Each of the top-three drivers mentioned a strong tailwind down the long back straight, which means there is less downforce when they jump on the brakes for the tight left-hander.

The circuit is also bumpy there, which unsettles the car even more.

P3: Isack Hadjar (Red Bull): “I’m happy with P3 because it’s been incredibly hard for me since the start of the weekend. I couldn’t find the right balance, I’ve struggled so much. This morning I couldn’t even set a lap on the soft because the car was that hard to drive. So I’m just thankful for the hard work of the team throughout the weekend. I’ve been a bit tough with them, so I want to apologise (laughs). I’m happy to be third, even though I think we had a shot at pole. I had a massive tailwind in turn 13 and 15 – I lost so much time on my lap. So I’m a bit gutted, but I’m happy to have fought back like that.”

P2: Max Verstappen (Red Bull): “Q3 was not good. I mean Q1, Q2 was nice, but then for whatever reason, on both of the (tyre) sets, I just didn’t have a good balance. There were no mistakes, but just no grip, and I started to slide a lot. Then the final lap, you can see that it’s not really happening with the tailwind in places. So you try to push a bit more, you hit a bump wrong, and the car is like a kangaroo, so you have a massive slide, (and) the lap is over. Just not very happy with Q3, to be honest, just not what I wanted, not what I expected. But if it’s still a P2, I’ll take it.”

P1: Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes): ”We’ve got pole, so we’ll try to win tomorrow! But, Max has been very quick, also Isack did an incredible job in qualifying. So it’s not going to be easy, but we’ll try to get a good start, and then hopefully we’ll lead into turn one, and then we’ll try to set the pace, even though it’s going to be very tight. Very happy with the qualifying today. Q3 was very tough with the wind – very gusty, unpredictable, but happy we’ve stuck it on pole.”

The top three from qualifying for the US Grand Prix: Max Verstappen (P2), Kimi Antonelli (P1), Isack Hadjar (P3). Getty Images