Sainz clinches pole as Red Bull mourn loss of owner Mateschitz

Ewan Gale
Sunday 23 October 2022 02:16

Carlos Sainz took pole position for the United States Grand Prix in a session overshadowed by the passing of Red Bull owner and co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz.

The announcement of the Austrian's death came just under an hour before the session was due to begin, with a sombre Red Bull team calling every staff member to its hospitality unit.

When qualifying got underway, Sainz - who made his F1 debut with Red Bull-owned Toro Rosso - set a lap time of a one minute 34.356, only 0.065secs faster than team-mate Charles Leclerc.

But the Monégasque will drop 10 places after Ferrari earlier switched ICE and TC in the F1-75.

Max Verstappen will therefore start alongside Sainz on the front row, ahead of the two Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton in front of George Russell.

Sergio Perez had qualified fourth but will also take a grid penalty.

Lance Stroll was impressive for Aston Martin and will start fifth, ahead of Lando Norris, who thought he had missed out on Q3 only to be given a reprieve after Zhou Guanyu had a lap time deleted for a track limit violation.

Alfa Romeo's pace from its new upgrade package was proven by Valtteri Bottas' top-10 effort, whilst Fernando Alonso will also face a drop for an ICE change.

Alex Albon missed out on the top 10 by the narrowest of margins, despite his Williams seemingly struggling to cope with the windy conditions in the first sector.

Sebastian Vettel was left disappointed to have missed out on Q3, as was Pierre Gasly who was angered by braking issues into turn one, sending the Frenchman into an expletive-laden team radio message.

Zhou's deletion sent him back to 14th ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, though the Chinese driver is the final recipient of a grid penalty.

Kevin Magnussen missed out on Q2 by 0.017s, whilst Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon were the shock eliminated drivers from the first session, with both teams potentially losing points in the battle for fourth in the constructors' standings.

Mick Schumacher spun and could only manage 19th, whilst Nicholas Latifi props up the grid.