AUSTIN, Texas — Following a third-place finish in the Formula 1 sprint race at Circuit of The Americas, Lando Norris bounced back to score the pole for Sunday’s U.S. Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver outpaced sprint winner Max Verstappen by a mere 0.031 seconds after the final session was halted early due to Mercedes driver George Russell crashing in the closing moments in turn 19.Â
“It was a beautiful lap,” Norris said. “I was not going to go much quicker than what I did. You know when you just do a lap and you think it’s going to be tough to beat that, but I put everything out on the line. It’s all we needed to do. We’ve been on the back foot pretty much the whole weekend.
“We’ve not had the pace of the Ferraris or the Red Bulls so I had to do something, and today I did that. A cool lap and a nice way to start the race tomorrow.”
Norris is 54 points behind Verstappen in the drivers standings with six races left.
A distant third in Q3 was Carlos Sainz, 0.322 seconds behind a blistering Norris. Sainz’s Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc starts fourth ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in fifth.
Prior to his crash, Russell laid down a lap good enough for sixth on the grid. Alpine’s Pierre Gasly had a strong run in seventh with Fernando Alonso qualifying eighth.
Haas F-1’s Kevin Magnussen continued his surge from a strong seventh-place finish in the sprint race to qualify ninth. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez starts 10th.Â
Nico Hulkenberg, who finished eighth in the sprint race, wheeled his Haas F-1 car to a 12th-place qualifying effort.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton had a stunning Q1 exit as he’s dealt with car issues throughout the day. He’ll start 19th on Sunday.Â