunities to get back some positions.

"It’s reassuring to see Fernando through to Q3 with the new front wing and it looks like it’s performing very well. For tomorrow, we need to analyse carefully how things are developing, but I think our long-run pace is probably a bit better than our short-run pace. If you look back at the whole season it’s been pretty difficult for us to overtake, but we’ll have to wait and see. The start has always been quite tricky here with the wide first corner and steep uphill section, but if we have a good start we can wrestle ourselves into a better position.

“The fans are amazing here and wherever we go for the events we do they are cheering us on – it’s really good to see and hopefully we can put on a good show for them tomorrow.”

ERIC BOULLIER

“Today both drivers did well to maximise everything they had in their armoury for qualifying. Fernando ran a newer-spec front wing than Stoffel – since he won’t be penalised by grid penalties, unlike his team-mate – and we knew that on this track there was the potential in our package for him to get into Q3. He put in some great laps and pushed the car to the limit of what was possible, so we’re pleased he was able to get through and qualify in ninth.

“Stoffel had a more difficult session than Fernando and he and his engineers had hoped to find a better balance in the car. From FP2 onwards he wasn’t able to find the sweet spot that he found in FP1 with the updated components, but drove well under the circumstances to qualify 13th.

"Fortunately, both drivers will benefit from the penalties of others in tomorrow’s race, which has mixed up the starting grid and promises a dramatic first few laps at the very least. Stoffel will only lose one place on the grid rather than five, starting 14th, and Fernando will start eighth. Although it will be more difficult for Stoffel, we’ll focus our attention and preparation on the strategy for tomorrow’s race in an effort to maximise every opportunity for a points-scoring result at COTA for both drivers.”

YUSUKE HASEGAWA

“The second day of the United States Grand Prix took place under Texas bright sunshine and boiling hot temperatures. Despite the tough conditions, our qualifying was rather positive for the team.

“As both drivers felt there was more room for improvement in terms of the set-up after yesterday’s sessions, we focused on finding the best balance of the car in FP3.

“Thanks to the team’s hard work, Fernando managed to advance into Q3 in qualifying once again, showing a fantastic run. It was disappointing that Stoffel missed out on Q3 but I think both drivers showed decent improvement compared to yesterday’s performance.

“Our PU performance this weekend is as we expected, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s race and hopefully scoring some points.”