Storylines for tomorrow …
1. Can McLaren’s Norris and Piastri at least claim enough points to slow down Verstappen’s charge toward the top of the standings?
2. No, seriously, can Norris and Piastri claim enough points to nullify the sense that Verstappen is destined to take this again?
3. Will Leclerc and Hamilton get one or both Ferraris on the podium?
4. Is Bearman poised for his first top-five finish?
5. Will Lawson and Tsunoda, 12th and 13th on the grid, get through the race without incident or argument?
Join us tomorrow and find out. See you then.
Verstappen says things were a bit messy as he went around looking for a final qualifying attempt, but he didn’t need it, of course. The wind picked up and made things tricky – cars losing downforce with a tailwind. “You can’t commit as much as you normally can in Sector 1.”
Norris: “It was a bit more of a struggle today for whatever reason. … We were both struggling quite a bit more. I’m still happy with P2. It could’ve been worse.”
Indeed.
Norris on his strategy tomorrow: “Don’t get hit.” Always good.
Leclerc: “It was quite a big surprise considering the weekend has been difficult for us. I think there are still some things we need to understand from this car. I think we’ve learned a lot and applied that in qualifying.”
Final standings
1. Verstappen (Red Bull)
2. Norris (McLaren)
3. Leclerc (Ferrari)
4. Russell (Mercedes)
5. Hamilton (Ferrari)
6. Piastri (McLaren)
7. Antonelli (Mercedes)
8. Bearman (Hass)
9. Sainz (Williams)
10. Alonso (Aston Martin)
11. Hulkenberg (Kick Sauber)
12. Lawson (Racing Bulls)
13. Tsunoda (Red Bull)
14. Gasly (Alpine)
15. Colapinto (Alpine)
16. Bortoleto (Kick Sauber)
17. Ocon (Haas)
18. Stroll (Aston Martin)*
19. Albon (Williams)
20. Hadjar (Racing Bulls)
Stroll faces a five-place grid penalty, so he’ll be all the way back.
Piastri comes across in a stunning sixth, barely holding on ahead of Bearman.
Norris is 0.006 ahead of Leclerc!
Norris improves, but not enough to best Verstappen.
Verstappen doesn’t make it to the start line in time! Can anyone top his time?
Verstappen radio: “We need to go, currently behind schedule.” He’s on the track but needs to get around in time to start a final attempt.
Just 1:45 left, so every driver is going to get one more shot at this.
Leclerc’s final effort is underway.
Leclerc is the first to head out again, followed by Hamilton and Bearman.
Does Verstappen even need to try again?
We have a replay that explains Leclerc’s time – he did a 360-degree spin. He kept going, but that obviously cost him some time.
We’ve got 4:25 left. Every driver is in the pit.
With one lap done for each driver, it’s Verstappen, Norris, Russell, Antonelli, Bearman (!?), Sainz, Piastri (!!??), Alonso, Hamilton and Leclerc.
What happened to the Ferraris?
Norris takes the lead!
For about 30 seconds, because Verstappen dashes across in 1:32.510.
Russell breaks the 1:33 mark at 1:32.959. Antonelli follows his teammate to move into second.
Leclerc must have had an issue because he’s more than four seconds back.
Bearman posts the first time of the last session at 1:33.139.
Piastri is 0.336 slower!
And they’re off …
Questions for Q3:
Another pole for Verstappen?
Are the Ferraris for real?
Can Piastri find some speed?
Replay shows another burst of anger from Tsunoda.
Now 2:30 until Q3.
Q2 results
1. Verstappen (Red Bull)
2. Leclerc (Ferrari)
3. Norris (McLaren)
4. Hamilton (Ferrari)
5. Antonelli (Mercedes)
6. Russell (Mercedes)
7. Sainz (Williams)
8. Piastri (McLaren)
9. Alonso (Aston Martin)
10. Bearman (Haas)
--
11. Hulkenberg (Kick Sauber)
12. Lawson (Racing Bulls)
13. Tsunoda (Red Bull)
14. Gasly (Alpine)
15. Colapinto (Alpine)
Colapinto stays 14th. Teammate Gasly comes across faster than Colapinto but no one else.
The clock has hit zero, so no more laps can start. Hamilton is in the midst of an unnecessary lap.
Tsunoda (13th) and Hulkenberg (11th) finish their attempts and fail to improve.
Colapinto is on his last-ditch effort now.
Russell moves up to sixth.
Hulkenberg drops to 11th, Bearman on the bubble at 10th, Alonso ninth … and Piastri eighth!
Just 2:10 remaining.
Gasly and Colapinto, the last two in the Q2 standings for now, tear out of the Alpine garage like Imperial fighters leaving the bay of the Death Star.
Waiting on a time from Russell …
Everyone’s on soft tires.
Russell now appears to be the only driver on the track. Still 5 minutes to go, so they’ve got plenty of time to get out to try again.
Piastri has a lap on the board, but it’s just seventh. That make him a bit nervous.
Tsunoda (Red Bull) is furious with Lawson (Racing Bulls). The two drivers switched teams early in the season, so the sub plats here are immense.
