Max Verstappen snatched pole position for Formula 1‘s United States Grand Prix Sprint Race with a late lap to prevent an all-McLaren front row.
The Dutchman was the last driver out on track, giving him all the space he needed to secure another top spot when it looked as if perhaps it was the papaya team’s pole to lose.
Lando Norris was second, seven hundredths adrift, with Oscar Piastri third, a whole three tenths off his team-mate.
Nico Hulkenberg was the star of the afternoon, however, taking fourth place ahead of George Russell in fifth, with Fernando Alonso sixth, as Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc’s Ferraris failed to impress.
After a flurry of early activity in SQ1, Hamilton was the first big gun to go quickest, a 1:34.226s propelling him there. Piastri was a tenth behind, with Norris the same, but Verstappen then went eight hundredths of a second faster to go top.
After a quick change of tyres, along came the heavy traffic with cars looking to get out on track quickly.
Piastri went fastest but Norris’ 1:33.224 saw him go six tenths faster, with Verstappen popping into second. Hamilton was third, with Hulkenberg fourth and Sainz fifth.
Gabriel Bortoleto, Esteban Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda, Franco Colapinto and Oliver Bearman were all out, with additional drama of Alex Albon, Norris, Verstappen, Russell, Hulkenberg, Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Lance Stroll all placed under investigation for failing to follow the Race Director’s instructions for maximum delta time amid the bunching up of cars that resumed the circuit for their second runs.
Antonelli and both Racing Bulls SQ2 as Verstappen grabs top spot
SQ2 began with Verstappen setting the first time, a 1:33.163s, with Russell second, a tenth behind, with Sainz and Albon third and fourth.
Norris would go faster, with Piastri going third, as both Ferraris looked dangerously close to the drop zone.
Liam Lawson would fall foul, only improving to 11th place from 12th, condemning to an early finish to his afternoon. Hulkenberg looked set to join him, but popped up with a blistering final lap to go fifth.
Leclerc was now firmly in the drop zone with Hamilton still teetering. Leclerc went eighth, dropping his team-mate to 11th, but at the very end, Hamilton did just enough to go back into 10th.
Lawson would be joined by Stroll, Pierre Gasly, Hadjar and Antonelli, the latter having a big lock-up at Turn 11.
Stroll and Hulkenberg were given the same attention by race control for driving too slowly towards the end of SQ2.
SQ3 begun with Russell the first out of the blocks, and was the first to break out of the 1:33.000s, with a 1:32.888s. Albon was next, two tenths slower, with Sainz going second, just two hundredths of a second behind the Mercedes’ lap time.
With now just under two minutes to go, everyone came out to make their mark. Hulkenberg went quickest with 35 seconds to go, two tenths ahead of Russell.
Leclerc could only manage fifth, with Hamilton only capable of fourth. Norris ended Hulkenberg’s hope of a shock pole by going four tenths faster with a 1:32.214s.
It was now left to Piastri and Verstappen to thwart Norris. Piastri failed, going three tenths off, and, like so often, Verstappen popped up right at the end to take pole by with a 1:32.143s.
It was another statement of intent from the Red Bull man, keeping his oar butted firmly into McLaren’s parade.
READ MORE – F1 2025 United States Grand Prix – Sprint Qualifying Results
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