QUALIFYING REPORT
There was very little to separate the
pair on the twists and turns of Circuit of the
Americas, where the Silver Arrows were
again the dominant force, enjoying over
half a second per lap advantage over their
closest rivals.
Rosberg said afterwards, “There was
nothing specific. I preferred sector two and
three and that is it. Lewis was quicker in
sector one, that was it. Nevertheless we
have seen this year qualifying is not all
important and I still have a great chance
from P2.”
Next best were the Red Bull pair of
Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, third
and fourth respectively. More was expected
from the energy drinks team after they
finished 1-2 in FP3 a few hours earlier. But
when it mattered, Mercedes turned up the
wick and the Red Bulls found themselves
half a second shy of the pace required to
challenge the pace setters.
Ricciardo summed up, “Not concerned
about strategy. I expected it to be like
this.Max wanted to try the softs and for
me I wanted to super soft. I was more
comfortable on that tyre in practice.
Hopefully it will give me a better launch
off line. Not close to Mercedes, we expect
them to be hard to beat, but a buffer over
Ferrari. We have a good chance in the
race. We will see what happens. super
softs will give me friendly grip off the line.”
Over a second down on Hamilton’s
best time were the Ferrari duo of Sebastian
Vettel, fifth fastest, and Kimi Raikkonen
sixth on the timing screens.