Saturday, November 23, 2024, 08:31
When all eyes were on the Ferrari drivers or Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, George Russell and Mercedes confirmed themselves this Saturday as the main protagonists. The Briton took his third pole of the season after dominating with ease in free practice on Friday and will be the benchmark ahead of Carlos Sainz who continues to show those who decided to leave Ferrari that, perhaps, they were wrong. The Madrid native was only 98 thousandths behind and will try to confirm his candidacy for victory to extend his golden farewell to the Scuderia. Behind him will be the big surprise of the day, Pierre Gasly who, after the podium in Brazil, exceeded all expectations with the third place on the grid in Las Vegas. With Verstappen fifth and Norris sixth, everything indicates that this Sunday the fight for the title will be resolved in favor of the Dutchman who, although he was not happy with the final result, is aware that these positions serve him well.
From behind, far behind, Fernando Alonso will come out. The Asturian will start seventeenth, with the very poor Sergio Pérez ahead, on an unmitigated bad Saturday for Aston Martin. The situation of the British team is summed up in one fact: it was the only team that did not enter either of its two cars in Q2.
Q1: Pérez, at the height of Aston Martin; Verstappen does not speculate
As expected, getting the tires up to temperature on the freezing Las Vegas night was everyone’s great challenge. Those who achieved it before had a calmer Q1. Thus, the McLarens were the ones that successfully dominated their rivals for a good part of the session, until the improvement of the track allowed the revolution.
Thus, Max Verstappen, aware that he has to win to forget about the calculator, dropped several tenths to put himself first, although he was then overtaken by the great dominators of free practice, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton with the Mercedes. The Dutchman did not even try to reply to them at this point, but with this result it was more than enough for him. Norris, the only candidate to avoid the four-time champion’s party, moved on to Q2 with a comfortable seventh.
Quite the opposite of his partner, Sergio Pérez. Another classification, another embarrassing performance by the Mexican, whose continuity at Red Bull is not explained unless he keeps documents with which to blackmail his bosses. ‘Checo’ did not go beyond sixteenth position, so he was eliminated along with Fernando Alonso, Alex Albon, Valtteri Bottas and Lance Stroll whose mechanics fixed his car against the clock after the accident he had in the morning free practice for nothing. . Aston Martin is no longer surprising and anything that means finishing not among the points but just in the top 15 will be a success.
Q2: Hamilton is in charge, Colapinto is in charge
They warned it on Friday, they advanced it in Q1 and confirmed it in Q2: watch out for the Mercedes. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were the benchmark of this session, while from behind both the Ferraris and especially Verstappen tried to catch them.
Hamilton took Q2, with Carlos Sainz behind and George Russell with the third time when the big incident of the day occurred. Franco Colapinto, the famous Argentine who is trying to earn a place for 2025 in Formula 1, hit his Williams against the wall. After making an absurd mistake and ‘eating’ the peak of a curve, the young man from Buenos Aires ended up crashing into the protections at the exit of the curve, to the point of moving the protections a little. Fourth accident of a Colapinto that sounds for Red Bull and that, despite adding four accidents so far, is still in the shortlist to continue next season.
The incident, which occurred when several drivers were improving times, caused the end of Q2. Hamilton left with the best time, but the news was in Norris’s ninth. The Briton had a personal record until the Williams accident, and was almost left out of Q3 in a race in which he must finish ahead of Verstappen no matter what.
In addition to Colapinto, others such as Ocon, Magnussen, Zhou and Lawson were left out of Q3.
Q3: Sainz, the only one to fight for pole position against Russell
With a little more than 15 minutes late than the scheduled time until the workers fixed Colapinto’s damage on the circuit, the ten drivers went out onto a track much colder (and slower) than expected. Everyone was forced to do at least one warm-up lap, making it a slightly different Q3 than usual.
Thus, the first to set the benchmark was Carlos Sainz, whose best time lasted until Russell, the great dominator of the weekend, took it from him. And with fear, because the Briton took the advertising paint from a curve when passing too tight. But it was not enough to prevent his third pole of the season. The Briton, despite Sainz’s final push in his last attempt, took the best time by less than a tenth compared to the Madrid native, which confirmed him as the best time of this Q3.
The surprise was not so much Russell’s pole position (another Saturday where he rubs his hand in the face of Hamilton, who made a clear mistake on his good lap) or Sainz’s good second, but rather the suspicious third of a Pierre Gasly who is in a sweet moment, after the podium a few weeks ago. It will be one of the disruptive elements of a Sunday in which Lando Norris will try to avoid Max Verstappen’s party, but he will have a very difficult time: the McLaren driver is sixth and the Red Bull driver is fifth. If this result is repeated in the race, Verstappen will be champion.
