Lando Norris secured pole position for the United States Grand prix ahead of Max Verstappen, with Carlos Sainz Jnr taking third on the grid.
The McLaren driver took pole by just 0.031s after the final flying laps for several drivers had to be abandoned due to a high speed crash for George Russell at turn 19, which brought out double yellow flags.
Q1
Having had the opportunity to change their cars’ set-up following the sprint race in the early afternoon, the start of Q1 signalled that drivers were now locked in their car’s configuration for the rest of the weekend.
While some chose to head out on used tyres and other brand new rubber, all 20 drivers were unanimous in their choice of soft tyres for the first phase of qualifying. Sprint race winner Verstappen was the early pace setter, posting a 1’33.690, before Pierre Gasly put his Alpine on top of the times with an impressive time on a fresh set of softs.
Charles Leclerc’s first run of the evening was rendered moot when his time was deleted for exceeding track limits at turn nine at the end of the esses. He pitted for a new set of softs and successfully stayed within the white lines to go quickest of all with a 1’33.241 with his second attempt.
In the closing minutes of the session, both Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, were sitting in the drop zone and had to put in better times to continue in qualifying. Russell easily moved into safety with his second lap, but Hamilton’s effort was not only too slow to put him safe, he then lost that lap due to exceeding track limits at turn 12, confirming his elimination in 19th.
Both Williams of Alexander Albon and Franco Colapinto also failed to make the cut and were knocked out in 16th and 17th, with Hamilton sandwiched between the two Saubers of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu at the back of the grand prix grid.
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Q1 result
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Q2
Verstappen wasted no time as Q2 began, rushing out of the pits to set his first lap of the session on a used set of tyres. Unsurprisingly, he was quicker than team mate Sergio Perez’s lap, but Gasly continued to show impressive pace in his Alpine as he went within half a second of the Red Bull driver.
McLaren chose fresh sets for their two drivers, with Lando Norris going fastest of all by two tenths of a second from the championship leader, while Oscar Piastri had to settle for third, five-thousandths…
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