Verstappen beats McLaren drivers to grab pole for Austin Sprint
Red Bull's Max Verstappen snatched the Austin Sprint pole position from McLaren's Lando Norris in a close battle with an impressive last-gasp effort at the Circuit of The Americas.
McLaren driver Lando Norris looked to have the upper hand in the opening two segments of sprint qualifying, having topped SQ1 and SQ2. However, it was reigning champion Max Verstappen who went fastest of all, the Red Bull driver’s effort of 1m 32.143s putting him just 0.071s clear of Norris.
Championship leader Oscar Piastri struggled to match his team-mate's pace, and ended up third just over three-tenths off Verstappen’s time.
On the back of a series of tough qualifying sessions, Kick Sauber driver Nico Hulkenberg put in an eye-catching performance in sprint qualifying by posting impressive lap times across all segments. The German driver went on to slot his Kick Sauber into P4.
Mercedes’ George Russell endured a tough practice session, but he found pace in his car in SQ1 and SQ2 on Pirelli's medium. However, he struggled to extract the maximum performance on the red-walled softs, and ended up fifth quickest.
Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso set the sixth quickest lap, while Williams racer Carlos Sainz bounced back from limited running in FP1 to take seventh on the grid,
Ferrari endured a tricky session at Texas, with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc having ended up eighth and tenth quickest, respectively on a track where the Scuderia was a dominant force a year ago.
Alex Albon slotted his Williams in between the two Ferrari drivers, while Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli claimed only P11, having just missed out on reaching SQ3 by only 0.006s.
Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar endured a turbulent practice session, and was only able to claim P12 for Saturday's Austin Sprint, ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in P13.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and the Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson, meanwhile, both had their lap times deleted due to track limits, meaning that neither recorded a time to put them in 14th and 15th places.
The final minutes of SQ1 saw a number of drivers fail to reach the line in time to complete their final runs. F1's only American team Haas endured a difficult session, with Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon having only secured P16 and P19 on the grid.
Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda was among the drivers who failed to complete their warm-up lap in time, and will therefore only start today's Sprint from only P18 on the grid. While it was a successful day for Hulkenberg, his team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto endured a shock result on Friday afternoon as he failed to get a time on the board at all after his first was deleted for exceeding track limits.
