Max Verstappen took a comfortable pole position ahead of Lando Norris after Oscar Piastri dropped to sixth on a difficult day for the title leader. Verstappen needed just one lap to cement himself as the fastest driver at the Circuit of The Americas, with Red Bull Racing sending him out late for his second lap.
The Dutchman took provisional pole after the first runs of Q3, but was the first driver to take the checkered flag on what should have been the outlap for his second run. It let him down when Norris, provisionally second, found time with his final attempt. However, Norris had a significant gap of 0.394 seconds to close. Although he finished the session with the fastest final sector, he couldn’t find enough and fell 0.291 seconds short.
Verstappen emerged from prison and took an ultimately comfortable pole position hours after winning the sprint.
“I think every segment [of qualifying] The car was very strong,” he said. “It can sometimes be quite difficult to drive a lap here.
“The first run in Q3 was good… unfortunately I couldn’t do my last run – it was a bit messy with the last laps. Luckily we didn’t need that. For us it was a very strong result.”
Despite the late excitement, Norris said he didn’t really expect to take pole on a day when McLaren was thoroughly outclassed by Verstappen’s Red Bull Racing machine.
“It was a bit more of a battle today,” he said. “We were pushing and I’m still happy with P2. It could have been worse, but there was no way we could have been on pole today.
“I’m looking forward to hopefully having a good race with Max. We’ve had some good races in the past so I’m looking forward to it again.”
Teammate and title leader Piastri never saw action in front of the front row; the Australian was 0.574 seconds off his pace and qualified sixth. He had just one new set of soft tires for Q3 after having to use an extra set to ensure progress from Q2, but he looked uncomfortable on both used and new rubber in a messy performance following his first lap crash in the sprint.
After conceding a whopping 0.309 seconds in sprint qualifying but still securing third place, his increased lead for Grand Prix qualifying allowed three cars to separate him from his main title rival.
Charles Leclerc was first, stunning in third place and just 0.006 seconds behind Norris. It was a significant turnaround from his disappointing 10th place in sprint qualifying, and while the Monegasque hinted at an explanation, he said his Ferrari car’s wild swings in form were alarming.
“It was a very big surprise, especially considering that the weekend has been very difficult for us from the start,” he said. “There’s a bit too much difference in performance in the same weekend without fundamentally changing the car, but it was an interesting sprint race this morning. I think we learned a lot. We applied that in qualifying and it seemed to work, so I hope we can catch up a bit.”
George Russell qualified fourth, 0.316 seconds off the pace, ahead of Lewis Hamilton by 0.086 seconds and Piastri by 0.258 seconds. Kimi Antonelli followed in seventh, ahead of Oliver Bearman in the first consecutive Q3 appearance of his career in eighth. Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso were the only representatives of Williams and Aston Martin and will finish in ninth and tenth place respectively.
Nico Hulkenberg will finish in eleventh place, missing out on his place in the sprint top 10 by just 0.096 seconds after failing to improve on his final lap, which was nevertheless scrapped for exceeding track limits.
Liam Lawson qualified 12th for Racing Bulls, ahead of Red Bull stablemate Yuki Tsunoda, who will start 13th after being deterred by a slow-moving Alpine near the racing line.
Alpine teammates Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto followed in 14th and 15th in the French team’s first Q2 appearance since the Dutch Grand Prix in August.
Gabriel Bortoleto qualified 16th ahead of Esteban Ocon, while both Lance Stroll and Alex Albon qualified 18th and 19th after having their fastest laps, which would have taken them into Q2, scrapped for exceeding track limits. It was Stroll’s 13th Q1 exit in this 24-lap season. The Canadian will start the Grand Prix last after serving a five-place penalty for colliding with Ocon during the sprint earlier on Saturday.
Isack Hadjar finished the session in 20th with no time after going off the road just three minutes into Q1. The Frenchman’s Racing Bulls car suddenly escaped his control as he reached the apex at Turn 6 and pirouetted into the barriers with an impact of at least 25 grams.
RESULTS
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