five-place grid penalty<\/a> for Stroll will drop him to the back. The other names to exit early doors, meanwhile, were Kick Sauber\u2019s Gabriel Bortoleto (16th) and Haas\u2019 Esteban Ocon (17th).<\/p>\nAS IT HAPPENED
\nQ1 \u2013 Verstappen quickest as Hadjar brings out red flags<\/p>\n
Hours on from an action-packed Sprint at the Circuit of The Americas, the attentions of the paddock shifted to Qualifying, which would decide the starting order for Sunday\u2019s United States Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
A queue had already formed in the pit lane ahead of the green light signalling the start of Q1, with Ocon leading the pack out for the 18-minute segment. Two drivers to emerge after the initial chain had dispersed were the McLaren pair of Norris and Piastri, both back in action after their earlier Lap 1 exit in the Sprint.<\/p>\n
A red flag was thrown just minutes into the session when Hadjar hit the barriers, having lost the rear of the car before spinning off. The Racing Bulls driver was seen hitting the steering wheel in frustration following the incident, while work began to clear his stricken car from the track.<\/p>\n
Once the session resumption time had been announced shortly afterwards \u2013 with just over 14 minutes left on the clock \u2013 another pit lane queue quickly developed. The majority of the field had bolted on soft tyres for their early runs with the exception of Hamilton, who had ran used mediums before also switching to the soft rubber.<\/p>\n
There was a dicey moment for Norris as he tried to put a first timed lap on the board, the Briton going wide which forced him to abandon his effort. Leclerc, meanwhile, had gone fastest on a lap of 1m 33.525s, putting him 0.065s clear of Verstappen.<\/p>\n
Norris\u2019 next attempt was more successful but could still only place him in seventh, one position behind team mate Piastri. At the other end of the timesheets, the drivers at risk as the session entered its final minutes were Stroll, Colapinto, Albon and Bortoleto, along with Hadjar whose crash had brought an early end to his Qualifying.<\/p>\n
The Mercedes pair of Russell and Antonelli caught the eye by briefly taking a 1-2, before Sprint winner Verstappen displaced the former at the top by one tenth on a lap of 1m 33.207s. Colapinto, meanwhile, had moved himself just out of danger to P15, pushing the previously improved Bortoleto back down to P16.<\/p>\n
All eyes were then on Albon as the Thai driver tried to escape elimination. He promptly seemed to do so by putting his Williams into eighth place \u2013 but his lap time was then deleted for exceeding track limits, pushing him back to P19.<\/p>\n
Another driver to have their effort erased for the same reason was Stroll, leaving the Canadian in 18th, which will become last place due to a five-place grid penalty. Bortoleto also failed to progress to Q2 in 16th, with Ocon in 17th while Hadjar \u2013 having been unable to rejoin the session \u2013 brought up the rear in 20th.<\/p>\n
Knocked out: Bortoleto, Ocon, Stroll, Albon, Hadjar<\/p>\n
Q2 \u2013 P1 again for Verstappen<\/p>\n
Another 15 minutes went on the clock as Q2 got underway, the soft rubber again proving the tyre of choice for the field as they set to putting a time on the board. Verstappen looked to have continued his Q1 form forward, setting an early benchmark of 1m 32.701s.<\/p>\n
Leclerc slotted into second, 0.168s away from Verstappen, with Norris third and Hamilton fourth following the initial runs. Piastri, meanwhile, was back in seventh, not a comfortable position for the McLaren driver to be in.<\/p>\n
Further back, the names at risk were Lawson, Russell, Tsunoda, Colapinto and Gasly, the latter having yet to set a lap after his time was deleted due to track limits. Russell returned to the track earlier than most for his decisive lap, the Briton moving up to P6.<\/p>\n
As the action picked up in the final minutes of Q2 \u2013 with just Verstappen opting to stay in the garage, seemingly feeling safe at the top \u2013 the other Red Bull of Tsunoda could not better his previous time, leaving him in P13, while Hulkenberg was also unable to progress in P11.<\/p>\n
After getting a lap on the board, Gasly moved forward but only to P14 \u2013 ahead of team mate Colapinto \u2013 while Lawson also exited in P12.<\/p>\n
Knocked out: Hulkenberg, Lawson, Tsunoda, Gasly, Colapinto<\/p>\n
Q3 \u2013 Verstappen runs out of time \u2013 but still takes pole<\/p>\n
The remaining 10 drivers readied themselves to battle it out in the decisive Q3, with Verstappen and the McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari duos joined by Sainz, Alonso and Bearman for the final shootout.<\/p>\n
Most of the pack had opted for fresh soft tyres, while Piastri, Bearman, Alonso and Sainz had bolted on used sets. And once the first runs had been completed, Verstappen again went fastest to claim provisional pole on a lap of 1m 32.510s, going 0.394s clear of Norris.<\/p>\n
Russell and Antonelli had slotted into third and fourth, with Bearman and Sainz beating Piastri while Alonso, Hamilton and Leclerc rounded out the order. The latter\u2019s time was some four seconds off that set by Verstappen \u2013 and it soon became clear why, with replays showing the Ferrari completing a 360-degree spin into the final corner.<\/p>\n
Attentions then turned to the all-important final runs, for which everybody was sporting fresh tyres. There was concern at Red Bull over whether Verstappen would reach the line in time to start his lap \u2013 a worry that came to fruition as the Dutchman indeed missed out, meaning that he would need to rely on his earlier effort.<\/p>\n
As the others put their own laps in, Verstappen’s first time proved unbeatable. Norris slotted into second place \u2013 0.291s back from Verstappen \u2013 while Leclerc was not far behind in third. Russell and Hamilton were next in the order, with Piastri back in sixth on a tough day for the Australian. Antonelli, Bearman, Sainz and Alonso, meanwhile, completed the top 10 for the United States Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
Key quote<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was good,” said polesitter Verstappen. “I think in every segment, the car was very strong. Just trying to put the lap together sometimes here can be very tricky. It\u2019s very hot with very strong winds as well, and in the first sector, having that tailwind is challenging.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first run in Q3 was good, we managed to improve a little bit from Q2. Unfortunately, I couldn\u2019t do my final run. It was a bit messy with the out laps, but luckily, we didn\u2019t need it. For us, again, a very strong result.\u201d<\/p>\n
What’s next<\/p>\n
The 2025 United States Grand Grand Prix is set to begin at 1400 local time on Sunday. Head to the RACE HUB<\/a> to find out how you can catch the action from the Circuit of The Americas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen has seized pole position for the United States Grand Prix, the Dutchman\u2019s initial lap in Q3…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-511275","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115399411970905553","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}