The Dutchman flies to take his sixth pole position in a sprint race. Mercedes surprises with Russell second. Piastri disaster, sixteenth.
Austin once again sees a driver on the first box of the sprint race grid: Max Verstappen. The Dutchman is in fact the fastest in the sprint qualifying of the United States GP weekend, the sixth time since this format was introduced. Second place for George Russell, followed by Charles Leclerc.
SQ1: Plate Disaster
The first qualifying session highlights two of the best performing teams: Ferrari and Mercedes. Charles Leclerc led the session on medium tyres ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, with the Briton setting a good time after a session of FP1 little fought.
Liam Lawson confirmed his good performance in the free practice session, recording the twelfth time that allows him to access the second phase. Those who have to blame themselves are Oscar Piastri and Alexander Albon. For the Australian, a first sector slower by 3 tenths and the track limits in the last sector cost him the lap and, consequently, the passage to the qualifying round. Same fate for the Williams driver, who saves the car with a 360°, but nullifies the improvement he was having up to that point.
Eliminated, in order: Piastri, Ocon, Albon, Bottas, Zhou
DQ2: Colapinto top, Perez flop
With less time available, several drivers made a single attempt. Once again the fastest of the session was a Ferrari driver, but in this case it was Carlos Sainz.
The surprises continued with Franco Colapinto's eighth place ensuring him a place in SQ3 in his first Sprint qualifying. The Argentine put Williams in the 'Top 10', along with both Haases and Yuki Tsunoda.
The gap between the two Red Bull Racing teammates was significant, with Verstappen second and Perez eliminated. The two Aston Martins were also left out, after Alonso's time was taken away due to track limits and Lance Stroll's time was not fast enough to make the cut.
Eliminated: Perez, Gasly, Stroll, Alonso, Lawson
SQ3: Verstappen flies
The first few minutes saw only the Mercedes drivers on the track, with George Russell in front. Lewis Hamilton paid for a mistake, perhaps caused at the moment of the yellow flag for a spin by Franco Colapinto. For everyone else, a one-lap race.
12 hundredths, however, denied Russell the pole position of the sprint race, which instead went to Max Verstappen. 3 months and 22 days after the last time, the Dutchman will start in front. Third time for Leclerc, who pays for a mistake on the snake that makes him go too much on the kerbs.
TOP 10: Verstappen, Russell, Leclerc, Norris, Sainz, Hulkenberg, Hamilton, Magnussen, Tsunoda, Colapinto