Last-placed Alpine fell further behind their rivals in the constructors’ championship in Austin and their plight looks set to get worse in Mexico.

For the third weekend in a row, their drivers are lapping slower than they did at the same circuit last year.

Change from practice to qualifying

In a reversal of what we’ve seen at many races this year, Red Bull were quickest on Friday but did not make their usual leap in performance overnight into Saturday. Max Verstappen was concerned about his car’s race pace after the first two practice sessions and the team may have had to sacrifice its single-lap performance to give him a car which works better over a stint.

Sector times

Lando Norris took a commanding pole position, quickest in all three sectors.

P. # Driver S1 S2 S3 Ultimate lap (deficit)
1 4 Lando Norris 26.916 (1) 29.114 (1) 19.556 (1) 1’15.586
2 16 Charles Leclerc 26.945 (2) 29.185 (3) 19.690 (3) 1’15.820 (+0.028)
3 44 Lewis Hamilton 27.041 (5) 29.156 (2) 19.693 (4) 1’15.890 (+0.048)
4 63 George Russell 27.022 (4) 29.299 (5) 19.713 (8) 1’16.034
5 1 Max Verstappen 27.049 (6) 29.328 (6) 19.693 (4) 1’16.070
6 12 Andrea Kimi Antonelli 27.112 (7) 29.219 (4) 19.787 (10) 1’16.118
7 55 Carlos Sainz Jnr 27.013 (3) 29.420 (9) 19.739 (9) 1’16.172
8 81 Oscar Piastri 27.117 (8) 29.351 (7) 19.705 (7) 1’16.173
9 6 Isack Hadjar 27.198 (9) 29.353 (8) 19.701 (6) 1’16.252
10 87 Oliver Bearman 27.267 (10) 29.552 (11) 19.641 (2) 1’16.460
11 22 Yuki Tsunoda 27.331 (13) 29.531 (10) 19.866 (14) 1’16.728 (+0.088)
12 31 Esteban Ocon 27.277 (12) 29.668 (13) 19.828 (11) 1’16.773 (+0.064)
13 27 Nico Hulkenberg 27.430 (14) 29.668 (13) 19.841 (12) 1’16.939 (+0.077)
14 30 Liam Lawson 27.541 (19) 29.564 (12) 19.856 (13) 1’16.961
15 14 Fernando Alonso 27.444 (15) 29.729 (15) 19.897 (15) 1’17.070 (+0.033)
16 5 Gabriel Bortoleto 27.511 (18) 29.925 (18) 19.898 (16) 1’17.334 (+0.078)
17 10 Pierre Gasly 27.461 (16) 29.897 (17) 20.044 (17) 1’17.402 (+0.144)
18 23 Alexander Albon 27.276 (11) 30.026 (20) 20.108 (19) 1’17.410 (+0.080)
19 18 Lance Stroll 27.648 (20) 29.865 (16) 20.061 (18) 1’17.574 (+0.032)
20 43 Franco Colapinto 27.495 (17) 30.015 (19) 20.160 (20) 1’17.670

Teams’ performance

Neither Pierre Gasly nor Franco Colapinto progressed beyond the first round of qualifying. Gasly reached Q3 at this race last year and qualified eighth on the grid with a lap of 1’16.892, but was over half a second slower than that this weekend.

This is the third weekend in a row Alpine have been slower than they were last year. They were one of three teams who failed to beat their 2024 lap times in Austin, along with Ferrari and Racing Bulls. In Singapore they were also the only team who lapped slower than the previous season.

Alpine stopped work on their current car early in order to prioritise their development work for next year, when they will switch to using Mercedes power units. Gasly said in July he doubts the team will be able to avoid finishing last in the championship.

Field performance

Norris produced the fastest lap of the current generation of F1 cars at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. However that was still eight tenths of a second off the all-time record set by Max Verstappen in 2019.

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