维斯塔潘险些被安东内利超越，错失杆位
在F1美国大奖赛排位赛中，红牛车手维斯塔潘险些被安东内利超越，错失杆位。安东内利在第三轮排位赛中展现出出色的表现，尤其是在最后几圈中，他的速度和操控都十分出色。
红牛车队的任何一位车手都有可能在F1美国大奖赛中获得杆位，如果不是因为基米·安东内利在关键弯道中扭转了局势。
激烈的排位赛在Q3阶段变成了安东内利与马克斯·维斯塔潘以及伊萨克·哈德贾之间的对决，尤其是他们的首轮圈速——在这轮圈速中，梅赛德斯和红牛在整个赛道上轮流展现统治力。
周日是安东内利首次有机会赢得世界冠军。虽然从数学上来说可能性很小，但他已经处于实现这一目标的最有利位置，因为他在排位赛中跑出了值得这场战斗的圈速。
安东内利在第一部分的扫尾阶段表现得非常出色。随着这一序列的深入，他看起来更加自信，即使引擎在高档位下大声咆哮，他也能精确而充满侵略性地将赛车驶入每个部分。
安东内利利用它以惊人的速度保持油门开度，直到7号弯，将这种速度滚动到8号弯，并在9号弯更加积极地收油，与红牛车队相比，在这几个弯角上几乎提升了十分之一。
“中速弯，高速，中速，”安东内利描述了哪里的圈速最为理想。
“感觉车处于一个很好的位置。我们在低速时仍然有些挣扎，但总的来说，赛车在1区和2区表现非常好，尤其是在8号和9号弯。
“所以我们认为从这套套件中获得的收益最大。我们仍在试图理解低速问题。”
低速性能的弱点在排位赛中就已经很明显，特别是在最后一个弯道，在这个赛道上，轮胎的声音几乎要尖叫起来。
根据赛道工程总监安德鲁·肖夫林的说法，梅赛德斯在夜间进行了“相当大的改动”，尽管有所改进，但他表示，在最后一个弯道仍然很吃力，我们与竞争对手的几乎所有差距都来自于12号到15号弯道的连续弯道。
在FP2练习中，维斯塔潘从12号弯到15号弯比安东内利快了十分之一。在FP3练习中，差距扩大到了两十分之一，甚至在Q1和Q2中，红牛也有大约半十分之一的优势。
但安东内利在Q3的杆位圈中很好地完成了这一部分，这最终证明是他的杆位圈。
他比红牛车队更好地保持了轮胎的活力，在这个序列中比维斯塔潘快了两个十分之一，比哈达尔快了三个十分之一——梅赛德斯在从慢速的13号和15号弯道加速时表现得尤为出色。
这是安东内利在最后一个弯道速度较慢的情况下，甚至在最后一个弯道耗时大约十分之一的情况下，在最后一个部分仍然更快的关键部分。
哈达尔比维斯塔潘更快吗？
维斯塔潘感到沮丧和困惑，因为在Q2中，红牛车队在用过的软胎上的强劲速度并没有转化为Q3中新胎上的更好感觉。
他，像许多人一样，在第二次尝试中并没有提升。但第一次‘感觉真的很糟糕’。他抱怨说，没有必要的抓地力，“我在最后一段无法像我希望的那样倾斜后轮”——而安东内利在这里能够有所作为。
但考虑到哈吉尔在这里几乎快了十分之一，维斯塔潘在中段的表现也比他应有的水平略弱——维斯塔潘的Q3失望几乎为哈吉尔击败他打开了大门。
考虑到哈吉尔结合自己最佳段落的理想圈速略快于维斯塔潘的同等表现，他本应该做到这一点。
如果将维斯塔潘的第一和第三段以及哈吉尔的中间段结合起来，组成一个红牛的圈速，会比安东内利慢0.041秒，这进一步表明了决定这场比赛的细微差距。
哈达尔甚至在整个比赛中都表现得如此出色，这在他说“这是一个灾难性的周末”之后令人印象深刻，直到资格赛之前。
我知道这辆车里有一些东西，因为在某些时候我能完成半圈并且感到很舒服，但我永远无法完成它。
但在那次资格赛中，这辆车对我而言真的变得更加活跃。我们真的在设置上挖掘得很深。这个周末我们尝试了这么多东西，这真的得到了回报。
所以，在这方面，我真的很满意。但我有点失望，更多的是关于Q3的第一尝试。
那最终对所有人来说都适用，除了安东内利。
英文原文
Either Red Bull driver could have been on pole position for Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix were they not thwarted by Kimi Antonelli turning the tables through a crucial sequence of corners.
