2024 United States Grand Prix - COTA, Oct 18-20

[Vanja #66]

How much luck can lucky lando get in one day...

[Vaexa]

CotA T1, P2 being on the inside line and Lando Norris on P1 are like a match made in hell. If I liked betting, I'd bet serious money on Verstappen leading after the first lap tomorrow.

[Szabi1112]

CotA T1, P2 being on the inside line and Lando Norris on P1 are like a match made in hell. If I liked betting, I'd bet serious money on Verstappen leading after the first lap tomorrow.

Regarding Norris, you dont take too much risk

[RacePaceDemon]

Well that was bad for Mercedes. Pathetic car...

[Spacepace]

My thoughts on the pace were seeing from the top 4 is Red Bull ran more wing with higher ride heights to compensate for the rough esses. McLaren is running less wing and had to run their preferred lower ride heights but it's causing extreme porpoising and instability. The same goes to Mercedes. Ferrari has shown to have the most forgivable ride over bumpy tracks/kerbs this year so they aren't bothered by it much.

Slow motion cameras are capturing the McLarens diffuser working like a wheelie bar as it smashes into the tarmac in the esses. I'm sure they'd love to move to a setup like Red Bull but my guess is they don't trust there top end speed

[CHT]

Q3 was really anticlimax and its good to see RBR (of should I say Max) bouncing back again.
Liam Lawson Q2 timing was superb. What exactly happen to Liam during Q3? Was that a strategy to preserve tires for race tomorrow?

[dialtone]

Lando was not necessarily under any real threat IMHO. His lap time on the first attempt was seriously good, particularly his S3 time was the best of all, including LEC that had so far had the best time of all others by a margin.

Max and SAI were fast but not fast enough, Max was +0.02 or thereabouts and his best S3 was 0.2 slower than Lando's time. SAI was a bit slower than Max and his S3 was also thereabouts. LEC on the other hand was on his best lap but was also slightly behind SAI.

NOR was going to be on pole even without Mercedes being awful.

[Artur Craft]

Well that was bad for Mercedes. Pathetic car...

Certainly one of the quickest cars. But they have one of the most useless drivers' line up on the grid. And to top it of, they bring Antonelli

[dialtone]

Here's the data about the 3 of them, all slower well before they started giving up on the lap.

[Sieper]

Q3 was really anticlimax and its good to see RBR (of should I say Max) bouncing back again.
Liam Lawson Q2 timing was superb. What exactly happen to Liam during Q3? Was that a strategy to preserve tires for race tomorrow?

He has a grid penalty for engine components. They used him for a tow for yuki as he wouldn’t be top 10 anyway (due to penalty) and yuki had a chance. I think they gave him fuel beans in Q2 already (morale boost, to make up for being a tow-er in Q3 only). He did extremely well though.

[Aesop]

Lando was not necessarily under any real threat IMHO. His lap time on the first attempt was seriously good, particularly his S3 time was the best of all, including LEC that had so far had the best time of all others by a margin.

Max and SAI were fast but not fast enough, Max was +0.02 or thereabouts and his best S3 was 0.2 slower than Lando's time. SAI was a bit slower than Max and his S3 was also thereabouts. LEC on the other hand was on his best lap but was also slightly behind SAI.

NOR was going to be on pole even without Mercedes being awful.

Max was two tenths up after S1 on his second run, and made a mistake in turn 19 on his first run. He probably would have been on pole quite comfortably. But Norris did a great first run when it mattered.
I doubt the McLaren is good enough to hold back both Max and the Ferraris though in the race.

[dialtone]

Lando was not necessarily under any real threat IMHO. His lap time on the first attempt was seriously good, particularly his S3 time was the best of all, including LEC that had so far had the best time of all others by a margin.

Max and SAI were fast but not fast enough, Max was +0.02 or thereabouts and his best S3 was 0.2 slower than Lando's time. SAI was a bit slower than Max and his S3 was also thereabouts. LEC on the other hand was on his best lap but was also slightly behind SAI.

NOR was going to be on pole even without Mercedes being awful.

Max was two tenths up after S1 on his second run, and made a mistake in turn 19 on his first run. He probably would have been on pole quite comfortably. But Norris did a great first run when it mattered.
I doubt the McLaren is good enough to hold back both Max and the Ferraris though in the race.

Fact is though that Max was +0.02 on NOR in his last attempt before the yellows and NOR had a purple S3.

[pantherxxx]

Mclaren and Red Bull have very similar qualy pace here. Tire management and race pace/strategy + driver skill will matter at the race, and I think Verstappen and Red Bull have a slight edge there, based on the sprint race.

[Raleigh]

Max would've been on pole. The Ferraris were also going strong, a tenth up in S1 on their previous run

looking at the sector times Norris would have possibly dropped to P3

https://i.imgur.com/JbwQO9f.jpeg

Not happening, Verstappen was already down at the Sector 2 split before the yellows. He wasn't going to beat Norris 1st run, probably not even his own 1st run. At least not without a monster Sector 3.

[PlatinumZealot]

The Red Bull definitely kinder to its tyres thus a Max win is a forgone conculsion.

The race will be about the lower podium steps.