Austin (AFP) – Lando Norris resisted pace and pressure from Max Verstappen to take pole position for the United States Grand Prix ahead of the three-time champion and series leader in dramatic circumstances on Saturday. A last minute crash involving Mercedes’ George Russell, who skidded off-track into the barriers at Turn 19, brought a tense qualifying session to a premature end as Red Bull’s Verstappen was attempting to improve his lap time. He aborted his lap as the session ended, leaving him second behind McLaren’s Norris, Verstappen’s main title rival as he defends a 54-point lead in the drivers’ title race. Russell was unhurt and climbed from his car.
For Norris, it was a fourth pole position in five races and his sixth this year as he chases Verstappen in pursuit of the championship. Norris ended the session on pole with a fastest lap of one minute and 32.330 seconds to beat Verstappen by 0.031 ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc. Oscar Piastri was fifth in the second McLaren ahead of Russell, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin, Haas’s Kevin Magnussen, and Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull.
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“It was a beautiful lap,” Norris said. “I was not going to go much quicker than I did. I put everything out on the line. We have been on the back foot, so I had to do something!” Verstappen said: “Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish my lap because I think I had a pretty good shot, but that’s how it goes.” The session began in warm sunshine with a track temperature of 39 degrees Celsius and the air at 28, near-perfect for most teams, but too hot for the tyre-munching Mercedes cars as demonstrated in the morning sprint race won by Verstappen.
That saw Russell and Hamilton struggle with degradation, resulting in major set-up changes for Hamilton before qualifying began, with Alex Albon, in his 100th Grand Prix, returning to the Williams pits after an exploratory lap. That left Sainz and then Norris to set early benchmark laps in 1:34.029 before a revived Verstappen went top in 1:33.390. It was clear Red Bull were back in the groove after several months of floundering for progress, while Mercedes, notably, were struggling – Russell and Hamilton in 16th and 17th with five minutes remaining in Q1. Gasly then went top for Alpine before being usurped by Leclerc in 1:33.241, before Verstappen regained the initiative and, just as Russell grabbed third place, Hamilton was eliminated in 19th.
For the seven-time champion, it was a stunning flop. On one of his favourite circuits, he had never previously qualified outside the top five and had won six times, starting from pole three times. He was joined in missing the cut to Q2 by Williams’ Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto and the two Saubers of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.
Only 24 hours earlier, Hamilton had seemed unfortunate not to have taken pole for the sprint race when he was thwarted by yellow flags. “The car’s a nightmare,” he said. Liam Lawson, having replaced Daniel Ricciardo, was a notable third for RB but starts Sunday’s race from the back of the grid due to an engine-change penalty. Verstappen was soon out again to top Q2 before Norris beat him in 1:32.851 ahead of Piastri and Russell on their first runs.
Leclerc had not clocked a time, but was soon out behind Verstappen as he began the second runs. The Dutchman went top with 1:32.584 as Leclerc took third behind Norris before Sainz went second to push them down. Out from the second session were RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, Nico Hulkenberg of Haas, Esteban Ocon of Alpine, Lance Stroll of Aston Martin, and Lawson, who did not clock a lap. Russell led out for the top ten shootout, but it was Norris and Piastri who set the initial pace until split by Sainz before Verstappen took second, leaving Norris on top.
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