Lando Norris took his seventh win in Austin pole career position and the sixth of the season, beating Max Verstappen by just 31 thousandths in qualifying for the United States Grand Prix. After a disappointing sprint qualifying and an inadequate Sprint race, the Englishman from McLaren was able to turn the situation around and assert himself at the Circuit of the Americas with a perfect lap.
A pole of grit and strategy
Norris described his lap after qualifying in Austin as “beautiful” and stressed the importance of putting everything on track at the decisive moment.The pole lap was beautiful, I couldn't have gone much faster. It would have been hard to beat it even completing the second attempt. I put everything on the track and that was what was necessary to do”. Lando admitted that this weekend was a challenge for the McLaren, with Ferrari and Red Bull looking to have a better pace, but he was able to invent something to get an extraordinary result: “I had to invent something and today I did it.”
The difficulties of the weekend and the…luck
The weekend was not an easy one for McLaren, but the team worked hard to make changes that allowed Norris to gradually improve his performance. “We had to chase, we didn't have the pace of Ferrari and Red Bull,” explained Norris, who acknowledged that he also benefited from a bit of luck. George Russell’s accident at the end of Q3 prevented Verstappen and the other drivers from improving their times: “Maybe we weren’t the quickest today, but there was a bit of luck and I’ll take that.”
Thoughts on the race and tyre degradation
Looking ahead to Sunday’s race, Norris was cautious: “We’ve made some changes, but it’s going to be tough. We’ve got that out of the way, but tomorrow’s race is going to be tough.” With tyre degradation likely to play a major role, the Briton knows he has to do his utmost to defend his pole and manage his on-track strategy as best he can.

The situation on the grid
Norris' pole was a surprise, especially because of George Russell's unexpected exit from the track, which interrupted the final attempts at improvement, especially that of Max Verstappen. The Dutchman had to settle for second place, while the two Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc will start from the second row, third and fourth respectively. For Norris, this is a golden opportunity to redeem a weekend that started off on an uphill slope and to relaunch himself in the title race, where he currently trails Verstappen with a gap of 54 points.