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United States Grand Prix 2016: Conclusions from qualifying

It's all about Turn One, a corner with a past, present and unmissable future; Max probably talks himself into trouble; Red Bull keep their options open

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Using the SkyPad, Paul di Resta looks at how Lewis Hamilton managed to pip Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg to pole in the US GP

Austin powers for Turn One
It's all about Turn One. It's all about a first corner with a present, a past and an unmissable future.

Lewis Hamilton had never been on pole position at the Circuit of Americas before he delivered his stonking lap at the close of Qualifying Three on Saturday night to beat Nico Rosberg by two tenths and the difference, according to the Mercedes driver, was the first corner.

"Turn One has always been my weak point here," Hamilton told Sky F1. "Every year I come back and I'm working on it, but I never get it right. But this year I got it pretty spot on in that lap."

Turn One certainly has history for Hamilton. He banged wheels there with Rosberg a year ago, running his team-mate off track and sparking the simmering resentment which boiled over after the race in Cap Gate.

Hamilton and Rosberg clash at Turn One of last year's United States GP
Image: Hamilton and Rosberg clash at Turn One of last year's United States GP

So Turn One also has plenty of history as far as Rosberg is concerned too.

"He didn't leave enough space and drove into me, which was one step too far because I was leading in the middle of the corner," complained Nico 12 months ago. "But this is something we can discuss together as a team at another time. I need to recover now from this tough day but I'm sure I will."

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With the benefit of hindsight and anticipation of what may come next, those remarks burn deep with resonance. 

It's all about Turn One. It's all about what its future holds at 8.01pm UK time on Sunday night.

Max attacks at the wrong time
O to have been a fly on the wall for Friday night's drivers' meeting at Austin when, as we now know, a posse of drivers turned on Max Verstappen and then successfully turned to the FIA to issue a crackdown to block 'Verstappen-style' blocks in the braking zone.

"There were many people complaining," Verstappen confirmed to Sky F1

And, if reports are to be believed, the many included both Ferrari drivers along with Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. By our count, the quartet muster the collective weight of 10 world championships between them. No wonder Verstappen lost out and no wonder race director Charlie Whiting was won over.

FIA outlaw 'Verstappen-style' defending

What we have no way of knowing is how Verstappen dealt with the criticism in the meeting. The Dutchman is known to have previously shrugged off previous complaints in drivers' meetings, barely deigning to acknowledge the concerns of his peers by all accounts, and the tone of his response this week can be elicited from his indignant dismissal of the FIA's crackdown on Saturday night. 

"I think it's just a new way of racing," he said. "I think everybody needs to get used to it, but now they've put a rule on it, and we get on with it."

It hardly requires a degree of diplomacy to imagine that 21 world-class drivers, most of whom are veterans at the pinnacle of motorsport, may not  have been enamoured with being told that what they thought was a bit iffy was in fact a new invention and nothing less than a misunderstood 'Verstappen Original'.

Max's refusal to conform has been a wonderful tonic for F1 over the last two years but this wasn't the time to stay on the attack.

Lurking Red Bull keep their options open
In the end, the half-second gap between Mercedes and Red Bull on the Q3 timesheet hardly lived up to the billing qualifying had been given after a rather more competitive pair of final practice sessions.

"They turned it up quite a bit in qualifying, I thought we were closer," conceded Verstappen to Sky F1 afterwards, with the fourth-placed Dutchman even further off Hamilton's record pole-winning pace.

But as much as all is not won for Mercedes, all is far from lost for Red Bull either, with the race pace they demonstrated on Friday and their cars' split starting tyre strategy giving the chief chasers room for potential manoeuvre in Sunday's race.

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Ted Kravitz gives his thoughts on Saturday's qualifying session at Austin

First, there's the start. As mentioned, the uphill run to Turn One has history for incident and Daniel Ricciardo is certainly hoping the supersoft tyres he will start on from third provide a grip advantage over the soft-shod Mercedes' ahead in the race's crucial first few seconds.

"Hopefully the supersoft gives me a bit of friendly grip off the line," the Australian said, with a smile, after qualifying. Mercedes' getaways have hardly been the W07's strongest suit, particularly where polesitter Hamilton is concerned, and a chance to take control of the race early on would represent Red Bull's best chance of an upset.

But even if that doesn't work out, the fact Ricciardo and Verstappen start on different tyres means Red Bull can keep their options open and see how the race and, crucially, tyre life pans out before deciding on their next moves.

Either way, the Red Bulls should have more than enough to keep the title contenders on their toes.

Driver market closing on final decisions
The final pieces in the 2017 driver-market jigsaw are beginning to fall into place.

Valtteri Bottas and Lance Stroll will, almost certainly, be announced as Williams' 2017 drivers in early November, Daniil Kvyat has seen off the candidature of Pierre Gasly to stay on at Toro Rosso alongside Carlos Sainz, and Felipe Nasr is the new frontrunner to replace the Renault-bound Nico Hulkenberg at Force India.

The expectation Nasr is set to be promoted up the grid is at once both surprising - Nasr has failed to consistently impress at Sauber and was once again soundly beaten by his team-mate in qualifying at Austin when Marcus Ericsson delivered "one of my best laps in my F1 career" to reach Q2 - and sensible: Nasr brings vast sponsorship and F1 needs to keep a Brazilian driver on the grid next year. With Felipe Massa's retirement four races away, the threat that a country synonymous with F1 was about to disappear off its grid map was uncomfortably real.

The shame, meanwhile, is that Haas have determined they are too immature a team to sign an immature driver to complete the set in Formula 1 of American team, American race and an American driver. 

"The paramount criteria right now is to have somebody who has experience," Gene Haas admitted this week. "And in that respect there are not many American drivers - actually no American F1 driver - who fulfils that. Probably only a big team can afford to take an inexperienced driver on board and move him up. We can't."

The team are still believed to be some way from finalising their line-up for next year, leaving the focus of attention on Renault. They, too, are believed to be have nationalistic considerations in mind but are understood to have been rebuffed by Mercedes in pursuing Esteban Ocon to partner Hulkenberg. Which probably leaves Kevin Magnussen or the improving Jolyon Palmer likely to be retained. The Englishman won their battle again on Saturday, as he has done in three of the last five qualifying events. Is it enough? Or too little, too late?

That's a conclusion nobody could state with any uncertainty just yet. 

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