Max Verstappen just holds off his big rivals for Sprint pole with little over one tenth of a second separating the leading four teams; watch the United States GP Sprint live on Sky Sports F1 and Main Event at 11pm on Saturday, with build-up from 10:15pm
Sunday 22 October 2023 06:54, UK
Max Verstappen hit back from an error in Friday qualifying and then a spin during the Sprint Shootout to narrowly pip Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris to pole for Saturday night's Sprint race amid what is proving an incredibly-competitive United States GP weekend.
Verstappen will head the grid for the 19-lap dash - which is live at 11pm on Sky Sports F1 - after topping all three segments of the Sprint Shootout from Ferrari's Leclerc, who has already claimed pole for Sunday's Grand Prix.
The world champion was fortunate to avoid damaging to his car with a Turn Nine spin during the second knockout phase, SQ2, but quickly got back into his timesheet-topping groove for SQ3 and clocked the session's fastest time of 1:34.538.
But in what bodes well for the Sprint, and indeed the main event of the Grand Prix weekend on Sunday when Verstappen will start only sixth, three teams are right on the Dutchman's tail.
Second-placed Leclerc and third-placed Hamilton lapped just 0.055s and 0.069s respectively slower than the Red Bull's pace in the Sprint Shootout, while McLaren's Norris was little over one tenth of a second back in fourth.
"To be this close in Austin just shows we are progressing as a team and we can take that as a real positive," said Hamilton, who had earlier experienced a near-miss behind a slow-moving Yuki Tsunoda in SQ1.
"We are in a good position to apply some pressure on the leaders."
The leading quartet of teams' second drivers fill the next four spaces on the grid too, albeit slightly further off the pace.
Oscar Piastri will start fifth in the second McLaren, with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz sixth.
After qualifying only ninth on Friday, for the Grand Prix, there was still no breakthrough for Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull who trailed team-mate Verstappen by half a second. The Mexican will start the Sprint from seventh, although his SQ3 was compromised by the fact he was unable to run new soft tyres.
That was also the case for George Russell, who qualified eighth, but the Mercedes driver will now start from 11th after receiving a three-place grid penalty for impeding Leclerc in SQ1.
Russell's penalty promotes Williams' Alex Albon - who impressed to get into SQ3 less than 24 hours after failing to clear the first hurdle of Friday's qualifying hour - into eighth on the grid, with Alpine's Pierre Gasly also gaining a spot to ninth.
And the returning Daniel Ricciardo is now 10th, having already done well on his second day back in the AlphaTauri after injury to qualify 11th. The Australian finished eight places ahead of team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, who was dumped out in SQ1 and vented frustration over team radio while also nearly collecting Hamilton's Mercedes.
The Sprint is a standalone event to Sunday's Grand Prix and offers points for the top eight finishers.
United States GP Sprint Shootout Result
1) Max Verstappen, Red Bull
2) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
3) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
4) Lando Norris, McLaren
5) Oscar Piastri, McLaren
6) Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
7) Sergio Perez, Red Bull
8) George Russell, Mercedes*
9) Alex Albon, Williams
10) Pierre Gasly, Alpine
*three-place grid penalty to be applied for impeding
Two weeks on from Qatar where McLaren took the fight to Verstappen's dominant Red Bull in the Sprint format, the battle at the front has widened out to four teams at Austin's fast Circuit of the Americas.
And although it is true that had it not been for a track limits violation at the end of Grand Prix qualifying on Friday night Verstappen would have still topped both qualifying sessions here, Red Bull's pace advantage over a single lap is nowhere near as pronounced as it has been for most of this season.
"We were quite competitive, the last lap wasn't particularly great but still on pole, so that means the car is working quite well," said Verstappen, who has won five of the 10 Sprints since the short-form format was introduced in 2021.
"It's going to be an exciting afternoon. You can see a lot of different cars being very close to each other, so you don't know what's going to happen in the Sprint race."
Perhaps explaining the closer gaps to normal, Red Bull's team boss, Christian Horner, hinted to Sky F1 that the champions may have set their car up more for the longer distances required in the Sprint and the main GP itself.
"Have we weighted more to the race or the stint length, or over a single lap?" he suggested.
"So it's going to be fascinating to see - degradation around here can be a factor."
Leclerc could not quite repeat his pole-winning effort from Friday night but is eyeing up a swift return to first place tonight on the uphill run to the wide left-handed first corner.
"It was a positive qualifying," said Leclerc. "Of course it's disappointing to not be on pole but second place is not that bad on this track.
"I will do everything to try and pass Max into Turn One. The grip in second place always seems to be quite good looking at past years."
Saturday October 21
Sunday October 22
Watch Formula 1 return to Texas for the United States Grand Prix and another Sprint weekend live on Sky Sports F1 from October 20-22. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW
