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Verstappen on USGP pole; Piastri musters only sixth

Max Verstappen took a comfortable pole position ahead of Lando Norris after Oscar Piastri slumped to sixth on a difficult day for the title leader. Verstappen needed only one lap to confirm himself as the fastest driver at the Circuit of The Americas, with Red Bull Racing sending him out for his second lap too late.

The Dutchman took provisional pole after the first runs of Q3 but was the first driver to take the checkered flag on what was supposed to have been the out-lap for his second run. It left him a sitting duck as Norris, provisionally second, found time with his final attempt. Norris, however, had a considerable 0.394s gap to close. Though he ended the session with the fastest final sector, he couldn’t find enough, falling short by 0.291s.

Verstappen got out of jail, taking an ultimately comfortable pole position hours after winning the sprint.

“I think every segment [of qualifying] the car was very strong,” he said. “Just trying to put the lap together around here sometimes can be quite tricky.

“The first run in Q3 was good … unfortunately I couldn’t do my final run – it was a bit messy with the out laps. Luckily we didn’t need it. For us it was a very strong result.”

Despite the late tension, Norris said he had no real expectation to take pole on a day McLaren was thoroughly outclassed by Verstappen’s Red Bull Racing machine.

“It was a bit more of struggle today,” he said. “We were pushing, and I’m still happy with P2 – it could’ve been worse, but there was no chance we could’ve been on pole today.

“I look forward to hopefully having a good race with Max. We’ve had some good ones in the past, so I’m looking forward to it again.”

Teammate and title leader Piastri was never in contention for the front row, the Australian lapping 0.574s off the pace to qualify sixth. He had only one new set of softs for Q3 after having had to use an extra set to guarantee progress from Q2, but he looked uncomfortable on both used and new rubber in a scrappy performance to follow on from his first-lap crash in the sprint.

After conceding a chunky 0.309s in Sprint qualifying but still securing third, his larger gap for grand prix qualifying allowed three cars to split him from his chief title rival.

Charles Leclerc was the first, stunning with third and just 0.006s behind Norris. It was a significant turnaround from his underw helming 10th in Sprint qualifying, and though the Monegasque hinted at an explanation, he said his Ferrari car’s wild swings in form were alarming.

“It was quite a big surprise, especially considering the weekend has been very difficult for us since the beginning,” he said. “There’s a bit too much a swing of performance in the same weekend without fundamentally changing the car, but it was an interesting sprint race this morning – I think we learned a lot. We applied that in qualifying, and it seemed to be working, so I’m hoping we catch up a little bit.”

George Russell qualified fourth, 0.316s off the pace, heading Lewis Hamilton by 0.086s and Piastri by 0.258s. Kimi Antonelli followed in seventh ahead of Oliver Bearman in the first back-to-back Q3 appearance of his career in eighth. Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso were the sole Williams and Aston Martin representatives and will line up ninth and 10th respectively.

Nico Hulkenberg will line up 11th, missing out on replicating his sprint top-10 berth by just 0.096s after failing to improve with his final lap, which was deleted anyway for exceeding track limits.

Liam Lawson qualified 12th for Racing Bulls ahead of Red Bull stablemate Yuki Tsunoda, who will line up 13th after being put off by a slow-moving Alpine near the racing line.

Alpine teammates Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto followed in 14th and 15th in the French-owned team’s first Q2 appearance since the Dutch Grand Prix in August.

Gabriel Bortoleto qualified 16th ahead of Esteban Ocon, while both Lance Stroll and Alex Albon qualified 18th and 19th after having their fastest laps, which would have seen them through to Q2, deleted for exceeding track limits. It was Stroll’s 13th Q1 elimination in this 24-round season. The Canadian will start the grand prix last after serving a five-place penalty for crashing into Ocon during the sprint earlier on Saturday.

Isack Hadjar ended the session 20th without a time after spinning off the road just three minutes into Q1. The Frenchman’s Racing Bulls car escaped from his control suddenly as he hit the apex at Turn 6, pirouetting into the barriers in an impact of at least 25g.

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