Lewis Hamilton rued an untimely yellow flag costing him what he believed could have been pole position for the Sprint race at the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix.
Hamilton, a six-time race winner around the Circuit of the Americas, seemed in competitive shape as he posted the second-quickest time in SQ2 and was third in SQ3.
However, the Briton was unable to replicate that on his sole attempt in the all-important last segment as he slumped to seventh place behind Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas.
Hamilton’s disappointment was compounded as George Russell showed the potential of Mercedes’ W15 with second place, 0.012 seconds down on Max Verstappen.
However, Hamilton looked set to edge both Verstappen and his team-mate until a slow-moving Franco Colapinto, who had spun at Turn 12, interrupted his momentum.
“Yeah, just got unlucky with the yellow flag and that’s what it is,” Hamilton recalled. “I was four-tenths up.”
Hamilton praises Mercedes upgrades
But Hamilton, who hasn’t been on the podium since the summer break, derived encouragement from Mercedes’ latest upgrades delivering an immediate step forward.
Asked whether the caution period saw pole position go begging, Hamilton replied: “Yeah, but it is what it is.
“The good thing is the team’s made a step with the car, the upgrade has clearly worked.
“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 to make sure that they’re working and so yeah it’s not the end of the day. Tomorrow we got another chance.”
Mercedes set-up tweaks inspire COTA turnaround
Hamilton commended the set-up alterations that Mercedes made to rebound from a challenging practice session which saw both drivers encounter high-speed spins.
“We did a great job to make changes to the car and it’s always a bit of a gamble because you don’t know whether or not it’s going to work, the changes that you make,
“You hope they do what you aim to do with them and as soon as I got out the car was like night and day.”
READ MORE: Max Verstappen snatches F1 Sprint pole in Austin from George Russell
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