Max Verstappen returned to pole position for the United States sprint event as the Red Bull driver denied grand prix polesitter Charles Leclerc in Saturday’s shootout.
With the soft tyres strapped to the cars for what was effectively a one-lap showdown in Q3 as none of the cars emerged from the garage until late on, Verstappen set the bar early on with a time of one minute 34.538secs around the Circuit of the Americas.
Behind him, his rivals lined up to challenge, but the three-time F1 champion did enough to keep them at bay, with the top three separated by just 0.069s, with Leclerc on the front row, and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton third quickest.
For Verstappen, there was a degree of redemption after claiming pole for the grand prix for a moment on Friday, only for his lap to be deleted, allowing him to clinch his third sprint pole from the five events so far this year.
McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri also threatened before dropping to fourth and fifth on the grid, with a quarter of a second splitting the Briton from the Australian.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz has struggled around this track compared to Leclerc, leaving the Spaniard sixth ahead of Sergio Perez in his Red Bull.
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As with Leclerc and Sainz, it has been a similar story with Hamilton and George Russell at Mercedes as the latter has been unable to extract the maximum from his W14 that this weekend is sporting a new floor.
It was a top 10 that was the same in Friday’s session, bar Williams’ Alex Albon who replaced Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, and the Thai driver did enough in Q3 to start ninth ahead of the other Alpine of Pierre Gasly.
Verstappen was so dominant in Q1 that he only needed one run, allowing him to watch the rest of the session from the cockpit of his car as the remaining 19 drivers fought it out on track.
Q2, however, was a different story for Verstappen, who was arguably fortunate his first run – 1:35.181s – was so crushing that it allowed him to sit comfortably at the top of the timesheet.
But on his second outing, coming out of Turn 9, Verstappen endured a 360-degree spin in which he hit the dirt, but managed to keep his RB19 out of the barriers. He ultimately finished two-tenths of a second quicker than Leclerc at the end of Q2.
It was a captivating Q2 overall, with the medium tyres the sole rubber in play, with Daniel Ricciardo delivering a stunning performance, but unfortunately just missing out on a place in the top-10 shoot-out by 0.031s to Albon.
For Aston Martin, who suffered the ignominy of seeing both cars exit Q1 in Friday’s qualifying for the main race, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll at least reached Q2 for the sprint, with the duo lining up 12th and 14th respectively, either side of Ocon, with Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu 15th.
Stroll also suffered a major lock-up on a late push lap to add to his woes.
Using the medium tyres only in Q1, with drivers conducting cool-down laps before engaging in a push lap, Piastri only escaped elimination by 0.046s, setting only the 14th best time as it was clear the yellow-striped tyre did not work for McLaren at that stage, with Norris 10th, two-tenths quicker.
For Ricciardo, the margins were finer as he was 15th quickest, pipping Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg to a place in Q2 by 0.012s.
Ricciardo, on his return to F1 after a five-race lay-off after breaking a bone in his left hand in seven places, was at least quicker than team-mate Yuki Tsunoda who was eliminated in Q1.
Despite the biggest in-season upgrade in the team’s eight-year history on the VF-23s this weekend, the session was a dismal one for Haas, with Hulkenberg and team-mate Kevin Magnussen starting 16th and 17th.
Magnussen felt he had the pace in his car to reach Q3 in qualifying for the grand prix on Friday evening but for small mistakes in Q2, so this result will serve as a major disappointment for the Dane.
Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas, who qualified 13th for the grand prix, could only manage 18th, with Tsunoda 19th, whilst Williams’ Logan Sargeant, as in the main race, will start the sprint from the back of the grid.
As an aside, Russell (three), Albon (twice), Hulkenberg, Magnussen, Gasly, Piastri (twice), Bottas, Tsunoda, Perez, Ricciardo, Stroll, Zhou, and Norris were all investigated by the stewards for exceeding the maximum delta time for a lap, due to traffic.
The stewards determined that none were found to be driving unnecessarily slowly.
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