F1 In America - Austin Texas

Coverage By Peter Habicht
The Auto Channel Racing Desk

Austin Texas October 22, 2016; Sunday’s USGP marks the 5th anniversary of Formula 1’s return to the United States at Circuit of The Americas, as well as the return of America to the starting grid, with Haas F1 Team racing in front of their home audience.

For Haas F1’s qualifying debut on home soil, Romain Grosjean’s day ended early, landing him P17 in Q1 while teammate Esteban Gutierrez made it to the second qualifying round to place 14th in the session. Both drivers struggled yesterday in practice with mechanical failures to their new front wings and low grip as they tried to optimize their setups for the weekend.

Lewis Hamilton, who trails his teammate Nico Rosberg by 33 points, took his 9th pole position of the season and his first ever at Circuit of the Americas, while besting his teammate by over two tenths of a second. Interestingly, all of Lewis’ victories have come from second on the grid, the only other race winner at Circuit of the Americas being Sebastian Vettel.