United States Grand Prix 2022, F1 qualifying: live updates from Austin

Hello and welcome to tonight’s coverage of qualifying ahead of tomorrow’s United States Grand Prix. It’ll be green lights on at the Circuit of Americas in Austin, Texas, at 11pm BST – that’s 5pm local time. 

Austin has the feeling of a little bit of a damp squib – Daniel Ricciardo arriving to the COTA pitlane on a horse on Thursday notwithstanding – after the chaos that the Japanese Grand Prix served up. Amidst controversy over Red Bull’s 2021 spending cap breach and safety concerns over the recovery vehicles on the track during the heavy rain which truncated the race at Suzuka, Max Verstappen received a muddled coronation as world champion. 

His early win, with four races left, makes him one of the quickest drivers to claim the championship, but by no means sews up the remainder of the season. Focus may switch to the constructor’s championships, where Mercedes are mounting a late-season rush on the embattled Ferrari. 

Ferrari had another horror race in Japan, after Carlos Sainz crashed out in lap 1, and are now only 67 points ahead of Mercedes, with both teams gunning for second place. Both Sainz and team-mate Charles Leclerc looked pacey in the final practice earlier today – they were third and second fastest respectively – but may have to navigate penalties already incurred ahead of qualifying. 

In fact, we have an increasingly common litany of grid penalties already handed out: Zhou Guanyu will take a five-place penalty for fitting a new internal combustion engine, as will Sergio Perez for similar tinkering with his RB18. Leclerc will drop 10 places for his new internal combustion engine and turbocharger. Fernando Alonso, too, will be penalised to the tune of five places.  

This weekend, the FIA have implemented clearer rules on engine penalties, after mass confusion following the Italian Grand Prix, which should mean we have a simplified process for understanding how the drivers will line up tomorrow: as per the FIA, penalised drivers who have received 15 or less cumulative grid penalities will be allocated a ‘temporary’ grid position, which will mean that once the unpenalised drivers have been allocated their grid positions, those drivers will be shuffled up to close the grid. 

Simple? Let’s see. It’s a wild and windy day in Texas, and we’ve got an hour to go until qualifying. Stick around for all the latest build-up and news before things get underway at 11pm BST.