Mercedes have brought a significant raft of upgrades to Austin, including a new front wing, front suspension, floor and sidepod inlets. While they struggled to get to grips with them in free practice as Hamilton suffered a huge spin through turn 4, by Sprint qualifying their performance had improved.

Lewis set the pace in the first part of Sprint qualifying, going fastest once the whole field had a time on the board. But in the second SQ, Mercedes chose to follow the same strategy for both drivers while others in the field chose to split, sending them out early to set the pace – a choice questioned by Lewis over the radio.

Mercedes mirrored this decision again in SQ3, with both Hamilton and Russell fitting the mandatory soft tyre and heading out on track early to set a banker lap while most of the field remained in their garages.

While the strategy itself wasn’t problematic, being the only other car on track as the Williams of Franco Colapinto spun in turn 12 meant Lewis’ lap time suffered and that he had no tyre left to go again.

Lewis encountered the briefly thrown yellow flag in the braking zone for turn 12 and was forced to lift off, as is seen in the speed trace graph comparing Hamilton and Russell’s final SQ laps.

Speaking after the session Lewis said, “I just got unlucky with a yellow flag and that’s what it is”. But despite this, he remained encouraged by the team’s progress through the day, using their learnings from a tricky practice hour to have the pace for P2 on the Sprint grid with Russell. 

“The good thing is the team has made a step with the car,” Lewis said. “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 upgrades and make sure that they’re working.”Lewis Hamilton felt he was “unlucky” to miss out on Pole for the Sprint race in Austin, so where did it go wrong?