Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc during the US Grand Prix qualifying - Photo: Race Pictures

'Lucky' Verstappen smiles as Leclerc and Norris answerless at pace shift

01:02, 19 Oct

Updated: 01:56, 19 Oct

bySamson Ero

Max Verstappen was brimming with optimism after securing pole position at the United States Grand Prix, while Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc were left with questions begging for answers following their qualifying session.

“The car was very strong.”

- Max Verstappen

Verstappen, who clocked the fastest time, detailed how pleased he was with his outing despite not completing a second run during Q3. The Red Bull Racing driver, during his post-session reaction, also touched on the challenging nature of the wind.

“The car was very strong. Just trying to put the lap together around here can sometimes be quite tricky. It was very hot, with strong winds as well, and having a tailwind in a sector is quite challenging.”

“The first run in Q3 was good. I just managed to improve a little bit from Q2. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do my final run, it was a bit messy with the out-laps, but luckily, we didn’t need it. So yeah, for us, again, a very strong result.”

Max Verstappen in Austin - Photo: Race Pictures

While Verstappen left qualifying with much optimism and a smile, the same cannot be said for Norris. The British driver, who recorded the second-fastest time, highlighted how much of a struggle he endured through much of the day.

The McLaren driver, who was involved in a collision during the Sprint race, also appeared quite puzzled by the performance gains of other teams.

“I improved by about half a tenth, so it was a bit of a struggle today for whatever reason. Yesterday it was quite comfortable, and I don’t know if everyone else has just improved a bit or if the wind today hurt us a bit more.”

“But we were both struggling quite a bit more today just to put the laps together and be as quick as this guy. We were pushing, but there was no chance we could have gone quicker today.”

Lando Norris in Austin - Photo: Race Pictures

Leclerc, who rounded off the top three, also had his fair share of surprises, touching on the performance swings the team continues to experience within a race weekend.

“It was quite a big surprise, especially considering the weekend has been very difficult for us since the beginning. We tried to put everything together in qualifying, and we managed to do so.”

Charles Leclerc during the United States Grand Prix qualifying - Photo: Race Pictures

“There are still things we need to understand about this car because there’s a bit too much of a swing in performance within the same weekend without fundamentally changing anything on the car. We’ll look into it.”

“It’s been an interesting free practice this morning; we’ve learnt a lot. We applied that in qualifying, and it seems to be working, so I hope that from now on we can catch back a little bit.”

The trio, who experienced contrasting fortunes during the earlier Sprint race, will now shift their focus to maximising results when the lights go out for race Sunday.

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