Verstappen beats Norris to secure 7th pole of season at US GP after sprint win

Max Verstappen seized pole position for US Grand Prix while Formula One leader Oscar Piastri qualified sixth after a costly sprint race collision with his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris.

Norris, polesitter at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas last year, will start alongside Red Bull’s reigning champion on the front row with both hoping to take a big bite out of the Australian’s advantage.

Piastri is 22 points clear of Norris and 55 ahead of Verstappen, who won the sprint from pole while both the McLaren drivers retired.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, last year’s winner in Austin, qualified third fastest and will share the second row with Mercedes’ George Russell, winner of the previous round in Singapore.

Verstappen needed only one flying lap in the final phase to secure his seventh non-sprint pole of the season and 47th of his career.

The Dutch driver failed to make it around in time for a second attempt but was still nearly three-tenths faster than Norris.

“Unfortunately I couldn’t do my final run. It was a bit messy with the out-laps, but luckily, we didn’t need it,” said the four-time world champion, who was fastest in all three phases.

Norris said he could not have done better.

“We were pushing and I’m still happy with P2. It could have been worse. But there was no chance we could have got on pole today,” said the Briton.

Ferrari’s seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton qualified fifth and shares the third row with Piastri, while Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli lines up seventh and Haas’s Oliver Bearman eighth.

Carlos Sainz was ninth fastest for Williams, and Fernando Alonso completed the top 10 for Aston Martin.

The day was dominated by the McLaren sprint collision and debate over who was to blame. It left the team’s mechanics in a race against time to get the cars repaired for qualifying in the afternoon heat.

Piastri was hit by Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg at the first corner and pitched onto Norris, who was unable to get his car back to the garage.

“From a racing driver’s point of view, it was more on Oscar. Lando’s not even in this conversation. He was just unlucky to be there,” said 2009 world champion Jenson Button on Sky Sports television.

Piastri was only 11th and Norris 12th in the first phase of qualifying, with Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar bringing out an immediate red flag when he crashed before anyone had registered a timed lap.

Reuters