Only 0.316s separated George Russell from P1 in Qualifying for the F1 US GP. However, those few hundreds of a second convert into a second row start for the Mercedes driver, with the F1 grid incredibly closing up with 6 races left in the 2025 season.
An incredibly tight grid
What left Russell even more displeased after Qualifying for the F1 US GP was the 0.026s gap between him and Lando Norris in P2 alongside Verstappen. The P2 in the earlier Sprint Race definitely left the Brit wanting for more, as he discussed in the print media pen.
“It’s frustrating when it’s so close to P2, I think it was 20 milliseconds to Lando. Max was obviously super quick.
“It’s not the first time we’ve seen them being super strong in qualifying on high speed tracks, pole in Silverstone, pole in Suzuka, pole here and they seem to have really good downforce when the car is really low to the groun, which is what you have in the high speed corners. So, hopefully, come the race like we saw today we should be a bit closer.”
Only Max Verstappen managed to concentrate in a single lap all his best three sectors around Austin. Russell explained how difficult it is to be that performant at all corners, because of the extremely variable conditions.
“This is a very challenging circuit to get it all together, bumpy, windy, high speed, tyre degradation, getting the tyres in the right window, just finding that right compromise.”
Trying to manage the tyres correctly over a push lap
He went on to recount his personal hardships while trying to secure a great starting position for the full length race.
“I was on a really strong lap at the start of Q3 and then I lost I think four tenths to Max in the last sector because the tyres dropped off. In my last lap I was a tenth down in sector one, a tenth down in sector two but then found the three tenths or so in the last sector.
“So, it’s just finding that right balance. I hope we can fight for the podium, there’s obviously a lot of different teams around us. Oscar is out of position, I expect him to be fast so he needs to get round turn one first.”
Predictions for the Grand Prix and where Mercedes stand
Asked if the pace showcased in the Sprint Race might be a safe indicator of race performance, Russell denied, revealing he does not have higher expectations after Qualifying for the F1 US GP.
“I wouldn’t say so because we finished two and a half seconds in front of Williams and we would have expected more performance than that. We haven’t seen what McLaren is capable of, we always know that they’re pretty special in those conditions. In the sprint race, what did we do, maybe ten laps, eleven laps, so we’ve got 55 tomorrow.”
The level of performance, which had seen Russell almost taking the Sprint Race win, was caused by the peculiar track layout and conditions, which enhanced the best characteristics of the Mercedes challenger.
“No, not really because as I said I think their aero map is very good when the car is very low to the ground and you have that in the very high speed corners. For us it’s the opposite, we’re very bad in these conditions. In the race you’re going through high speed corners maybe 20 kilometres or so slower so the car is higher so we’re not dropping off the cliff, so everything converges.”
