Reigning world champion Max Verstappen has backed up his Austin sprint win with an emphatic pole position for Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix, defeating Lando Norris.
Verstappen’s only Q3 lap of 1m32.510s was enough to seal his seventh grand prix pole of 2025, while McLaren’s championship leader Oscar Piastri could only qualify sixth.
McLaren’s mechanics faced a big repair job after Norris and Piastri were both eliminated on the opening lap of Saturday’s 19-lap sprint, but both cars were ready in time for main qualifying session at the Circuit of the Americas.
But Norris and especially Piastri never looked particularly comfortable during qualifying and were no match for Verstappen, who won the sprint from pole and will also lead the field on Sunday afternoon.
Norris narrowly edged Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc on his second flyer to claim a front-row slot alongside Verstappen, three tenths behind the Red Bull driver, while Mercedes driver George Russell will share the second row with Leclerc, who recovered from a spin out of the final corner on his first attempt.
Lewis Hamilton was fifth ahead of Piastri, followed by the second Mercedes of Andrea Kimi Antonelli and an impressive Oliver Bearman in the upgraded Haas. Spaniards Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso rounded out the top 10.
Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images
Verstappen led the way in Q2, too, with his first effort of 1m32.701, ahead of Leclerc and Norris, as many drivers struggled to improve on their final tour.
Piastri advanced in eighth with only one tenth to spare in a tight battle for the top 10, a sign of things to come in Q3.
Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg could not repeat his sprint qualifying heroics and was eliminated in 11th, followed by Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda and Alpine pairing Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto.
Q1 was red flagged after three minutes for a big smash by Isack Hadjar in the Esses, losing the rear of his Racing Bulls car and spinning into the wall.
After a 10-minute delay to realign the barriers, the session was resumed for 13 minutes with no lap times on the clock.
Leclerc led the first salvo of runs, while Norris had work to do after oversteering off the track on his first run. Leclerc was eventually demoted by Russell and then Verstappen, while Piastri and Norris were already not looking overly comfortable in their repaired McLarens and advanced in 11th and 12th.
Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls Team
Photo by: Mark Thompson / Getty Images
In the battle for Q2, Alex Albon saw his eighth-fastest time deleted for track limits, giving Colapinto a reprieve to scrape through in 15th.
Gabriel Bortoleto was the first driver to miss out in 16th, followed by Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll and Albon, as well as Hadjar.
F1 US GP – Qualifying results
We want to hear from you!
Let us know what you would like to see from us in the future.
Take our survey
– The Autosport.com Team
Read the full article here