The word ‘irony’ is among the most misused and misunderstood in the English language, yet Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin had a rare opportunity to apply it accurately after the end of sprint qualifying in Austin when the team were beaten to pole by Max Verstappen
On the face of it, his driver Lewis Hamilton appeared to have squandered another great opportunity to set himself up for success for race when he fell to seventh on the grid at the end of SQ3 after making his single run in the session early. But that did not tell the full story.
Until Hamilton caught a flashing yellow light on the LED marshal board at the end of the back straight (triggered by Franco Colapinto’s turn 12 spin) he was almost three tenths of a second quicker than Verstappen subsequent effort. Hamilton lifted off early to respect the command – just as it turned green once more. Presuming he had kept things clean in the final sector, Hamilton would almost certainly have been on pole for today’s sprint race.
“We had opted to go on the early side to avoid any interruptions with yellows on a busy track at the end of the session,” Shovlin later explained. “Unfortunately, and ironically, Lewis caught a yellow flag following a spin for the Williams of Colapinto at turn 12. That put paid to his challenge for the front-row and he will line up P7.”
Hamilton’s team mate George Russell also missed out on the top spot, but he arguably handed pole to Verstappen at the first corner of his final lap, losing almost two tenths to the Red Bull on the run down the hill towards the esses that he had to fight to make up over the rest of the lap. Verstappen crossed the line just 0.012s faster.
Verstappen duly took his third consecutive sprint race pole and third from the four sprint rounds held thus far. However, even he had to admit that he was likely to face strong competition in the sprint race.
“Looking at the lap, a few little balance issues still, but to be ahead of the others is a positive,” he said. “I think also, when you look, Lewis had a little mistake in 12, otherwise he would’ve been up there as well.
“I’m happy, but I’m also aware there’s a lot of fast cars around me. But it’s definitely a positive return.”
Verstappen has won all three sprint races held so far in 2024. But this may be the most challenging one to win of all.
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