The Sprint weekend of the United States Grand Prix has already brought its share of spectacle and surprises, while there is still the race to go. Red Bull and McLaren F1, and more specifically Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, were the two strong men of the weekend.
The Briton took pole position for the race, while the Dutchman will be on the front row after taking the Sprint pole and winning the Sprint. The Ferraris, very solid over long stints, started on the second row of the grid, Carlos Sainz ahead of Charles Leclerc.
With Oscar Piastri’s fifth place on the grid, we can imagine that McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari will have their chance to aim for victory. The second part of the top 10 of the grid, on the other hand, is made up of outsiders.
Pierre Gasly set the seventh time but took advantage of the pit lane departure of George Russell, whose car underwent significant work after qualifying and was brought back late for the deadline by two hours after the end of the session , to start on the third line.
Fernando Alonso is seventh at the start ahead of Kevin Magnussen, then Sergio Pérez and Yuki Tsunoda. Nico Hülkenberg and Esteban Ocon are on the sixth row, ahead of Lance Stroll and Alex Albon. Franco Colapinto follows in front of Valtteri Bottas.
Eliminated in Q1, Lewis Hamilton took advantage of the penalties inflicted on Liam Lawson and Russell to gain two places and position himself 17th on the grid. He is ahead of Guanyu Zhou and Lawson, while Russell therefore starts from the pit lane. Mercedes will therefore experience a complicated race this Sunday in Austin.
