Red Bull‘s Max Verstappen snatched pole position from Mercedes’ George Russell for Saturday’s Sprint race at the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix.
The Dutchman was in championship form, taking the top spot by 12 thousandths of a second from Russell in the dying moments of Sprint qualifying.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took third, with the 2024 F1 season throwing up another tight encounter across multiple teams at the Circuit of the Americas.
A solitary hour of practice on Friday previewed the afternoon’s Sprint Qualifying session with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Leclerc ending the Austin prologue first and second.
12 minutes saw the initial SQ1 session play out in Sprint Qualifying and five drivers fall by the wayside.
A major shock came in the form of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who lost his fastest attempt after breaching track limits at Turn 19, demoting him to an early exit in 16th.
Piastri was joined by Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Williams’ Alex Albon, who spun on his final attempt to push for safety which never came.
That left the Suaber duo to typically bring up the rear of the field, Valtteri Bottas leading Zhou Guanyu.
Leclerc advanced to SQ2 as the quickest driver, carrying on Ferrari’s form from opening practice, but would it last?
As the minutes ticked by in the second segment of Sprint Qualifying, the bulk of the midfield competitors across RB, Aston Martin and Alpine remained in the garage, waiting until the final moments for a solitary push run.
That was a consequence of the format’s peculiar tyre rules, which permit only medium compounds to be used across the first two sessions.
Sergio Perez dumped out in SQ2
SQ2 produced another scalp, this time in the form of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, edged out of the top-10 by RB’s Yuki Tsunoda.
With Liam Lawson in 15th after a lap deletion, first blood in the three-way shootout for Red Bull’s second seat went to the Japanese pocket rocket.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly wound up 12th, ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso, who also lost a lap due to track limits.
Sainz progressed as quickest, giving Ferrari a further boost ahead of the top-10 SQ3 shootout.
Williams’ rapid rookie Franco Colapinto also advanced, along with a buoyant Haas duo, working well on home soil with the upgraded VF-24.
Max Verstappen leaves it late to take Sprint Pole
Pushing hard in the final session on soft tyres, Colapinto had a nervy moment, spinning at the end of the back straight.
There was strife for Lewis Hamilton, dissatisfied with his team’s prep and falling half a second from Russell’s initial 1:32.845s benchmark.
A nasty snap of oversteer on the exit kerb at the end of the back straight compounded Hamilton’s issues.
Mercedes went early, dubiously so, its rivals did not.
A flurry of attempts came in the final seconds of Sprint Qualifying with the spoils going to Red Bull’s Mac Verstappen.
A champion’s performance saw the Dutchman come out on top by just 0.012s with Russell’s benchmark keeping him in second.
Leclerc split McLaren’s Lando Norris one place further from his title rival as Sainz rounded out the top five.
Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg beat a seething Lewis Hamilton to sixth with Kevin Magnussen, Tsunoda and Colapinto rounding out the top-10.
READ MORE: F1 2024 United States GP – Sprint Qualifying Results
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