Lando Norris recovered from a mediocre Sprint result to take pole at the United States Grand Prix.
Norris set a fast enough banker lap to be ahead of his rival Max Verstappen, as he aims to get Verstappen’s points lead down below 50. Carlos Sainz followed up his second-place finish in the Sprint with third in qualifying Friday (Oct. 19) evening.
“It was a beautiful lap,” Norris said in the podium interviews after his whirlwind day at Circuit of the Americas. “I wasn’t going to go much quicker than what I did. You know when you just do a lap and think ‘Damn, it’s going to be tough to beat that’? I put everything on the line and all I needed to do.
“We’ve been on the back foot pretty much the whole weekend. We’ve not had the pace of the Ferraris or the Red Bulls. So I had to do something and today I did that.”
Q3
Qualifying ended when George Russell hit the barrier exiting turn 19. The car was stranded and hit at a hard enough rate of speed that it required an automatic medical car. Russell walked away, but drivers were unable to put their final hot laps on the board.
Sergio Perez had his banker lap deleted due to a track limits infringement, so he did not make an official lap in Q3.
| Pos. | Driver No. | Driver | Team | Time from Leader |
| 1. | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren Mercedes | 1:32:330m |
| 2. | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | +0.031s |
| 3. | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | +0.322s |
| 4. | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | +0.410s |
| 5. | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren Mercedes | +0.620s |
| 6. | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | +0.644s |
| 7. | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine Renault | +0.688s |
| 8. | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | +0.979s |
| 9. | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas Ferrari | +1.151s |
| 10. | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | N/A |
Q2
Should be noted that Liam Lawson did not make a serious attempt in this session; the New Zealander has a 60 place grid penalty for new engine parts for the race, so there was no point to that.
Instead, Lawson focused on trying to get his teammate Yuki Tsunoda to Q3 via a slipstream down the long COTA backstretch, an endeavor which failed, leaving both RB drivers out of Q3.
| Pos. | Driver No. | Driver | Team | Time from Advancing |
| 11. | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB Honda RBPT | +0.032s |
| 12. | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas Ferrari | +0.070s |
| 13. | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine Renault | +0.123s |
| 14. | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | +0.285s |
| 15. | 30 | Liam Lawson | RB Honda RBPT | N/A |
Q1
The most surprising moment, arguably, of this qualifying session came in this round when Lewis Hamilton failed to make it out of Q1 after almost winning…
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