“A good start together”: US GP qualifying team radio highlights

Carlos Sainz Jnr told Renault they’d made “a good start together” after he reached Q3 on his debut with the team in Austin.

Here are more team radio highlights from Saturday’s running.

Third practice

To Stroll: “There’s quite a lot of wind and it’s gusting.”

To Hartley: “You can keep pushing. We have enough battery.”

Hartley: “Car’s a bit tricky with the wind.”

Sainz: “Better than yesterday. Similar to P1. Just some lack of stability in the tailwind corners. Last sector is a lot better.”
“Keep us posted on the car and the helmet.”

Hartley: “Helmet’s all OK.”
“Happy days.”

Kvyat: “Some wrong with the car guys. Steering felt very heavy.”

Sebastian Vettel accidentally pulled up at the Red Bull garage.

“And stop on the marks.”
Vettel: “OK sorry fellas. I was looking down, so..”

Romain Grosjean spun into a gravel trap.

Verstappen: “OK that was a really unexpected slide.”
“What exactly did you feel?”
Verstappen: “Just a massive loss of rear grip. OK. Looks like it was wind-related but we’ll have a look if it’s anything else.”

To Raikkonen: “Just for info on conditions, Kimi, we see the wind strengthening.”

Hamilton: “Is anyone improving on their next lap?”
“Negative. Not at the moment.”

To Magnussen: “Romain is not using the inside kerb at corner eight.”

Magnussen: “Traffic again.”
“Yeah obviously now it’s pretty busy.”

“Got Magnussen behind you on a timed lap.”
Sainz: “Yeah that was a bit of a late call on Magnussen.”
“Yeah sorry for that.”

“Scenario 12, box. Just bring it in.”
Sainz: “Why scenario 12?”
“We have an issue with the car. Need to investigate.”
Sainz: “OK.”

Qualifying

Q1

Brendon Hartley didn’t make the cut for Q2 on his debut.

To Hartley: “Tyres are good, keep working on the front.”

Verstappen: “This is a big mess.”
“OK.”
Verstappen: “I mean there are cars everywhere around me.”
“We’ll have to make this next lap count.”

Lance Stroll was penalised for holding Grosjean up and Kevin Magnussen got the same penalty for getting in Sergio Perez’s way.

Grosjean: “What was that, mate?”
“I saw it, that was Stroll.”

Perez: “Mate what is Magnussen doing? What the [censored by FOM] is he doing, always the same.”

Stroll: “I don’t know what happened with the engine I had a deployment problem.”

To Ericsson: “Yes! P16. Box, great lap.”

“OK that’s P18 Brendon I’m afraid. It’s all within half a tenth. The four cars in front of you are all within half a tenth.”
Hartley: “Gave away a lot in 12 and 15 unfortunately. The front lock. Anyway thanks guys.”

Q2

Felipe Massa failed to beat Esteban Ocon to the last place in Q3 after feeling a problem with his engine.

Raikkonen: “I lost half a second in turn 12.”
“Copy, saw that Kimi.”

Massa: “I think I had some issue in the last sector on the engine.”

Alonso: “I can’t do much more than this mate.”
“No that was a nice lap mate were through.”

Ocon: “Are we through?”
“Just. We’re through by a couple of thousandths in tenth place.”

Q3

Lewis Hamilton clinched his 11th pole position of 2017 while Sainz was satisfied with his first qualifying effort for Toro Rosso.

Hamilton: “Had a de-rate out of the last corner.”
“Copy, we can see that in the data, will have a look at that.”

Raikkonen: “There’s something wrong with my front tyre temperatures. It says 68.”
“I think they’re frozen. Ignore those numbers.”

“Currently P3.”
Raikkonen: “That was [censored by FOM]. Too many mistakes.”

To Raikkonen: “When you pull up Kimi wait for 5 seconds in P1 then go to P0. We’ll try to power-cycle the car to get the sensors working.”

Verstappen: “Didn’t feel great into turn 16. Felt like less power”
“On the exit of 15? We’ll have a look.”

“P2 confirmed. Good effort.”
Vettel: “Grazie.”
“We fight hard tomorrow.”

“So Vettel’s pipped you there. So the order is Lewis, Vettel, yourself, Ricciardo, Raikkonen, Verstappen.”
Bottas: “[Censored by FOM].”

“OK P4 mate, nice job.”
Ricciardo: “[Censored by FOM] yes, boys. [Censored by FOM] yes.”
“You did exactly the same time as Raikkonen but you did it about 20 seconds earlier. So we get that one. nice job.”
Ricciardo: “Oi oi oi oi!”
“That was a good lap. Finishing order: Hamilton…”
Ricciardo: “Do you want me to keep going? Oi oi oi!”

“OK mate that was P6. Seemed to go away through the lap.”
Verstappen: “Yeah I made a mistake in 15.”

“OK P8, well done. Good job.”
Sainz: “Thank you guys. Good first quali. I think we can call that a good start together.

2017 United States Grand Prix

• 2017 United States Grand Prix Predictions Championship results
• 2017 United States Grand Prix team radio transcript
• 2017 United States Grand Prix Star Performers
• Hamilton only needs fifth – but we’ve heard that before…
• “Can you tell Esteban to let me by?”: US GP team radio highlights