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McLaren team boss Stella admits: 'Russell's crash helped us'
A late crash in George Russell in Q3 eliminated everyone's second run in the session. Max Verstappen was going strong to challenge Norris and had a chance to once again be on pole position for the second time in Austin after the Sprint, but he also could not finish his final lap. McLaren team principal Andrea Stella also saw that Norris might have got a lucky break with the double yellow flags shown for the Mercedes driver's crash.
Stella: 'The yellow flag helped us'
"Lando's first lap was pretty much perfect. It would have been difficult for him to improve with the second set of tyres," Stella began reacting to qualifying to Sky Sports.
"I saw Verstappen was on a fast lap and it could have been a problem for us in terms of pole position, so I think the yellow flag might have helped us. It would have been very close."
"Overall it's encouraging that we have been able to improve the car from the Sprint performance. We have made some tuning to the set-up, understand some aspects from a driving point of view, and Lando and Oscar have been able to put it all together in this qualifying session. P1, P5 is important for tomorrow and hopefully we will be able to reduce the tyre degradation that was high in the Sprint session," Stella concluded.
The exciting end to qualifying was eliminated thanks to Russell's aforementioned crash exiting the penultimate corner. Verstappen was two tenths quicker than Lando Norris through Sector 1, while the Briton just marginally failed to improve at that point on his flying lap. The two championship rivals will be able to battle once again on Sunday, as they will start from the front row of the grid, with the two Ferrari drivers behind.
This article was written in collaboration with Nicole Mulder
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