UNITED STATES GP – Max Verstappen beats both McLarens to sprint pole by seven hundredths
Max Verstappen had beaten both McLarens by seven hundredths to take sprint pole for the United States Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver improved on his final attempt going fastest in the first and third sectors to take his third sprint pole at the Circuit of the Americas, but as expected, it was another close qualifying session.
Verstappen was seven hundredths ahead of Lando Norris as the Englishman was just over three tenths faster than his McLaren teammate and title rival Oscar Piastri. The Red Bull driver left his best until the end of SQ3, which could be a reminder that he remains in contention for the championship. He lit up the times in the first and third sectors.
Norris had set himself up to be the favourite for pole after going fastest in SQ1 and SQ2, but Verstappen then proved why he is a four-time champion and remains a threat to McLaren’s hope of a first drivers’ championship since 2008. Tiny margins throughout the final attempts saw pole swing back and forth between Verstappen and Norris.
McLaren has been eager to state Verstappen is still in the championship fight, and Friday’s Sprint Qualifying provided another reminder, not that they need it, that the Dutchman is increasingly fancying his chances of an incredible comeback. Norris was quickest in the only practice session earlier on Friday, but Verstappen did not complete a full-blown flying lap on the softs.
Norris has generally hit the ground running faster than Piastri this year and that showed in the fast turnaround in Sprint Qualifying, as Piastri was four tenths slower than his team-mate. Piastri had looked to be struggling compared with Norris since the start of practice and was a good chunk off the Briton in all three qualifying sessions.
Verstappen said, “It’s been a nice qualifying, throughout all the segments it was quite close. It was just about trying to put it all together. I still expect it to be a tough battle tomorrow in the sprint but that’s exactly what we want to see, right? The wind is very gusty and the track is very bumpy so the car can easily step out on you in the high speed.”
Norris said, “Of course would have loved to be on pole, but not a surprise for us to be just a bit slower than the Red Bull lately, so still pretty happy. I don’t know how much I was off by, but a little couple of things probably here and there I could have improved on, and just caught a few bumps a little bit wrong, but that’s just the difficulty of this track.”
The top three being covered by four-tenths, but Piastri looked not to have an answer for his teammate’s pace as he was three-tenths behind Piastri Despite missing out on pole, McLaren remain favourites going into both the sprint on Saturday lunchtime and the Grand Prix given they have been so strong in race formats this season.
There will be concerns that on the run up to Big Red and back down to Turn Two then into Maggots and Becketts-style section could create drama on the opening lap. Added in is the ‘heat hazard’ declared this weekend, but McLaren team principal Andrea Stella hinted that first-corner moves may not be required for his drivers, as he exuded confidence over their prospects of coming on strong later in the Sprint.
Nico Hulkenberg once again used his experience and the strength Sauber has shown at these types of circuits to go fourth; he was still over a tenth behind Piastri as he went nearly two and a half hundredths faster than George Russell. In Silverstone, Hulkenberg ended his fifteen-year wait for a podium, while at the following race, teammate Gabriel Bortoleto took seventh on the grid.
Russell put his Mercedes just under a quarter of a tenth ahead of Fernando Alonso, while the two-time champions Spanish compatriot Carlos Sainz was just a thousandth behind. Sainz, recovering from the issues in FP which limited his running earlier in the afternoon, he went over a tenth and a quarter faster than Lewis Hamilton. The Ferrari driver split the Williams as he went six and a half hundredths ahead of Alex Albon, while Charles Leclerc was five thousandths behind, completing the top ten.
It wasn’t an easy session for the Ferrari duo; both found themselves at risk of being knocked out in SQ2, which would have been embarrassing for last year’s race winner and the five-time winner, Hamilton, in Austin. But both just made it into SQ3 as they knocked out the second Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli by six thousandths of a second.
It once again, as written many times this season, highlighted how competitive the sport has been, at least in qualifying just over a tenth covering a top ten which featured six different teams.
Antonelli was around two and a quarter tenths ahead of Isack Hadjar who out-qualified his fellow Frenchman Pierre Gasly by over a hundredth and a half. Lance Stroll put his Aston Martin fourteenth he was slowest in SQ2 as he went nearly half a tenth behind Gasly after he and Liam Lawson had laps deleted for track limits.
Ollie Bearman was the fastest of those knocked out in SQ1, the Haas driver being knocked out by a late improvement by Hulkenberg who at that stage of sprint qualifying went fifth. None of the bottom five managed to improve at the end of SQ1, Franco Colapinto nearly nine hundredths behind Bearman as he went a tenth ahead of Yuki Tsunoda. While Esteban Ocon was nineteenth.
Bortoleto was left without a time after it was deleted for track limits.