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Formula 1
United States GP
F1 United States GP Live Commentary and Updates – Sprint Quali & Race
Saturday's action from the 18th round of the 2023 Formula 1 season
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After Charles Leclerc grabbed pole position in Friday’s qualifying for the grand prix on Sunday at the Circuit of the Americas, it is another F1 sprint Saturday.
Sprint qualifying starts at 6:30pm BST to order the grid for the fifth sprint race of the season, which begins at 11pm BST.
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Russell made a great start to gain three spots and negate his grid drop. Magnussen was another smart starter to gain three spots and move up to 14th.
Sainz, on the softs, dives up the inside of Norris at Turn 12 to take fourth place. Verstappen leads from Hamilton and Leclerc.
Lights green
Lights out! Verstappen goes super aggressive to cut Leclerc off from taking the lead on the inside of Turn 1! He leads as Hamilton moves ahead of Leclerc around the outside, but was he off the track?
Verstappen has picked up the pace, as the F1 train comes through the final couple of corners to get ready for the start. Here we go.
The formation lap is under way as Verstappen crawls up the hill to Turn 1 to keep everyone trundling along very slowly.
Out of the medium runners, Albon and Hulkenberg are on new tyres and the rest are on used.
I wonder how Sainz feels when he is told literally everyone else on the track has gone with Plan A and he's gone Plan B. B for bold.
Tyres: Sainz is the sole gambler on the softs as everyone else is on mediums.
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The sprint race winners in 2023 so far are Perez (Azerbaijan), Verstappen (Austria and Belgium) and Piastri (Qatar). Who are you backing for sprint race glory this time?
In F1 history there has been 10 sprint races so far, and just one team is yet to score a single point in this format: AlphaTauri. Ricciardo starts 10th and will surely be out to break that duck.
After the sweat-a-thon that was the Qatar GP, this US GP sprint is going to be a hot one with air temperature up at 33.2C but the humidity is much, much kinder, so there shouldn't be drivers pulling out or taking a trip to the medical centre.
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Russell has made his sprint race a little trickier by picking up a three-place grid drop for blocking Leclerc in sprint qualifying, which puts him from eighth to 11th and promotes Albon, Gasly and Ricciardo up a spot each.
All of the drivers have made it to the grid with the sprint race start a little over 20 minutes away. It'll be a 19-lap dash, or 104.424km to be precise, with the top eight finishers picking up the points.
Verstappen was hampered by engine driveability issues in sprint qualifying which impacted his engine mapping settings. That, plus carrying a bit more fuel, is estimated to have cost him two-tenths of a second. Full story: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/why-we-havent-seen-verstappens-real-advantage-at-the-f1-us-gp-yet/10535921/
The drivers are on their way to the grid for lights out at 11pm BST. Verstappen starts on pole having nailed his qualifying laps earlier today, beating Leclerc by 0.055s, but it was far from smooth sailing.
Green flag
Good evening one and all! Who fancies some late night F1 sprint race action?
We're off for some dinner now, but we'll be back shortly before the sprint at 11pm BST!
Read the full sprint shootout report here: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1-united-states-gp-sprint-quali-report/10535848/
Perez, Russell, Albon and Gasly complete the top 10.
Hamilton lines up third next to Norris, with Piastri and Sainz behind them.
Checkered flag
Verstappen claims his third sprint pole of the season, with Leclerc alongside him on the front row.
Hamilton is third fastest for Mercedes as Russell goes eighth.
Perez is next over the line, sixth fastest and 0.5s down on his team-mate.
Leclerc goes second, 0.055s off Verstappen's time. So close!
Piastri slots into third, with Gasly in fourth.
Verstappen crosses the line with a 1m34.538s. Norris misses out by 0.1s.
Verstappen is quickest in S2.
Norris sets a purple first sector as the flying laps get underway.
Verstappen heading out triggered a domino effect, so everyone is heading out on track now.
Five minutes left on the clock, and cars are finally leaving the garages. Thanks guys - you took your time!
Lights green
It's SQ3 time!
Perez was fifth ahead of Piastri, Gasly, Russell, Hamilton and Albon.
Verstappen was quickest, ahead of the two Ferraris and Lando Norris.
That's Ricciardo, Alonso, Ocon, Stroll and Zhou knocked out after SQ2.
Albon knocks Alonso into the bottom five as Zhou fails to improve into the top 10.
Gasly goes seventh, pushing his team-mate into the bottom five.
Currently in the bottom five are Stroll, Zhou, Albon, Gasly and Ricciardo.
By: Autosport Staff
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