Max Verstappen will start the United States Grand Prix from pole position after a dominant qualifying display in Austin, with Lando Norris joining him on the front row
Max Verstappen is poised to inflict further pain on McLaren after taking pole position for Sunday’s United States Grand Prix. The Dutchman’s Sprint win yesterday brought him to 55 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri.
And he will narrow that gap further if he can convert pole into his fifth Grand Prix victory of the year. Verstappen didn’t even make it to the start line in time for a final flying lap after coming out of his garage too late. But his first effort was good enough to beat Lando Norris by nearly three-tenths of a second.
Norris will have been frustrated to not take advantage of the four-time champion’s misfortune. He will be pleased, though, to have three cars between himself and team-mate Piastri who managed to go only sixth fastest.
The Australian championship leader was less than one-tenth of a second faster than Fernando Alonso who qualified 10th, showing just how close he was to being even further down the order. Piastri must make progress on Sunday or he will lose ground to both his title rivals.
Ferrari found pace after a wretched Sprint qualifying 24 hours earlier with Charles Leclerc third and Lewis Hamilton fifth. George Russell split the two red cars but Kimi Antonelli was only seventh in the other Mercedes. And Oliver Bearman made it a quartet of Brits in the top eight to give Haas a good chance of scoring points at their home race.
Yuki Tsunoda was lucky to avoid another bottom-five result as he continues to struggle in his Red Bull. But he was spared Q1 embarrassment along with Alpine’s Franco Colapinto only because Lance Stroll and Alex Albon had their laps deleted for track limits violations.
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His luck ran out in Q2 as he went on two separate sweary rants after he felt he was blocked by other drivers and only qualified 13th while his team-mate made it onto pole. That was one place behind Liam Lawson, his rival for one of the available Red Bull seats next year and one of those who he lost his temper with on track.
In the other Racing Bulls car, Isack Hadjar crashed out early on to ensure he will start the race from the very back of the grid. Only Stroll will be behind him, because of a five-place grid penalty the Canadian picked up in the Sprint race for crashing into Esteban Ocon.
2025 United States Grand Prix qualifying result
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
- Lando Norris (McLaren)
- Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
- George Russell (Mercedes)
- Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)
- Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
- Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)
- Oliver Bearman (Haas)
- Carlos Sainz (Williams)
- Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
- Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber)
- Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls)
- Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull)
- Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
- Franco Colapinto (Alpine)
- Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber)
- Esteban Ocon (Haas)
- Alex Albon (Williams)
- Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls)
- Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)*
*Five-place grid penalty applied.
