Max Verstappen will start the United States Grand Prix on pole position after setting the pace in all three segments of qualifying in the flying Red Bull. To quote the four-time world champion, it was “simply lovely” following his sprint race win earlier and now P1 for the main race.
Verstappen’s only Q3 lap of one minute, 32.510 seconds was enough to seal his seventh Grand Prix pole of 2025, while McLaren’s championship leader Oscar Piastri could only qualify sixth.
McLaren’s mechanics faced a big repair job after Norris and Piastri were both eliminated on the opening lap of Saturday’s 19-lap sprint, but both cars were ready in time for main qualifying session at the Circuit of the Americas.
But Norris and especially Piastri never looked particularly comfortable during qualifying and were no match for Verstappen, who won the sprint from pole and will also lead the field for the main event.
Lando Norris narrowly edged Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc on his second flying lap to claim a front-row slot alongside Verstappen, three tenths behind the Red Bull driver, while Mercedes driver George Russell will share the second row with Leclerc, who recovered from a spin out of the final corner on his first attempt.
Lewis Hamilton was fifth ahead of Piastri, followed by Andrea Kimi Antonelli and an impressive Oliver Bearman in the upgraded Haas. Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso rounded out the top ten.
Verstappen led the way in Q2, too, with his first effort of one minute, 32.701 seconds, ahead of Leclerc and Norris, as many drivers struggled to improve on their final lap.
Piastri advanced in eighth with only one tenth to spare in a tight battle for the top ten, a sign of things to come in Q3.
Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg could not repeat his sprint qualifying heroics and was eliminated in P11, followed by Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda and Alpine pairing Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto.
Q1 was red flagged after three minutes for a big smash by Isack Hadjar, losing the rear of his Racing Bulls car and spinning into the wall.
After a ten-minute delay to realign the barriers, the session was resumed for 13 minutes with no lap times on the clock.
Leclerc led the first series of runs, while Norris had work to do after oversteering off the track on his first run. Leclerc was eventually demoted by Russell and then Verstappen, while Piastri and Norris were already not looking overly comfortable in their repaired McLarens and advanced in P11 and P12.
In the battle for Q2, Alex Albon saw his eighth-fastest time deleted for track limits, giving Colapinto an opportunity to scrape through in P15.
Gabriel Bortoleto was the first driver to miss out in P:16, followed by Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll and Albon, as well as Hadjar.
So an excellent day for Max Verstappen. Winning the sprint race earlier and now pole position for the main race. Let’s see if the Red Bull driver can reduce the points gap in the Grand Prix.
United States Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:32.510
2 Lando Norris McLaren 1:32.801
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:32.807
4 George Russell Mercedes 1:32.826
5 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:32.912
6 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:33.084
7 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:33.114
8 Oliver Bearman Haas 1:33.139
9 Carlos Sainz Williams 1:33.150
10 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:33.160
11 Nico Huldenberg Sauber 1:33.334
12 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls 1:33.360
13 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull 1:33.466
14 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:33.651
15 Franco Colapinto Alpine 1:34.044
16 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber 1:34.125
17 Esteban Ocon Haas 1:34.136
18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:34.540
19 Alexander Albon Williams 1:34.690
20 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls No time
Max Verstappen has seized pole position for the United States Grand Prix, the Dutchman’s initial lap in Q3 proving enough to secure him the top spot after running out of time to put in a second effort.
Having set the pace through Q1 and Q2, Verstappen looked to have continued that theme by going quickest during the opening laps of Q3 on an effort of 1m 32.510s. While he attempted to go again in the final runs, the Red Bull driver did not reach the line before the chequered flag fell, meaning that he would have to rely on his earlier effort.
It turned out to be enough, with his time putting him 0.291s clear of closest challenger Lando Norris in second. The McLaren driver was only six-thousandths ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in third, while Mercedes’ George Russell slotted into fourth.
The other Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton claimed P5, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri seemingly experiencing a tricky session in P6. Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli followed in P7, with Haas’ Ollie Bearman, the Williams of Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin rounding out the top 10.
After his impressive Sprint Qualifying performance on Friday, Nico Hulkenberg was unable to replicate this in Saturday’s Qualifying. The Kick Sauber driver exited Q2 in 11th, putting him one position ahead of Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson in 12th.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/verstappen-seals-pole-position-ahead-of-norris-and-leclerc-in-austin.5E0rW0OLQC83p47QG6LTd9
Qualifying for the United States Grand Prix was brought to a stop in Q1 as Isack Hadjar crashed into the barriers, resulting in the session being red-flagged. At this point, no drivers had completed a flying lap. The team has confirmed the driver is OK.
Hadjar was seen hitting his steering wheel in anger as he sat in the cockpit following a violent collision after the car snapped on him over what looked like a small bump at Turn 6.
“He’ll know about it but I feel sorry for him there because it just broke loose,” Martin Brundle said during the Sky Sports F1 broadcast.
“He was on the right part of the track and it started to slide, and he was carrying so much speed. I feel sorry for the lad there. He was pushing on, there was nothing he could do.”
With high winds as well as a bumpy track, it’s a tough race for the drivers under changing conditions.
With Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli still waiting in the pitlane, they were the only two drivers who are yet to use their tyres during qualifying, although Verstappen was confirmed to be on used soft rubber.
Hadjar will start at the back of the grid for tomorrow’s grand prix after starting and finishing the sprint race in 12th.
“Yeah, honestly I think I just got it wrong the way I approached this section,” he said following the crash. “I took it too easy the first half, I arrived with too much speed the second half and just honestly the way it snapped, I was already in the wall. So, nothing I could have done.”
