Brendon Hartley will start his second participation in the United States Grand Prix from the back of the grid, following further upgrades to their Honda engine in advance of the weekend that earned them a grid drop penalty.
 
Knowing what lay in store on Friday, Brendon and the Scuderia Toro Rosso team used their free practice running to focus on a race setup. Following a strong run in Q1, Brendon made it through to Q2, but rather than unnecessarily going out to set a strong time and stress their new engine, he opted to use the session to practice his race starts ahead of the Sunday’s Grand Prix.
 
Despite starting from the back, this event marks Brendon’s one year anniversary in Formula One, at a circuit where he made his sensational debut in 2017. Despite starting off the back, the Kiwi driver is aiming to put himself in a prime position throughout the race to capitalise on any opportunities during the 56 laps.
 
Brendon Hartley – #28 Scuderia Toro Rosso:
“It didn’t really matter where we qualified today as we are starting tomorrow’s race from the back. After this morning’s running, we’ve set the car up for the race as much as we could and used Q2 as a session for doing practice starts. It will be an uphill race tomorrow, but we definitely have the pace to fight.  Hopefully we’ll be able to benefit from any opportunity that might come our way, we just have to be ready.”
 
Timetable:
Race – 56 Laps
13:10 – 15:10 (Local Time – UTC-5)
07:10 – 09:10 (New Zealand – UTC+12)