Lewis Hamilton said sprint pole at the 2024 United States GP slipped away when a yellow flag caused by Franco Colapinto’s spin forced the Mercedes driver to slow down and lift off on his one and only lap in SQ3.
The 105-time Grand Prix winner had put in a purple first sector and found himself around half a second up on his teammate, George Russell, but the spin of the young Williams driver brought out double yellow flags as he entered Sector 2.
And the FIA and Formula 1’s sporting regulations declare a driver must slow down and be prepared to stop if double yellows appear on track, which is what the 39-year-old did to avoid a penalty for dangerous driving.
As a result, he could not improve and found himself down in seventh once all was said and done, a distant seven tenths behind Russell, who went on to line-up second having missed sprint pole by just 0.012.
“I just got unlucky with the yellow flag and that’s what it is,” Hamilton told F1 TV at the Circuit of the Americas. “I was four tenths up, but you know, it is what it is. The good thing is the team’s made a step with the car.
“The upgrade has clearly worked and I’m really grateful to everyone back at the factory for all the hard work over this period of time because it’s been a tough slog for everyone to get the upgrade and make sure that they’re working.
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“So, it’s not the end of the day. Tomorrow we’ve got another chance.”
Hamilton praises Mercedes progress
Mercedes brought a total of seven upgrades to the 2024 United States GP in a bid to undo the errors they made with their floor update back in July, which caused them to lose their way by slipping down to the fourth-fastest team.
And it seemed as though the story was going to repeat itself at the Circuit of the Americas on Friday, October 19 as the team struggled in their only Free Practice session before producing a strong turnaround to be competitive in Sprint Qualifying as Hamilton praised his team.
“We did a great job in between [sessions] to make changes to the car,” Hamilton added. “And it’s always a bit of a gamble because you don’t know whether or not the changes you make are going to work.
“But you hope they do what you aim to do with them and as soon as I got out of the car, it was like night and day different.
“So, it was great work from the guys in the garage and then with Bono and Mike [his performance engineers], they did a great job.”
