Verstappen beats out Leclerc to take P1 in Sprint Shootout in Austin

Max Verstappen takes pole ahead of Charles Leclerc in P2 and Lewis Hamilton in P3 in a tightly-contested Sprint Shootout at the United States Grand Prix.

The Sprint format is in place for the second F1 weekend in a row, and in the blazing sun at the Circuit of Americas in Austin, Texas, today's Sprint Shootout session set the grid for the Sprint race later in the day.

After Verstappen could not take the pole in Friday's qualifying session for the main race on Sunday after losing out to Leclerc, he made amends and beat out Leclerc, putting his Red Bull in P1 for the Sprint race.

The Dutchman beat out Leclerc by just five-hundredths of a second, with Lewis Hamilton coming within one-hundredth of a second behind Leclerc as he put his Mercedes in P3.

The McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri took P4 and P5, with Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez, George Russell, Alex Albon, and Pierre Gasly rounding out the top ten.

As Verstappen finished SQ2 in P1, the quick nature of the Sprint Shootout sessions gave many drivers just one lap to get themselves into SQ3.

Hamilton almost fell foul of this, just scrapping through into SQ3 in P9, as the Williams of Albon put in a fantastic lap to put him P10 and send him into the final shootout session, along with Pierre Gasly.

Gasly's teammate Esteban Ocon could not do the same, as he could only put his Alpine into 13th place.

Joining the French drivers was Daniel Ricciardo in P11, both Aston Martin's of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll in P12 and P14, respectively, and Zhou Guanyu in P15.

Verstappen again topped the timesheets, with Albon really impressing in P3, as the fast sessions again caused some problems.

The quick session almost caught out McLaren's Oscar Piastri, who just survived in 14th place, along with the returning Daniel Ricciardo, who just hung on in 15th place.

However, his teammate Yuki Tsunoda could not find the pace required to get into SQ2, only coming 19th as the chequered flag fell.

Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen joined Tsunoda, qualifying in 16th and 17th place, respectively. Valtteri Bottas could only finish in 18th, and home favourite Logan Sargeant could not emulate his teammate's fantastic pace, coming P20 and dead last.