Max Verstappen has taken pole for the sprint in Austin. After trailing Lando Norris in the first two sessions, a blinding final effort in Q3 saw him shrug off the unpredictable wind. Verstappen snatched pole position by just 0.071s. Given his slim but existent title aspirations, this is precisely the result Verstappen needed. He predicted a tough battle in the sprint race tomorrow, but appeared unfazed by the challenge ahead.
Norris had to settle for P2 but seemed to have the edge over his teammate, Oscar Piastri, throughout. Despite lamenting a couple of minor errors in SQ3, the British driver ended the session a notable three tenths of a second clear of his title rival. An important result given the 22 points separating them in the championship. Piastri described his lap as “scruffy” but admitted the session was far from disastrous.
The standout midfield entry throughout sprint qualifying was undoubtedly Nico Hulkenberg. After securing an impressive P2 in free practice, Hulkenberg capitalised on the Sauber’s impressive one-lap pace. His single flying lap in SQ3 was enough to briefly secure pole, and while he may have been superseded by the likes of Verstappen, Norris, and Piastri, fourth place is by far his best qualifying result of the season.
George Russell went quietly about his business and secured a solid fifth place, but later said he expected the Mercedes to have better race pace. Aston Martin’s free practice form carried over into qualifying as Fernando Alonso ended up sixth, just 0.012s behind the Mercedes driver.
Carlos Sainz made up for his free practice woes with a controlled drive to seventh despite the limited running. Ferrari appears to be some way adrift of the frontrunners as both Hamilton and Charles Leclerc narrowly avoided Q2 elimination. The decision to run two flying laps in SQ3 did not pay dividends, with the pair only managing eighth and tenth, respectively. Leclerc admitted to losing time virtually everywhere and did not expect any major improvements in the sprint race. While Hamilton expressed surprise at the drop off in pace relative to free practice and said he had a “mountain to climb” for the rest of the weekend.
By contrast, Alex Albon capped off an encouraging day for Williams by splitting the Ferraris in ninth, despite struggling more than he did in free practice. Kimi Antonelli missed out on SQ3 by just 0.006s and will start 11th, ahead of Isack Hadjar, who also narrowly missed out on the final part of Sprint qualifying. Pierre Gasly did well to get his Alpine out of SQ1 and will line up 13th ahead of Lance Stroll and Liam Lawson, whose final run in SQ2 was scuppered by a track limit violation at turn 19.
Haas look to be in no man’s land ahead of their home grand prix. Ollie Bearman will start 16th ahead of Franco Colapinto and Yuki Tsunoda. Traffic was a major issue in SQ1 with a bevy of midfield runners all jostling for the same piece of tarmac on their out laps. As a result, Tsunoda was left frustrated at not being able to set a final flying lap, as was Gabriel Bortoleto, who will start from the back of the grid behind Esteban Ocon. A disappointing result given what the Sauber is clearly capable of.
It may only be the sprint, but Austin’s infamous first corner is seldom void of chaos. A mixed-up grid headed by the three title protagonists is going to be one to watch on Saturday, as is the remainder of the weekend. Whichever way you cut it, this championship is very far from over.
