United States Grand Prix – Fifth and eighth places for Vettel and Raikkonen in qualifying

Engine change penalties see Seb line up on Row 7 with Kimi starting 18th.
Austin, 25 October –The weather continues to affect track action at the United States Grand Prix. Qualifying got underway as planned at 9am local time, with rain still falling. But by the end of Q2, it had intensified to such an extent that officials decided to cancel Q3, which would have seen the top ten drivers only on track.
The grid is thus taken from the times set in Q2, in which Sebastian Vettel was fifth in 1.58.596 and Kimi Raikkonen eighth with a time of 1.59.703. Both drivers have to drop 10 places however, because ICUs on their cars were changed. Sebastian will start from fourteenth place and Kimi from eighteenth. Pole went to Nico Rosberg (1’56”824) in the Mercedes, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton second in1’56”929.
Sebastian Vettel: “Conditions were difficult for everyone, there was not much to do. It was quite difficult out there, so I think it was the right call not to start Q3. Now we have to take the penalty. Hopefully we have the right conditions to race and, for the rest, we will see.”
Kimi Raikkonen: “The weather conditions today were very similar to yesterday morning, but then they got worse and in some places it was a bit more difficult. It’s a shame we couldn’t run the Q3. It looks like the weather it’s clearing up, hopefully we can run a normal race. We have a pretty good speed also in the rain and the car is handling well, but obviously when you start from the back of the grid the visibility is the biggest issue. Let’s see how it turns out, we’ll try our best.”