Verstappen: The main thing in the sprint is to get a good start.
Max Verstappen won the sprint qualifying in Austin, beating both McLaren drivers, and was, of course, very pleased with the achievement. The sprint at the Texas circuit will be the tenth Saturday race that the four-time world champion will start from pole.
Yuki Tsunoda failed to start his final attempt in the first session and was 18th in the times.
Max Verstappen (1st): "Qualifying went pretty well; in all its parts we were only a little bit off, and we just had to try to put everything together towards the end, when, of course, it mattered most. Doing that isn't easy because we had to switch to the soft tires, although we didn't really know how they would behave.
Everything came together well, but I foresee that there will be a tough fight during the sprint. Then again, I think that's exactly what we want to see. I'm happy with today's result and I'm already looking forward to tomorrow.
Today the wind is gusty and its strength kept changing. Also, the track is very bumpy, so the car can get out of control at full speed. In a qualifying like this you have to leave a bit of a margin on certain parts of the track, but in the end it worked out well for us.
In the Saturday sprint the main thing is to get a good start. Turn 1 is quite wide, and I hope that in the race we will be able to show good pace. But we'll find that out tomorrow."
Yuki Tsunoda (18th): "I didn't have enough time to start the final quick lap. The team and I need to work out the reasons, because right now we should be talking about a more successful Friday.
The session was a bit chaotic. I don't know exactly what happened, but I wasn't anywhere near starting a lap in time. Something went wrong and we missed the chance. It's a real shame. I'm very upset, but sometimes these things are out of your control.
We need to do everything we can to make the rest of the weekend better, to get the most out of the car and be in the positions we should be in."
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