US GP: Lando Norris on pole as Mercedes suffer Austin nightmare
By Jamie Woodhouse,
12 hours ago
A late George Russell crash prevented a flying lap shootout between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.
A late crash for George Russell protected Lando Norris and his US GP pole position, in what was a rough outing all-round for Mercedes.
Before Russell found the barriers at Turn 19, team-mate Lewis Hamilton had suffered a shock Q1 elimination, with Russell’s crash restricting Red Bull’s Sprint winner and Drivers’ Championship leader Max Verstappen to a spot on the front row.
Lando Norris on pole in Austin
The Sprint action was complete in Austin, as the US Grand Prix weekend moved on to qualifying. Could Verstappen make it a double pole?
Sauber had Valtteri Bottas’ car ready for the start of Q1, following a fire on the rear corners after the Sprint.
Speaking of the Sprint, Fernando Alonso and Liam Lawson got involved in quite the spat, Alonso calling his racing rival from that event an “idiot”, and that clash continued early in FP1 as Lawson took to team radio claiming Alonso was carrying things on, the Spaniard passing Lawson on their out-lap.
“He’s doing exactly what he said he would do!” Lawson lamented.
Verstappen was setting the early pace, just over three-tenths up on title rival Norris, who was sat on an identical time to that of Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez. Yuki Tsunoda had both of his attempts deleted for track limits breaches.
No such troubles for Charles Leclerc and Ferrari as he hit the front on a 1:33.241, while Alpine’s Pierre Gasly impressively popped up to P2, three-tenths off the pace. Lance Stroll was noted by the stewards for potentially impeding Nico Hulkenberg.
Verstappen clocked a 1:33.046 to top Q1 from Leclerc, while at the other end, Hamilton was out! A shock Q1 casualty after a critical Turn 12 error. Breaching track limits there saw that time deleted for good measure. The Williams pair of Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto, plus the Sauber’s of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, joined Hamilton in elimination.
Hamilton will be spared a last-row start, as Lawson takes a back-of-the-grid engine penalty into Grand Prix Sunday.
Verstappen went with used softs for his opening Q2 run, setting a 1:33.052 as the benchmark to chase.
Norris was on new softs and put them to use by going two-tenths clear of Verstappen, though it was perhaps not the buffer McLaren would have hoped for, while for Piastri it was P3 only.
Verstappen responded with a 1:32.584 to return to P1, 0.267s up on Norris, who was shuffled down to P3 by Sainz.
VCARB were trying to use Lawson to give Tsunoda a tow, though Tsunoda was not happy with how the attempt was going so far, sending instructions to be passed on to Lawson so that he would not be kicking dust up into his visor.
Tsunoda fell just short of the Q3 cut, with Nico Hulkenberg, Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll and Lawson also out.
With Verstappen topping both segments so far, did anyone have an answer in Q3 to deny the Dutchman a double pole in Austin?
The opening runs suggested Norris could be up to that task, as the McLaren driver took provisional pole by three-hundredths from Verstappen. Gasly was noted for a potential unsafe release as he was sent into Verstappen’s path in the pit-lane as the final runs brewed.
Verstappen went purple in Sector 1, but George Russell was in the wall at Turn 19. He was fine, but the same was not true for Verstappen’s pole position hopes. That honour went to Norris as the yellow flags brought qualifying to a premature end.
Q3 times
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:32.330 2 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +0.031 3 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +0.322 4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.410 5 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.620 6 George Russell Mercedes +0.644 7 Pierre Gasly Alpine +0.688 8 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.979 9 Kevin Magnussen Haas F1 Team +1.151 10 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing
Q2 times
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1:32.584 2 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +0.252 3 Lando Norris McLaren +0.267 4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.378 5 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing +0.436 6 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.473 7 George Russell Mercedes +0.558 8 Pierre Gasly Alpine +0.578 9 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.845 10 Kevin Magnussen Haas F1 Team +0.890 11 Yuki Tsunoda RB +0.922 12 Nico Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team +0.960 13 Esteban Ocon Alpine +1.013 14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1.175 15 Liam Lawson RB NO TIME
Q1 times
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1:33.046 2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.195 3 Liam Lawson RB +0.293 4 George Russell Mercedes +0.490 5 Pierre Gasly Alpine +0.504 6 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +0.510 7 Kevin Magnussen Haas F1 Team +0.518 8 Nico Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team +0.555 9 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing +0.565 10 Lando Norris McLaren +0.570 11 Yuki Tsunoda RB +0.749 12 Oscar PiastriMcLaren +0.818 13 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.927 14 Esteban Ocon Alpine +0.940 15 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +0.987 16 Alexander Albon Williams +1.005 17 Franco Colapinto Williams +1.016 18 Valtteri Bottas Kick Sauber +1.106 19 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +1.108 20 Zhou Guanyu Kick Sauber +1.182
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