An intense qualifying fight came down to Antonelli versus Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar in Q3, and especially their opening runs - on which the Mercedes and the Red Bull traded dominance across the lap.
Sunday is Antonelli’s first chance to wrap up the world championship. It’s a mathematical long shot but he is in the best place to do it after a qualifying lap worthy of the cause.
Antonelli was superb through the latter part of the sweeps in the opening sector. The deeper into that sequence, the more assured he looked, throwing the car into each part with precise aggression even as the engine cried loudly with Antonelli holding it in a lower gear versus Verstappen.
Antonelli used it to carry prodigious speed holding the throttle for longer into Turn 7, rolling that through Turn 8 and picking up the throttle more aggressively into Turn 9, gaining almost two tenths through these corners versus the Red Bull.
“Medium-speed corners, high-speed, medium-speed,” Antonelli said of where the lap was sweetest.
“It felt in a good place, the car. We still struggle a little bit in low speed, but overall the car has been very good in Sector 1 and Sector 2, especially through Turns 8 and 9.
“So that's where we feel the most gain from the package. It's still the low speed that we're trying to understand.”
The lower-speed weakness had been evident until qualifying and manifested especially in the final sector when, at this track, the tyres can be screaming.
Mercedes made “reasonably large changes overnight”, according to trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin, and while it was an improvement he said it was “still struggling through the final sector though, with almost all our deficit to our competitors coming through the sequence from Turns 12 to 15”.
In FP2, Verstappen was a tenth faster than Antonelli from the exit of Turn 12 to Turn 15. In FP3 this was two tenths and even in Q1 and Q2 there was half a tenth or so in the Red Bull’s favour.
But Antonelli managed this section very well on what would ultimately prove to be his pole lap in Q3.
He kept the tyres alive better than the Red Bulls, putting two tenths on Verstappen on this sequence and three tenths on Hadjar – the Mercedes especially strong picking up the throttle off of the slow Turns 13 and 15.
It was a critical part of Antonelli being faster in the final sector even with a slower run off the final corner costing around a tenth.
Hadjar quicker than Verstappen?
Verstappen was frustrated, and confused, that Red Bull’s very strong pace on a used set of softs in Q2 did not translate into a better feeling on new tyres in Q3.
He, like many others, failed to improve on his second run. But the first “just felt bad” anyway. He complained that without the necessary grip “I couldn't lean on the rear the way I wanted in the final sector” - where Antonelli was able to make a difference.
But Verstappen was also slightly weaker in the middle sector than he could have been, given Hadjar was almost a tenth faster here – and Verstappen’s Q3 disappointment almost opened the door to Hadjar beating him.
Hadjar arguably should have, given his ideal lap from combining his best sectors was marginally faster than Verstappen’s equivalent.
A composite Red Bull lap – combining Verstappen’s first and third sectors, and Hadjar’s middle – would have been 0.041s slower than Antonelli, further indicative of the fine margins that decided this fight.
It was impressive that Hadjar was even in the mix at all after what he called “a disaster of a weekend” until qualifying.
“I knew there was something in the car because there were times where I could do half a lap and I felt comfortable, but I could never finish it,” he said.
“But in that qualifying, the car really came alive a bit more for me. We really dug deep on the set-up. We tried so many things this weekend, and it really paid off.
“So, on that note, it's really, really satisfying. But I'm a bit gutted, more about the first attempt in Q3.”
That ultimately went for everybody except Antonelli.
The Race ·
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