Carlos Sainz pleased with gradual progress in Austin as Ferrari’s ‘ups and downs’ continue in qualifying

“Bit gutted for that last lap because I was three-tenths up on my lap going into Turn 16 with only two corners left, but it’s easy to say now,” he added. “Anyway, I think we’ve done some good progress and we should be in the fight tomorrow if we get a clean start, and with the two guys in front it should be a fun one.”

Ferrari demonstrated strong race pace in the 19-lap Sprint but appeared to struggle with tyre degradation, which could be a further problem in the Grand Prix with the added factor of changeable track temperatures.

HIGHLIGHTS: Catch the qualifying action from Austin as Norris takes spectacular pole while Russell crashes out

The Spaniard said: “I always kept an eye on [tyre preparation] because it’s something where we’ve struggled recently in our team to put the tyres in the right window for qualifying. We seem to be always quick in the race, but in qualifying we have some ups and downs.

“It was my main point to focus during the whole quali, and it seems like we got it right, especially that last lap before the yellow flag. It seemed like we got them in the right spot because we suddenly found a lot of laptime going into the first two sectors.”