A late crash by George Russell protected Lando Norris and his pole position at the US GP in what was a tough race all round for Mercedes.

Before Russell hit the barriers at Turn 19, his teammate Lewis Hamilton suffered a surprise retirement in the first quarter, with Russell’s accident restricting Red Bull sprint winner and Drivers’ Championship leader Max Verstappen to a place on the front row.

Lando Norris on pole in Austin

The sprint action was complete in Austin as the US Grand Prix weekend moved into qualifying. Could Verstappen achieve the double pole?

Sauber had Valtteri Bottas’ car ready for the start of Q1 after a fire broke out in the back corners after the sprint.

Speaking of sprints: Fernando Alonso and Liam Lawson got into a bit of an argument. Alonso described his racing rival from this event as an “idiot”. This argument continued at the start of FP1 when Lawson claimed over the team radio that Alonso was continuing. The Spaniard overtook Lawson on his out-lap.

“He’s doing exactly what he said he would do!” Lawson complained.

Verstappen set the pace at the start, just over three tenths ahead of title rival Norris, who had an identical time to Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez. Both of Yuki Tsunoda’s attempts were canceled due to track limit violations.

No such problems for Charles Leclerc and Ferrari as he moved into the lead with a time of 1:33.241, while Alpine’s Pierre Gasly impressively moved up to P2, three tenths off the pace. Lance Stroll was noted by the sports stewards for possible interference with Nico Hülkenberg.

Verstappen set a time of 1:33.046 and overtook Leclerc in Q1, while Hamilton was eliminated at the other end! A shocking accident in the first quarter after a critical error in turn 12. By exceeding the track limits there, the time was canceled for safety reasons. The Williams pair Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto and the Saubers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu were eliminated along with Hamilton.

Hamilton will be spared a start on the back row as Lawson suffers an engine penalty at the back of the grid in Sunday’s Grand Prix.

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Verstappen drove with used soft tires in his first Q2 run and set a benchmark time of 1:33.052.

Norris went for new soft tires and took advantage of them by being two tenths ahead of Verstappen, although that was perhaps not the buffer McLaren would have hoped for, while for Piastri it was only P3.

Verstappen responded with a time of 1:32.584 to return to P1, 0.267 seconds ahead of Norris, who was pushed back to P3 by Sainz.

VCARB attempted to use Lawson to tow Tsunoda, although Tsunoda was dissatisfied with how the attempt was going so far and relayed instructions to Lawson so that he would not throw dust into his sights.

Tsunoda narrowly missed the Q3 cut, Nico Hülkenberg, Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll and Lawson also retired.

With Verstappen leading both segments so far, did anyone have an answer in the third quarter to deny the Dutchman a double pole in Austin?

The opening runs suggested that Norris might be up to the task, as the McLaren driver took provisional pole three hundredths clear of Verstappen. Gasly was warned for a potentially unsafe exit when he was sent into Verstappen’s path in the pit lane as the final runs brewed.

Verstappen went purple in sector 1, but George Russell was in the wall at turn 19. He was fine, but the same could not be said for Verstappen’s pole position hopes. That honor went to Norris when the yellow flags ended qualifying early.

Q3 times

1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:32.330
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +0.031
3 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +0.322
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.410
5 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.620
6 George Russell Mercedes +0.644
7 Pierre Gasly Alpine +0.688
8 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.979
9 Kevin Magnussen Haas F1 Team +1,151
10 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing

Q2 times

1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1:32.584
2 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +0.252
3 Lando Norris McLaren +0.267
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.378
5 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing +0.436
6 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.473
7 George Russell Mercedes +0.558
8 Pierre Gasly Alpine +0.578
9 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.845
10 Kevin Magnussen Haas F1 Team +0.890
11 Yuki Tsunoda RB +0.922
12 Nico Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team +0.960
13 Esteban Ocon Alpine +1,013
14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1,175
15 Liam Lawson RB NO TIME

Q1 times

1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1:33.046
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.195
3 Liam Lawson RB +0.293
4 George Russell Mercedes +0.490
5 Pierre Gasly Alpine +0.504
6 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +0.510
7 Kevin Magnussen Haas F1 Team +0.518
8 Nico Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team +0.555
9 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing +0.565
10 Lando Norris McLaren +0.570
11 Yuki Tsunoda RB +0.749
12 Oscar PiastriMcLaren +0.818
13 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.927
14 Esteban Ocon Alpine +0.940
15 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +0.987
16 Alexander Albon Williams +1,005
17 Franco Colapinto Williams +1,016
18 Valtteri Bottas Kick Clean +1,106
19 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +1,108
20 Zhou Guanyu Kick Clean +1,182

Read more: A new threat from Sergio Perez emerges as Honda makes a test request for the Red Bull RB20.