Red Bull’s Max Verstappen topped sprint qualifying at Formula 1’s 2024 United States Grand Prix ahead of George Russell, Charles Leclerc and his title rival Lando Norris.
On a tricky day for Red Bull given the controversy over its front bib ride height adjuster, Verstappen scored his first pole (sprint or GP) since the Austria round back in June.
But there was disappointment for Red Bull elsewhere, as Sergio Perez was knocked out in SQ2, while it was a similar story for McLaren, as Oscar Piastri failed to make it through the other session where the drivers were obliged to run medium tyres.
On softs in SQ3, Russell had looked the favourite to come out on top as Mercedes ran early in the final segment and he found 0.7s over his personal best in SQ2, while Lewis Hamilton struggled in the other W15.
Russell’s 1m32.845s was good enough to see of Leclerc, Norris and Carlos Sainz when they ran with the majority of the other SQ3 runners near the session’s end, before Verstappen flashed by to forge ahead.
Verstappen did not set a purple sector in any of the Austin track’s segments, but he shot to a 1m32.833s to top the field as he looks to extend his run of winning every sprint race so far in 2024.
Nico Hulkenberg beat Hamilton to sixth, with Kevin Magnussen eighth in the other Haas on what was a very good day for the home team.
Yuki Tsunoda took ninth, while Williams’ rookie Franco Colapinto did superbly to make SQ3, but then spun at Turn 12 at the end of the track’s main straight when he was running with the Mercedes cars early in the final segment, so ended up 10th.
Perez was the biggest faller in SQ2, with his final lap coming well ahead of the chequered flag but only good enough for 10th at that stage, after which he was shuffled out by Tsunoda’s late improvement.
Fernando Alonso looked to have been eliminated in 12th, but he and his team-mate Lance Stroll lost their only times – set late in SQ2 – for going too wide out of the penultimate corner.
Liam Lawson was also hit with a track limits violation on his only lap, with the New Zealander pinged for running too wide out of Turn 1.
He therefore dropped behind Stroll and Alonso as they ended up finishing 13th-15th, which boosted Pierre Gasly to 12th.
SQ1 had a dramatic and controversial end, as Alex Albon put his Williams into a dramatic 360-degree spin exiting the penultimate corner on his final flier and was eliminated in 18th, while Piastri lost his best time to a track limits infringement at the same corner.
His previous personal best was only good enough to be 16th and so he was eliminated ahead of Esteban Ocon, Albon and the Sauber pair Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.
United States Grand Prix – Sprint Qualifying
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