‘Total shock’: Lewis Hamilton’s qualy nightmare stuns F1 world
Seven-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton left those watching on in disbelief after he dished up a horror display on Sunday.
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Lando Norris will start the United States Grand Prix from pole position after narrowly edging out Max Verstappen in a frantic finish to qualifying.
The McLaren driver set the fastest time during his first run in Q3, taking the top spot ahead of the championship leader by 0.031.
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Verstappen looked well on his way to claiming pole with his final lap as the clock wound down, but a George Russell crash ruined his hopes of starting from the front spot.
Russell lost control in the final sector as Mercedes endured a nightmare qualifying session after falling behind during the earlier sprint race.
The nasty crash into the barrier came after teammate Lewis Hamilton was a shock elimination during Q1.
The 39-year-old posted the 19th fastest time of the first qualifying session, clocking 1:34.154 after a slow middle sector.
“It was the middle sector that cost him, he lost half a second,” Sky Sports commentator Martin Brundle said.
“But my goodness what is going on there?
“Lewis Hamilton P19 is a total shock.”
Hamilton noted a front suspension failure picked up during the sprint race was a factor in him failing to keep pace with his rivals.
“In the Sprint we had some sort of failure from the formation lap on the front suspension,” Hamilton said.
“I had that throughout the Sprint race. That made the balance really difficult.
“We changed a couple of things which pushed us in the direction in what we would have done yesterday. The car was a nightmare in qualifying.
“I should probably start in the pit lane, otherwise I won’t be going anywhere from where I am.”
While Verstappen has returned to his earlier season form, Norris got the edge on his rival after a blistering lap.
“I’m lucky, but I’ll take it,” Norris said with a smile, acknowledging Red Bull has the faster car.
“It was a beautiful lap. I was not going to go much quicker than I did.
“When you do a lap and know it’s going to be tough to beat that … I put everything on the line.
“It’s what we needed to do. We have been on the back foot pretty much the whole weekend. We haven’t had the pace of the Ferraris or Red Bulls.
“So I had to do something and today I did that. A cool lap and a nice way to start the race tomorrow.”
Verstappen admitted to an error during his first flying lap, which ultimately cost him pole position.
“On the first lap I lost quite a bit of time at Turn 19. That’s unfortunate,” he said.
“I knew we had another run but unfortunately I couldn’t finish the lap, otherwise we had a good shot but that’s how it goes.
“We are still on the front row at least but the potential was there to be first, so that’s very good.”
US Grand Prix starting Grid
Front row: Lando Norris, Max Verstappen
Second row: Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc
Third row: Oscar Piastri, George Russell
Fourth row: Pierre Gasly, Fernando Alonso
Fifth row: Kevin Magnussen, Sergio Perez
Sixth row: Yuki Tsunoda, Nico Hulkenberg
Seventh row: Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll
Eighth row: Liam Lawson, Alex Albon
Ninth row: Franco Colapinto, Valtteri Bottas
Tenth row: Lewis Hamilton, Zhou Guanyu
Originally published as ‘Total shock’: Lewis Hamilton’s qualy nightmare stuns F1 world
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