He added: “Throughout the lap I was definitely struggling with the ride, but when I lost it, it was a me issue, rather than anything else.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/isack-hadjar-crash-triggers-early-red-flag-in-us-gp-qualifying-in-austin/10768990/
Sauber Formula 1 driver Nico Hulkenberg has responded to McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown’s comments regarding the Turn 1 crash in the United States Grand Prix sprint race.
The German driver got caught up in a first-lap clash with the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. While the stewards deemed the crash a racing incident, Brown initially put the blame on Hulkenberg.
“That was terrible,” Brown told Sky Sports F1 after the crash. “Neither of our drivers to blame there. Some amateur hour driving. Some drivers up there at the front whacked our two guys.”
He added: “I want to see the replay again, but clearly Nico drove into Oscar and he had no business being where he was.”
After the American had time to review the footage, he backtracked on his earlier comments. “I’ve reviewed it, I think I’ve changed my view. I can’t really put that on Nico,” Brown confirmed to Sky Sports F1. “In the heat of the moment, obviously pretty bothered what I saw there, a lot of incidents in Turn 1. But I don’t think that’s on Nico.”
Hulkenberg addressed the clash while speaking to the media in Austin after qualifying in 11th for the grand prix.
“Yeah, no, I didn’t [have anywhere to go]. We were all obviously racing. Fernando [Alonso] was kind of taking the inside, but I knew he was diving in, but I didn’t know where he was exactly.
“He was in a blind spot at that moment, so I wanted to leave some space for him. And then Oscar turned in very suddenly and aggressively. I wanted to cut back for the exit, but obviously, I was there. Yeah, unfortunate for all of us.”
When told that Brown had retracted his earlier comments, the Sauber driver added: “Good. So we’re all in agreement then. Still frustrating and disappointing, because the car was strong and if we had kept it there, we would have scored points. I’m pretty confident and sure about that, but yeah, would have, could have, should have.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/nico-hulkenberg-responds-to-zak-browns-retracted-us-gp-sprint-crash-criticism/10769015/
Lando Norris says he was almost surprised to qualify second for Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix, as he felt his McLaren was “impossible” to drive.
Norris endured a hairy moment in Q1 after aborting his opening lap in the session due to a scrappy opening sector, where he lost time in the first corner and then went wide on the exit of Turn 9. His follow-up run on the same tyres proved enough to progress through to the next stage, later booking himself another front-row start alongside Max Verstappen.
Still, Norris was almost three-tenths down on Verstappen’s pole time, although the Red Bull driver didn’t get a second Q3 run as he ran out of time to cross the start line.
Norris told Sky that his MCL39 was a “handful” in qualifying and reckoned that the change in conditions versus Friday’s sprint qualifying (in which he was 0.587s faster than his grand prix qualifying effort) had hurt McLaren more than others.
“It’s just impossible to drive, I don’t know why,” Norris said on Sky Sports. “It was just clear from Q1 already, like every lap we did, we were between three tenths to half a second off of Max.
“It wasn’t just that they were very strong – it was more we were like [11th and 12th] in Q1 and weren’t a mile away from getting knocked out, so I was pretty worried after Q1.
“It’s just a handful to drive. Just every bump, every kerb, lap to lap different, just a handful, which is not the most common thing we say about our car, but it’s clear that we both were struggling today with it quite a bit.
“I don’t know why we’re struggling so much more than yesterday, where I was a bit more comfortable, and obviously lap time-wise a lot quicker yesterday than we were today.
“Clearly the track was a bit worse, the wind was a bit worse, and it seems to have impacted us a little bit more than some others, so we’ll try and understand why and learn from it.
“It’s almost a surprise to be P2, so I’ll take it.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/norris-mclaren-impossible-to-drive-in-f1-us-gp-qualifying/10769055/
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri says he struggled to get into the right rhythm during Formula 1 United States Grand Prix qualifying after lacking confidence in his MCL39.
After contact with Nico Hulkenberg at the start of Saturday morning’s sprint saw Piastri and McLaren team-mate Lando Norris eliminated on the spot, the McLaren mechanics faced a huge repair job to get ready for grand prix qualifying a few hours later.
Both Piastri and Norris made it to the start of Q1, but initially appeared on the back foot adapting to the windier track conditions around the Circuit of the Americas, advancing to Q2 in 11th and 12th.
But while Norris rallied to qualify second – three tenths behind polesitter Max Verstappen – Piastri never really managed to get going, scraping through Q2 only to qualify sixth.
Piastri said he felt ill at ease in the McLaren, which left him half a second off Verstappen’s pace throughout, but didn’t want to call in his lack of morning running as an excuse for a muted performance.
“No, I don’t think so. The car was back in one piece and as far as I’m aware, set up how we intended,” he explained. “It all felt normal, it’s just the kind of behaviour that we’ve had a couple of times through the season came out to play again today.”
The Australian added: “It’s a track that is tough and you need a lot of confidence on. There’s a lot of corners to make you pay for it if you don’t have that feeling.
“I feel like yesterday there were a few relatively clear opportunities to try and find [time]. But today I felt like my laps were maybe not the best laps of my life, but in line with laps I’ve done before. It’s just unfortunate the lap time didn’t come.”
But the 24-year-old isn’t worried there is an underlying trend after an off-kilter weekend last month in Azerbaijan.
“I don’t feel like I’ve made any major mistakes from a driving side of things, it’s just not clicked,” he said.
“I haven’t felt comfortable with the car, really. That’s been the story of this weekend but I don’t think it’s been the story of the last few.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/oscar-piastri-confidence-austin-f1-qualifying-mclaren/10769048/