After Saturday’s qualifying, we are in for some drama! What are the results?

Saturday’s qualifying for the US Grand Prix is over. But we have to say that it was a really attractive qualifying. Its results guarantee us a lot of drama at least until the start of Sunday’s race, with four drivers receiving penalties for changing power unit components.

As far as the non-advancing drivers are concerned, the first part of qualifying did not bring any surprising results. Only one timed lap was set by Nikita Mazepin in Q1, but it was not enough to get more than last place in the standings.

Even his teammate, Mick Schumacher, failed to advance to Q2. Along with them, Kimi Räikkönen, Nicholas Latifi and Lance Stroll failed to progress from Q1. Things were happening at the front anyway, with Charles Leclerc winning Q1 ahead of both the Red Bulls and McLarens.

The middle passage was the final one for George Russell, Fernando Alonso, Antonio Giovinazzi, Sebastian Vettel and Esteban Ocon. Unfortunately, Alpina has not been able to do well here throughout the race weekend.

Russell, Alonso and Vettel, however, need not be too upset about their placings. They will start Sunday’s race from the very back of the grid due to the replacement of several power unit components and the subsequent penalty.

In the third part of qualifying we saw only five teams – Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari and Alpha Tauri.

It was therefore to be expected that the top ten would be rounded off by the two Alpha Tauri drivers – Júki Cunoda setting the tenth fastest time, Pierre Gasly ninth. McLaren fans will probably be a little disappointed, though.

Lando Norris set a time that was only good enough for eighth place and will be right behind Daniel Ricciardo at the start. Both Ferrari monoblocs are next – Carlos Sainz 6th, Charles Leclerc 5th.

Fourth place after the end of qualifying belonged to Valtteri Bottas. However, the Finnish driver received a penalty in the form of a drop of 5 places at the start, for a change of the combustion engine – the sixth of this season.

Third place on the grid will belong to Sergio Pérez. After qualifying, however, we’re in for some drama! Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, the two championship contenders, will stand side by side on the front row.

And as we’re used to with these two drivers, they’re not giving each other anything. We’re likely to see a tough battle at the first corner, but the drivers starting from the second or third row can use it to their advantage.

It will be an interesting race also because the drivers have to pay a lot of attention to the tyre work. Sergio Pérez excels in this activity and could play a key role in Sunday’s race. Some rain showers cannot be ruled out either.

“The starting position is not as relevant as it might seem. It’s going to be a very long race tomorrow and we have to be very careful about tyre degradation,” explains Pérez in a post-qualifying interview

“I think the rain affected me too much in the last sector. There were rain showers and I lost grip in two corners,” he added.

So this is how the starting grid looks like. By all accounts, we are in for a really interesting race, so don’t miss it! All five lights will go out at 21:00.

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