Norris hits back at Verstappen with pole for the United States Grand Prix
Lando Norris has qualified on pole position for the United States Grand Prix, with his title rival Max Verstappen alongside him on the front row. The Dutchman's attempt at a second lap in Q3 was ended after George Russell crashed ahead of him. Carlos Sainz will start in third place.
Norris got the better of Verstappen after the first run in Q3, which turned out to be the important part of Q3. Russell lost control of his car and ended up in the barrier. He caused a yellow flag and had to climb out of the car, so the track did not return to green. This comes after Verstappen extended his lead in the World Championship earlier on Saturday.
The Ferrari cars have locked out the second row of the grid. Oscar Piastri will start from fifth place. Sergio Perez had his Q3 lap time deleted and will start from 10th place on the grid.
Lewis Hamilton hoped to be on pole position, but the British driver failed to escape Q1 due to a mistake. He will start from 18th on the grid. Lawson experienced his first Grand Prix qualifying session since returning to F1. He made it through to Q2 and then tried to give his teammate a slipstream, but Yuki Tsunoda just missed out on Q3.
Q1
Drivers started to form a queue at the end of the pitlane with two minutes remaining on the clock. All of the top drivers completed an early fast lap except for Leclerc, who had his lap time deleted. He did that on a used set of tyres. Yuki Tsunoda had two laps deleted. With six minutes remaining, those two drivers were joined by Zhou, Hamilton and Russell in the drop zone. Piastri sat 14th fastest at that point.
Leclerc removed any doubts by setting the then-fastest time of the session. Piastri also jumped up on his next run. The Mercedes drivers were under pressure and Hamilton made a mistake at turn 12. He, therefore, failed to escape Q1 and will start from 18th on the grid. Russell managed to lift himself up the leaderboard. All drivers who finish behind Liam Lawson will move up a place. The Visa Cash App RB driver will take an engine penalty and start from the pitlane.
Out - P20 Zhou, P19 Hamilton, P18 Bottas, P17 Colapinto, P16 Albon
Q2
Due to his impending penalty, VCARB decided not to push Lawson to avoid hampering Tsunoda's chances of reaching Q3. He tried to give his Japanese driver a tow down the straight. Leclerc, once again, found himself in the drop zone after the first run. He was joined by Ocon and both Aston Martin drivers. Leclerc got the lap on the board and moved to P3. VCARB's plan didn't pay off, as Tsunoda finished in P11 and missed out by less than one-tenth.
Out - P15 Lawson, P14 Stroll, P13 Ocon, P12 Hulkenberg, P11 Tsunoda