We're racing in Austin this weekend for round 19 of the 2024 Formula One World Championship. Read Lance and Fernando's thoughts following Sunday's action.
Under the Texan sunshine, Fernando classified P13 and Lance finished P15 in the 2024 United States Grand Prix.
Sunday round-up and reaction
Fernando began the Grand Prix from P7 on Mediums, with Lance opting for Hards for his P13 start.
On Lap 3, a Safety Car came out for the first time since the Canadian Grand Prix back in June.
Our drivers pitted only once each. Fernando came in at the end of Lap 26 for Hards, followed by Lance pitting a lap later for Mediums.
Fernando crossed the line P13 and Lance P15.
#18 | Lance Stroll | Race
"We lacked pace compared to the other cars today. I had a bit of messy restart with a snap at Turn 10 but I think that, even without that snap, the result would have been the same. The car didn't have the performance for us to fight for positions. We've still got work ahead us to improve this car and we'll be pushing hard to make that happen."
#14 | Fernando Alonso | Race
"It was a tough race for us today and we dropped back a few places from our starting position. I think we outperformed the car's natural position in Qualifying and we knew it would be an uphill battle to stay inside the top ten. It's been a difficult weekend and we have lots to analyse over the next few days to get better for Mexico."
Mike Krack | Team Principal
"A very difficult race day. It is really disappointing to come away from the weekend without any points. The midfield is incredibly tight and we were on the wrong side of the competition. We just didn't have any pace all weekend. We have to learn from days like today, redouble our efforts and put actions in place ahead of next weekend in Mexico."
Next up
We're back on the track on 25-27 October for the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Saturday
Lance and Fernando began Saturday's Sprint on the Medium tyre compound from P13 and P14 respectively.
Lance finished the stateside Sprint in P13, while Fernando classified P18.
Later in the day, in Qualifying for the 2024 United States Grand Prix, both drivers got through to the second Qualifying segment.
Fernando made it through to Q3, securing a top ten start in the Grand Prix, while Lance qualified P14.
#18 | Lance Stroll | Sprint & Qualifying
"It was a difficult Qualifying session - we're struggling to get on top of the car this weekend. We made a few set-up changes between the Sprint and Qualifying, but it will be tomorrow when we'll get a better idea of how that's impacted the overall pace of the car. The aim has to be to score points, but we know that's going to be a challenge given the tight midfield."
#14 | Fernando Alonso | Sprint & Qualifying
"It's a good result for us to finish in eighth position in today's Qualifying. We've not been comfortable with the car and have made set-up changes. I think the changes we made after the Sprint have helped and we found more performance which is encouraging. It's still challenging to drive the car, but this result hopefully allows us to score some points tomorrow. There are some fast cars starting behind us so the top ten will be a good battle tomorrow."
Mike Krack | Team Principal
"It is good to be back on track here in Austin. Our disappointing Sprint Qualifying performance yesterday compromised our opportunities to score points, so we switched our focus and used the Sprint to learn more about optimising the set-up of our updated package for the race.
"Lance and Fernando both drove well in Qualifying with a car which is not easy to manage at the moment. As a team, we will analyse the data overnight and do our homework with the objective of scoring some points tomorrow in front of the impressive COTA crowd."
Next up
The action continues on Sunday. Lights out for the 2024 United States Grand Prix is at 20:00 BST.
Friday
Our drivers had similar strategies during Free Practice One, starting on the Hard compound tyre and concluding the session on Softs.
Fernando secured ninth in FP1, while Lance finished P15.
During our first Sprint Qualifying since June, both Lance and Fernando made it through to SQ2 in the top ten.
Both drivers had their initial SQ2 laps deleted, resulting in them finishing the session in P13 and P14.
#18 | Lance Stroll | Free Practice & Sprint Qualifying
"The car felt alright in SQ1, but in SQ2 it became very tricky to drive and we got caught out by track limits. We've got more work to do tonight to look through the data we've collected and understand how we can optimise the updates we’ve brought to the car. I think pace-wise we're in a similar place to where we have been all season."
#14 | Fernando Alonso | Free Practice & Sprint Qualifying
"We wanted to experiment a little with the car today and made some setup changes ahead of Sprint Qualifying. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to make it through to SQ3 and we also had some deleted laps due to track limits at the end. We will evaluate these changes and the new package tonight and see what we can do tomorrow. The top eight positions score tomorrow, so it will be very difficult to fight for points, but we'll see what we can learn."
Sprinting statesideSprinting stateside
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