Verstappen denies Russell sprint race pole, Norris fourth · F1 · RaceFans

Max Verstappen secured pole position for the sprint race at Circuit of the Americas, beating George Russell by one-hundredth of a second.

The championship leader secured the top spot on the grid for the sprint race ahead of the Mercedes driver with Charles Leclerc taking third. Lando Norris will start the sprint race fourth.

SQ1

As ever, drivers were limited to the medium tyre compound for the first phase of sprint qualifying. Max Verstappen was the most eager of the 20 drivers to take to the track, setting the initial lap of the session with a 1’34.698 but complaining about having “no grip” in his Red Bull. His team mate Sergio Perez lost his first flying lap attempt due to exceeding track limits at the exit of turn nine at the end of the esses.

Lewis Hamilton was the fastest of all through the opening attempts, a few hundredths of a second ahead of Charles Leclerc, who was just ahead of Verstappen and Lando Norris, all four within a tenth of each other. Perez eventually produced a valid lap time to go seventh, less than half a second slower than Hamilton.

In the closing minutes of qualifying, Alexander Albon was in need of an improvement in order to secure passage into SQ2. However, a high speed spin at the penultimate corner put an end to those hopes.

But there was bigger drama at the same corner when Oscar Piastri’s best time was deleted for exceeding track limits at the exit of the high speed left-hander. That doomed him to be eliminated from the session in 16th place, a blow for McLaren.

Esteban Ocon was also knocked out in 17th place, with the two Saubers of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu also knocked out behind Albon’s Williams.

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SQ1 result

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SQ2

The second segment of sprint qualifying also saw drivers limited to the medium tyre compound. The 15 remaining drivers all took fresh sets for their first runs in the ten minute session.

Carlos Sainz Jnr beat his team mate Leclerc, both Mercedes and Lando Norris’ McLaren to go fastest of all with his first timed lap. The two Red Bulls waited to go after their rivals, but Verstappen was only just unable to match Sainz’s benchmark with his first lap.

Ferrari chose not to send either of their two cars out for a second run as the time wound down. Many of those further down the order chose to make just a single run at the end of the session. Yuki Tsunoda managed to go safe with his…