United States Grand Prix: Qualifying Recap

The opening round of knockout qualifying – Q1, brought mixed fortunes with Ocon failing to progress while Bearman advanced into Q2. Ocon set a best lap of 1:36.531 on his second set of Pirelli P Zero Red softs – placing the Frenchman P17. Bearman ran two sets of fresh softs also, the Briton also faster on his second set courtesy of a 1:36.175 to move in in P15.

A deleted lap time for track limits skewed Bearman’s Q2 efforts – having posted a 1:35.592 only to see it wiped from the screens. Bearman’s opening Q2 lap on softs, a 1:36.031, meant a finish at the checkered of P16.

Kimi Antonelli placed his Mercedes on pole position in Q3 thanks to a fastest lap of 1:34.035.

Ollie Bearman:

“I felt like I did a good job to get out of Q1, as the car wasn’t feeling quite how I wanted it. In Q2, things came together a bit better, and my final lap was very good, but sadly, it got deleted for track limits. I thought I was on the edge at Turn 11, looks like I was just over. It’s so hard though, as with the camera view that I saw, with the glare of the sun and everything, it seems like you’re playing with millimetres here, and you can’t tell here when you’re close to the line. I have to go for it, especially in Q2, but it’s a shame as I haven’t had track limits all weekend. I’m a bit disappointed in myself, but I know we’ll go again tomorrow.”

Esteban Ocon:

“I think there are some positives in the fact that we did improve a little bit. The fundamental car characteristics remain the same, unfortunately, and we’re still fighting with inconsistency. We usually see that when we’re fighting these issues, it’s not enough to get out of Q1. It’s been a while since that happened, so it’s a shame that it’s happened here. It was a good lap, it was as fast as the car could go, but tomorrow we need to be opportunistic.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal:

“I think today’s qualifying result is pretty disappointing, especially on Ollie’s side, as we were building up quite well throughout the weekend. His track limits violation was marginal, but we accept it, and I think we nearly got the most out of it on Ollie’s side of the garage. On Esteban’s side, I think we got there in the end in terms of car set-up, but if we don’t build up from a good baseline in FP1, then it’s very hard to catch up. Our starting positions are challenging, but tomorrow – going into Turn 1, anything can happen. So, we need to focus on getting the balance of the car right and having clean operations, both on strategy and pit-stops, and see what we can do.”