Austin, 1 November – Fernando Alonso set the sixth fastest time in today’s qualifying for the seventeenth round of the world championship, here at the Circuit of the Americas. His Scuderia Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen posted the ninth best time, but a grid penalty for Jenson Button moves him up one place on the grid, putting him eighth and on the dirty side, right behind the Spaniard.
It’s been an interesting Texan weekend so far, mainly because tyre performance has turned out differently to what everyone was expecting. This should have been a straightforward one stop race, but a performance gap of around 1.5 seconds per lap between the Soft and Medium tyres means that a two stopper is most likely. Team strategists will therefore have to choose the best cross over moment to switch between the faster Soft, which will degrade much quicker and the more consistent Medium Pirelli. The more strategic choices there are, the greater chance of turning them to one’s advantage and the Ferrari duo will be hoping to move up the order during the course of the 56 lap race.
The Mercedes dominance continues, with their power units monopolising the two front rows, with the eponymous team at the front, after Nico Rosberg recorded his seventh pole of the year, just pipping Lewis Hamilton. The Williams duo is on row two, with Valtteri Bottas quicker than Felipe Massa. Fernando has the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo alongside him, while Kimi is on the outside of Kevin Magnussen in the McLaren.
With only 18 cars taking part this weekend, the qualifying format had to be modified slightly: instead of six cars dropping out at the end of Q1 and Q2, today only four cars were eliminated at the end of the first two sessions. The smaller grid also means that, with points extending to the tenth placed finisher, in theory, over half the field will score points in tomorrow’s race.