After finding himself within 0.1-seconds of pole on four occasions in 2022, Sainz pulled it off to top F1 qualifying for the second time in his career after overcoming Leclerc’s Q3 run one advantage by 0.065s.
Leclerc’s initial best time in the final segment was a 1m34.624s that gave him the top spot provisionally ahead of Sainz, with Lewis Hamilton third after a blistering middle sector and Verstappen only fourth.
The Dutchman tried a unique Q3 strategy of completing an additional slow preparation lap for his final Q3 flier, but he could not top the Ferrari pair after losing time in the slow corners in the final sector and finished 0.092s adrift.
Leclerc, who will drop 10 places on the grid for taking extra engine parts at Austin, led the way of the four initial Q3 leaders and he improved the first place benchmark to a 1m34.421s, but Sainz, following just behind his teammate topped that with a 1m34.356s.
Verstappen’s effort was enough to dislodge Hamilton from third as the Mercedes driver could not better his first Q3 time and the Briton failing to improve opened the door for Sergio Perez to slot in ahead too, which the Mexican driver did with a personal best set while running a few seconds ahead of the Ferrari pair.
Behind Hamilton came his teammate George Russell, with Lance Stroll seventh despite only completing one run in Q3 – offset from the rest after they had initially completed runs at the start of the final segment and while Verstappen was beginning his extra preparation tour.
Lando Norris took eighth for McLaren, with Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) rounding out the top 10.
Alonso and Perez will drop five places from where they qualified for also taking additional power unit parts outside the permitted season-long allocation.
In Q2, which Leclerc topped after Sainz had led the way in Q1, Alex Albon led the pack through the final Q2 runs and set a personal best to leap into the top 10 before three of his rivals improving late on shuffled him back to 11th and out.
Sebastian Vettel lost his best lap from early in Q2 to understeering off and beyond track limits exiting Turn 9 at the end of the Esses sequence, but he did enough with his final effort to climb to 12th, albeit without troubling Q3.
Then came Pierre Gasly, struggling with braking for the second weekend in a row – particularly at the big stops of Turn 1 and Turn 11 – and letting AlphaTauri know his fury.
Zhou Guanyu ended up…
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