Lando Norris has claimed pole position for the United States Grand Prix as Mercedes’ George Russell crashed into the barriers in the last minute of qualifying.
Q1
Verstappen topped the first qualifying outing, although results were nothing to be surprised about and the only objective of Q1 is to go into the next round, and not set the fastest time of the session. Charles Leclerc was behind him by 0.195 seconds.
Daniel Ricciardo’s replacement, Liam Lawson, took the third place just 0.293s behind Verstappen. It was indeed an impressive result for the rookie, one better than that of Argentina’s Franco Colapinto, who unfortunately was out in the first qualifying round.
The Williams rookie placed the 17th fastest time, just behind teammate Alexander Albon by 0.029s seconds.
Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou were also both out in Q1, and between them was Lewis Hamilton; the Mercedes driver was out, something which surprised as his teammate George Russell finished the first part of the session in 4th place.
Lacen Stroll was 15th – he narrowly knocked Albon out of Q2. Ahead of him was Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso.
Q2
The second quarter of qualifying saw Verstappen once again at the top, now with faster lap times. The dutch driver was followed by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz by 0.252s, and Lando Norris took third close behind (+0.267s).
Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez couldn’t catch up to the top and took the fifth fastest time in Q2 (0.436s), behind Charles Leclerc (+0.378s) and ahead of Oscar Piastri (+0.473s).
Nico Hulkenberg was out of Q2 after placing the 12th fastest time. The Haas driver locked up at Turn 1 on his flying lap and lost four tenths of a second, which would have been enough to go through to Q3. Teammate Kevin Magnussen on the other hand placed 10th in the timing charts, avoiding the elimination zone.
Tsunoda, Ocon, Stroll and Lawon were the other drivers eliminated.
Q3
The third and final qualifying outing saw Norris place himself at the lead, with a charging Verstappen behind by 0.031 seconds. Both Ferrari drivers followed, with Sainz on top, and then Piastri in fifth by 0.620s to P1.
In the final minutes, Verstappen began a new flying lap and was determined to claim pole for Sunday’s Grand Prix. However, things dramatically changed when yellow flags were out in Turn 3.
It was the Mercedes of George Russell, who heavily crashed into the barriers at Turn 19. He was out of the car OK, walking by himself. At the time, he had the 6th fastest time.
The incident meant Norris took the first spot on the grid for Sunday, as all flying laps had to be aborted. Verstappen will start in second place ahead of Sainz.
Leclerc and Piatri followed them. Then, from P7 onwards, it was Gasly, Alonso, Magnussen, and Perez in P10, who couldn’t set a lap.