Verstappen claimed his seventh pole of the season and the 47th of his career with a time of 1m32.510s, 0.291s ahead of Piastri’s teammate Lando Norris.

Piastri, who was kept in the garage right up until the opening minutes of Q1 as McLaren seemingly finished repairs on his car after his earlier crash in the Sprint, never looked on the pace throughout the entire session, finishing more than half a second behind Verstappen’s pole time.

It is the Australian’s second-lowest start of the season and gives him extra work to do in the race tomorrow as he aims to stop the run from both Norris and Verstappen in gaining on his championship lead.

Verstappen, meanwhile, was delighted with his pole lap, which came on his opening run in Q3 after his final push lap didn’t take place, with the Red Bull driver not making it across the line in time to complete a final run.

“It was good,” Verstappen said of his qualifying.

“I think every segment the car was very strong.”

The Dutchman also commented on the tricky conditions, as well as his near miss at the end for his final push lap.

“It’s very hot and very strong winds as well,” he added.

“In that first sector the tail wind is challenging.

“I couldn’t do my final run as it was a bit messy with the out lap, but luckily I didn’t need it.”

Norris, who also struggled for pace across all three sessions before finding enough for the front row, was at a loss as to why he and Piastri had lost time since Sprint qualifying.

“It was a bit more of a struggle today for whatever reason,” he said.

“We were both struggling a bit more to put the laps in.

“I’m still happy with P2 — it could’ve been worse — but there’s no chance we could’ve been on pole today.”

Charles Leclerc backed up a solid Sprint race to claim third on the grid, his highest start since he took pole at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Ferrari driver was satisfied with the result, despite not fully understanding the disparity in pace from his car across the weekend.

“It was quite a big surprise considering the weekend has been difficult from the beginning,” he said.

“Our car is normally stronger in the race than it is qualifying so that’s a positive.

“I don’t know if it’s strong enough to go and fight with Max and the McLaren but we’ll do everything.”

George Russell was fourth for Mercedes, one spot ahead of Leclerc’s teammate Lewis Hamilton, who pipped Piastri by a tenth of a second into fifth.

Kimi Antonelli made it four Q3 appearances in a row with seventh on the grid, one spot ahead of the impressive Oliver Bearman for Haas, who made consecutive appearances in Q3 for the first time in his career.

Carlos Sainz was ninth for Williams, while Fernando Alonso rounded out the top 10 for Aston Martin.

Nico Hulkenberg was unable to repeat his Sprint qualifying heroics, narrowly missing out on his first Q3 appearance of 2025 by finishing 11th in Q2. The German had his last lap time deleted, but his first run was enough to maintain his position.

Joining Hulkenberg in missing out on Q3 were Liam Lawson, who qualified 12th for the second consecutive race, Yuki Tsunoda, and the Alpine pair of Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto.

A red flag stopped the opening part of Q1 after the Racing Bull of Isack Hadjar crashed into the barriers at Turn 6 on his opening run.

The Frenchman was visibly furious with himself, banging the steering wheel in frustration before emerging from the car uninjured. He also kicked the tyre barrier in anger before leaving the track in the medical car for checks.

The session was paused for around 10 minutes, with a flurry of action once qualifying resumed.

Joining Hadjar in being eliminated in the opening part of qualifying were Gabriel Bortoleto, Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll, and Alex Albon.

Both Stroll and Albon had initially made it through to Q2, but their fastest lap times were deleted for exceeding track limits.

Stroll’s woes were compounded by a five-place grid penalty for his crash with Ocon during the Sprint race earlier in the day, which will move him to the back of the grid for Sunday’s race.

Cars will return to the track at the Circuit of the Americas for the United States Grand Prix at 2pm local time on Sunday (6am AEDT Monday).