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After seven Formula 1 races, Max Verstappen returned to pole position for the US GP Sprint race as he won Sprint Qualifying in Austin, Texas by 12 milliseconds from Mercedes’ George Russell. In the second row, together with Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris.
The continued improvement of the Red Bull RB20 following its change of floor at the Azerbaijan GP was confirmed in Texas in qualifying for the Sprint race of the 19th F1 three-day race this year, and Max Verstappen seized the opportunity to win his first many positions after the Austrian GP at the end of June.
The Dutchman was a breath (0.012s) faster than George Russell, who put in an excellent lap early in SQ3 in the Mercedes W15 – which had been quite troubled a few hours earlier, in free practice – to secure his place on the front row.
Importantly for Verstappen, he left title rival Lando Norris on the second row of the grid, as the McLaren Briton will start 4th, just behind Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari.
On the third row will be Carlos Sainz in the other Ferrari and the impressive, again, Nico Hulkenberg in the heavily upgraded Haas VF-24. The German actually left Lewis Hamilton in the 4th row, next to the other Haas with Kevin Magnussen.
In an uneventful qualifying session, the biggest surprises were Oscar Piastri’s disqualification in Q1 in the other McLaren for exceeding the track limits, and Sergio Perez in Q2 in the second Red Bull.
US GP 2024, Sprint Qualifying
FORMULA 1
How Sprint Qualifying evolved
The third session of Sprint qualifying in Austin started with the two Mercedes going out early, with Franco Colapindo – once again doing an amazing job, putting away (ruled out of Q1) his Williams counterpart, Alex Albon.
Russell managed to go 0.7” faster in SQ3 than his best lap in SQ2, taking an early lead with an impressive time of 1:32.845. At the same time, Hamilton again struggled with the balance of his Mercedes W15, while Colapinto had an effortless 4-a-ke at Turn 12 – which ultimately left him at the bottom of the top ten.
When the rest of the drivers took to the track towards the end of the process, none of Saint, Norris and Leclerc managed to dethrone Russell from the top, and all three of them temporarily took second place in succession.
What the three failed to do, however, Verstappen achieved in exhalation: although the Dutchman was not fastest at any of the three points on the track, the Red Bull RB20 was much more composed and balanced even with the naked eye and thus the champion managed to put together an even lap – to move, if only marginally, faster than Russell.
In SQ2 Yuki Tsunoda’s improvement eventually knocked Sergio Perez out of the top ten, while a driving mistake by Liam Lawson left him out of the top ten in his first RB race of the year – where he took the place of Daniel Ricciardo. The New Zealander went off track and his time was erased.
The Aston Martin AMR24 didn’t have the speed anyway to qualify Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll in the top ten, but both their second-period times were wiped out due to exceeding track limits. And the car, most likely.
It was the track’s limits that cost Piastri qualifying for the second period as well, leaving the Australian in 16th place in the Sprint start. Instead, Alex Albon was disqualified after a driving error that resulted in a spectacular 360-degree spin.
The US GP schedule is followed by the Sprint race on Saturday night (19/10, 21:00), and then the qualifying tests which will start shortly after midnight, at 1:00 in the morning on Sunday. The main event in Austin will take place at 22:00 on Sunday night (10/20). Don’t miss SPORT24’s LIVE for all three seasons.
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