As the green flag signalled the start of qualifying in Austin most of the paddock descended onto the water-logged circuit. The F1 cars appeared to tentatively make their way around the track. Fans were on the edge of their seats watching these guys make their way through the surface water and subsequent spray.
At only some six minutes in Austin took its first victim, as Carlos Sainz crashed out, taking too much curb in these bad driving conditions and Q1 was red flagged as a result. This highlighted a problem with holding qualifying on race day in that there’s not the rebuild time for the teams if the cars go off the track during qualifying.
During the red flag break, much discussion took place as to whether the grid would be aligned by times set in Q1 or whether the field would need to be aligned as per qualifying results from Sochi.
During Q1 fans were treated to a display of the F1 driver skills in such difficult track conditions. Rosberg almost 2 seconds adrift from Hamilton. Vettel went off on turn 11 with just three minutes of the session remaining as he kissed the wall but managed to limp round to the pits, thankfully no significant damage and so Vettel able to go out with the rest of the field for Q2.
As the Q1 flag went down the drivers eliminated in Q1 were: Ericsson, Nasr, Rossi, Stevens and Sainz.
Q2 saw Vettel the first to break the two-minute barrier, shortly followed by the Mercedes duo that took a further 4 seconds. Further slips and slides from Raikkonen and Hamilton, thankfully both not involving any contact. Button radioed to his team that the car was aquaplaning all over the circuit as the rain arrived.
Commentators felt that the circuit was red flag conditions in the last two minutes of Q2. Fastest car in Q2 was Rosberg. Yet anther delay to the start of Q3 while officials discussed the safety of the drivers on the track.
Drivers eliminated in Q2 were: Alonso, Bottas, Grosjean, Button and Maldonado.
Q2 finished and the safety car took to the track as the rain became heavier. Between Q2 and Q3 race control advised that intermediate tyres were not to be used until further notice. After just a few minutes, race control advised that Q3 would not take place and the line up would be that of Q2, thereby with Rosberg taking pole in Texas.
Top ten line up after Q2 was: Rosberg, Hamilton, Ricciardo, Kyat, Vettel, Perez, Hulkenberg, Raikkonen, Massa and Verstappen.
Vettel will need to take his grid penalty, but at least the field got through two-thirds of qualifying, something that was not possible yesterday.
Discussions then moved to the race in a few hours time and the possibility of starting the race under the safety car.
