Max Verstappen beats Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to pole in thrilling Austin sprint qualifying

Max Verstappen took Sprint pole position at the United States Grand Prix, with the Dutchman putting in a stunning lap in the final moments of Sprint qualifying to beat both McLaren cars.

Lando Norris set the tone throughout the session, the Briton having dominated SQ1 and SQ2 before initially seeking to repeat this feat in SQ3. But it was Verstappen who was quickest of all, the Red Bull driver’s effort of 1:32.143 putting him just 0.071 seconds ahead of Norris.

The other McLaren of Oscar Piastri was just over three tenths behind Verstappen’s time in third, while Nico Hulkenberg caught the eye by placing his Kick Sauber in P4. Mercedes’ George Russell followed in P5, ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin.

Williams’ Carlos Sainz bounced back from a limited run in FP1 to take seventh place on the grid, while teammate Alex Albon finished ninth. Lewis Hamilton was sandwiched between them in what appeared to be a tricky session for Ferrari, with teammate Charles Leclerc completing the order in 10th.

Days after being confirmed as Mercedes driver for 2026, Kimi Antonelli narrowly missed out on SQ3 by just 0.006 seconds. The Italian was joined by Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar, who went out in P12 ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in P13.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls, meanwhile, both had their lap times deleted due to track limitations, meaning neither recorded times to put them in 14th and 15th.

A number of drivers failed to reach the finish line in time to complete their final runs in a frantic finish to SQ1, with Haas’ Ollie Bearman (P16), Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda (P18), the other Haas machine of Esteban Ocon (P19) and Kick Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto (P20) suffering this fate, the latter not having at all got time on the board after his first. deleted for exceeding runway limits.

Alpine’s Franco Colapinto, the Argentinian driver who finished the session in 17th place, also crashed out of the first segment of Sprint qualifying.

HOW IT HAPPENED

SQ1 – Norris fastest as several drivers miss time

After Norris set the tone in the weekend’s only practice session earlier on Friday, the paddock’s attention turned to sprint qualifying, which would decide the grid for the fourth sprint of the campaign on Saturday.

As the 12-minute SQ1 session – in which medium tires are mandatory – got underway at 4:30 p.m. local time, Hadjar was the first to hit the track as a line of cars began to exit the pit lane in increasingly hot conditions, with air temperatures hovering around 33 degrees Celsius.

“A lot of gusts and a lot of wind changes,” Bortoleto reported, just as the Kick Sauber driver saw his first time deleted for exceeding track limits. Verstappen, meanwhile, had been fastest once all 20 drivers had put a lap on the board, with the Red Bull driver setting an initial benchmark of 1’34”140.

While Hamilton was in P2 – 0.086 seconds behind Verstappen – his Ferrari teammate Leclerc found himself in danger in P16, with the Monegasque at risk of being eliminated alongside Gasly, Ocon, Colapinto and Bortoleto.

As the final minutes ticked down and the peloton returned to action for their final decisive runs, Tsunoda expressed concerns that he would not reach the finish line in time to start a lap – and that prediction proved correct, pushing the Japanese rider down to 16th place and out of the session.

Ocon also failed to cross the line before the checkered flag, eliminating the Haas driver in P19, while others who failed to make it in time included Bearman, Bortoleto and Lawson, the first two exiting in P16 and P20 respectively while Lawson did enough to progress to P10.

Leclerc, meanwhile, could only improve to 13th place, but that was also enough to ensure the Ferrari driver would continue to compete in SQ2.

With Gasly moving up to 15th, the Alpine driver escaped an early exit – but not his teammate Colapinto, having found himself 17th. At the other end of the timesheet, Norris was quickest with a lap of 1:33.224, 0.139 seconds faster than Verstappen.

Eliminated: Bearman, Colapinto, Tsunoda, Ocon, Bortoleto

SQ2 – P1 again for Norris as Antonelli goes out

After this busy SQ1 finish, attention quickly shifted to SQ2, a 10-minute segment in which medium tires are once again mandatory. While some drivers stayed in the pits during the first stages, Verstappen was eager to take to the track and set the fastest time.

Norris then replaced the Dutchman to go fastest on a lap of 1’33.033, putting him 0.130 ahead of Verstappen while teammate Piastri was three tenths back in third. Ferrari, meanwhile, seemed to be having a tougher time, with Hamilton and Leclerc finishing P9 and P10 respectively.

Of the drivers in the drop zone, only one – Stroll – had set a time, with Hulkenberg, Hadjar, Lawson and Gasly all choosing to do a single push lap in the final minutes. And while Norris and Verstappen chose to stay in the pits during the final moments, the rest of the field tried to improve in order to progress into SQ3.

Hadjar moved up to 10th, pushing Leclerc to 11th, while Lawson had his time deleted for exceeding track limits. While Hülkenberg moved up to P5, Leclerc fell further back – but the Monegasque did enough to qualify in P8.

The pressure was then on Hamilton to escape the danger zone, and the Ferrari driver just improved to grab 10th place, pushing Antonelli into 11th, with the margin between them of just 0.006 seconds.

Eliminated: Antonelli, Hadjar, Gasly, Stroll, Lawson

SQ3 – Verstappen beats Norris by 0.071s

With eight minutes ticking away for the crucial top-10 shootout – with the soft tires required for this segment – ​​Russell took to the track early to put his first lap on the board, the Mercedes driver enjoying plenty of open air before being joined by the Williams cars of Albon and Sainz.

Russell’s initial effort was 1:32.888, with Sainz just 0.023 seconds behind while Albon was two tenths off third place. And as the final minutes of the session arrived, the rest of the peloton began to emerge as they prepared for their own flying laps.

Hülkenberg continued his impressive run by being the fastest, but he was quickly beaten by Norris, the Briton winning in 1’32”214. Piastri placed second, three tenths behind his teammate, but Verstappen – the last man to cross the finish line – went even faster, taking pole with his effort of 1’32”143 and beating Norris by just 0”071.

This puts Hülkenberg in fourth – his best grid position since his podium weekend at the British Grand Prix in July – ahead of Russell in fifth and Alonso in sixth.

The Williams duo of Sainz took P7 and P9 respectively, while the Ferrari pair of Hamilton and Leclerc took P8 and P10 in what looked to be a tricky outing for the Scuderia.

Key quote

“It was a great qualification,” Verstappen said. “In all segments we were quite close. It was just a matter of putting everything together at the end, when it matters most, which is not easy because you come to the soft tires without any reference.

“It worked well. I still expect it to be a tough battle tomorrow with the Sprint, but that’s exactly what we want to see, right? So yeah, I’m excited for tomorrow and happy for today.”

What’s next

Once the grid has been decided, drivers will line up for the Sprint at 12:00 local time on Saturday. Head towards the RACING HUB to find out how to follow the action.