Max Verstappen has secured a sprint race pole at Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix, beating McLaren pairing Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in Austin.
At a sunny and warm Circuit of the Americas, Red Bull’s reigning world champion unleashed a scorching first and third sector to demote Norris his pole lap of 1m32.143s 0.071s faster than the McLaren driver.
Following a much more difficult start to his only qualifying lap in the final shootout, championship leader Piastri was relegated to third, four tenths behind Verstappen.
Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg was the star of the show, the German veteran confirming his strong practice pace with a stellar fourth place on Saturday’s sprint grid.
Hulkenberg stayed well ahead of fifth-placed Mercedes driver George Russell, with Fernando Alonso an impressive sixth for Aston Martin.
Carlos Sainz claimed seventh for Williams, rallying from a gearbox issue in FP1 that restricted him to just nine practice laps ahead of qualifying.
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc could only manage eighth and 10th respectively for Ferrari, being split by the second Williams car of Alex Albon.
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
In the second sprint qualifying phase, which required the use of medium tyres, it was all business at the front with Norris’s 1m33.033s lap leading from Verstappen, Piastri and Russell.
Foreshadowing its lacklustre performance in SQ3, Ferrari had a much more stressful session with both Hamilton and Leclerc on the brink of elimination after the first runs, sitting in ninth and 10th respectively.
Leclerc fell into the drop zone until a late improvement saw him move up to eighth and pile the pressure on Hamilton, but the seven-time world champion just managed to squeeze through on his final attempt.
Hamilton grabbed 10th at the expense of Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli, whose lock-up cost him much more time than the slender 0.006s margin that saw him knocked out.
Isack Hadjar followed fellow rookie Antonelli out in 12tth, ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll. Liam Lawson was also out in 15th after not getting a lap in, rueing traffic on his final attempt as he drifted off the track in Turn 19.
The first round of qualifying, also on medium tyres, devolved into a chaotic melee at the end of the segment as drivers scrambled for space and time to start their final flyer.
Red Bull’s under-pressure Yuki Tsunoda was the highest-profile victim, dumped out in 18th after fighting Racing Bulls colleague Lawson on the out-lap and failing to get a second lap in before the clocks hit zero.
Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
Oliver Bearman was the first driver to miss the cut-off in 16th, followed by Franco Colapinto who did get a final lap in but wasn’t quick enough, while his Alpine team-mate Gasly did manage to escape the drop zone.
The second Haas of Esteban Ocon also got dumped out in 19th, which is extra frustrating for Haas as it installed a significant floor update on both of its cars for sprint qualifying, but hasn’t been able to reap the rewards.
A frustrated Sauber rookie Gabriel Bortoleto was dead last after not even getting a lap in. The Brazilian’s first lap was scrapped for crossing track limits at the exit of Turn 19, while he also didn’t make it over the finish line in time at the end.
F1 US GP – Sprint qualifying results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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