AUSTIN — Friday at the U.S. Grand Prix was a mix of good news and bad news for Mercedes.
On the positive side, George Russell will qualify for the front row of Saturday's F1 sprint race, starting alongside Max Verstappen from the far end of the grid.
But it was a different story on the other side of the garage, as Franco Colapinto spun and Lewis Hamilton started from seventh on the grid after his lap was hampered by yellow flags.
“I’m really happy with how we did today. It’s been a while since we qualified on the front row, so I’m happy with our progress. I was a little surprised at how competitive we were today, but The update kit we brought here seems to be working well,” Russell said in the team's post-qualifying report after the qualifying session. “Sprint qualifying was a tricky session, but in SQ3 we were able to put together some good times, especially in the final sector, which helped us take second place.
“Lewis was very fast today and was unlucky to be caught by the yellow flag. We both should have been there, but it was great for us as a team to get back together today,” Russell added. Ta. “We're also obviously very close with some other companies, including Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren. I hope we can continue this run into the weekend and I'm looking forward to being on the front lines.” .”
Hamilton expressed some frustration at finishing seventh, but took solace in the fact that the extensive upgrade package Mercedes brought to Austin may already be paying off.
“Today we had the unfortunate yellow flag and it was really disappointing. We were four-tenths faster on the lap and looked good for first place, but that’s the way it is now. “It seems like we've taken a step forward,” Hamilton said. “The updates we brought here are working well and I’m really grateful for the hard work of everyone back at the factory. The last few races haven’t been easy, but everyone has made this upgrade work. They did a great job making it happen.”
Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin also highlighted signs that the team's upgrades were working as a balm to ease frustration over Hamilton's unfortunate qualifying position.
“We brought the update kit this weekend and it was easy to deploy,” Shovlin said. “Of course, it's only one day of running, but it seems like I'm getting the results I expected. I hope to continue this momentum for the rest of the weekend.”
Mercedes will be hoping things go smoothly over the next two days here in Austin.