Most drivers are in pit lane except Hamilton and Russell, the latter of whom needs a good lap to jump up from 12th.
Gasly exceeded track limits, which is F1-speak for “hey, you can’t go on that part of the pavement.”
Here come the Ferraris – Leclerc second and Hamilton fourth, sandwiching Norris.
Finally, something goes right for McLaren. It’s Lando Norris breaking 1:33 to take the lead for now.
… and Verstappen immediately takes it for himself.
The Alpines of Gasly and Colapinto don’t threaten the leaders, but Sainz jumps into second, just 0.080 behind Antonelli.
Antonelli is in at 1:33.044, followed by Bearman, Lawson and a surprisingly pedestrian lap from Russell.
Q2 is underway, and Hamilton is still in the garage along with teammate Leclerc. So is Piastri.
We’ll have some times posted in about one minute.
Q1 results
1. Verstappen (Red Bull)
2. Russell (Mercedes)
3. Antonelli (Mercedes)
4. Leclerc (Ferrari)
5. Lawson (Racing Bulls)
6. Hulkenberg (Kick Sauber)
7. Gasly (Alpine)
8. Hamilton (Ferrari)
9. Sainz (Williams)
10. Alonso (Aston Martin)
11. Piastri (McLaren)
12. Norris (McLaren)
13. Bearman (Haas)
14. Tsunoda (Red Bull)
15. Colapinto (Alpine)
--
16. Bortoleto (Kick Sauber)
17. Ocon (Haas)
18. Stroll (Aston Martin)
19. Albon (Williams)
20. Hadjar (Racing Bulls)
Colapinto (15th) and Tsunoda (14th) get the reprieves as Stroll and Albon go too wide in the turns and have their times knocked off the board.
Missing out on Q2: Bortoleto, Ocon, Stroll, Albon, Hadjar.
Alex Albon jumps up to eighth! Or not. Time deleted. Down to 18th.
Lance Stroll’s time is deleted! He’s 19th. At least the five-place grid penalty won’t affect him too much.
Colopinto is done and sitting nervously in 15th …
We’ve hit 0:00, so these are the last laps. Bortoleto, Ocon, Stroll and Albon are in trouble.
Hulkenberg up to fifth.
Stroll up to 11th.
Lawson up to fifth! That bumps down Hulkenberg to sixth.
And now, spoiling the party, it’s Verstappen. He’s at 1:33.207, 0.104 ahead of Russell.
George Russell takes the lead! He’s a full 0.214 ahead of Leclerc.
And then it’s Antonelli, his Mercedes teammate, second and also ahead of Leclerc.
We have 2:28 left.
Norris gets another lap in, and he’ll take seventh for now. Stroll is now in the unfortunate position of 16th. He already has a five-place grid penalty, so he would have to start … well, very far back.
Now that everyone other than Norris and Hadjar has posted a time …
1. Leclerc
2. Verstappen
3. Hamilton
4. Sainz
5. Alonso
6. Piastri
7. Russell
8. Antonelli
9. Gasly (!?)
10. Lawson
--
11. Tsunoda
12. Hulkenberg
13. Bearman
14. Ocon
15. Stroll
16. Colapinto
17. Albon
18. Bortoleto
Updated
Lando Norris bounces and slides all over the track and finally goes out. He’ll need to regroup and try again.
Interesting note on Aston Martin – Alonso is currently fourth. Stroll is 14th.
Lewis Hamilton lands in the top three through 15 drivers.
Here comes Piastri – fifth! Have the Ferraris got the better of things today?
Surprise, surprise – Verstappen claims the lead.
But not for long – Leclerc has it now!
Fernando Alonso outraces his much-younger rival Lawson to claim the lead.
Verstappen and Leclerc are flying now.
Hulkenberg is through at 1:34.355. Bearman, Ocon and Bortoleto are slower.
Liam Lawson is not – he takes the early lead.
Lewis Hamilton also is waiting in the shade. Niko Hulkenberg is flying around the track trying to duplicate his sprint qualifying success.
Less than 30 seconds to go before the restart. Oscar Piastri is waiting in the garage.
So the net effect of the red flag is that the qualifying session has been truncated from 19 minutes to 14:51. No wonder so many cars jumped into the queue.
The session will restart in 2:30. Minutes and seconds, not hours and minutes.
No one recorded a lap during the 3 minutes and 9 seconds between the qualifying start and the red flag.
Our qualifying standings therefore are:
1. No one
2. No one
3. No one
etc.
As always seems to be the case during a pause in the action, McLaren’s Zak Brown is on the headset talking with the broadcasters. He says that after re-watching what happened in the sprint race, he no longer thinks Niko Hulkenberg is to blame.
Replay shows Hadjar abruptly spun and hit the tire barrier rather hard.
Meanwhile, McLaren is taking advantage of having a bit more time to work on the cars that were banged up in their own mishap earlier today.
At least 17 drivers are on soft tires. Lewis Hamilton is not. Verstappen and Antonelli aren’t out yet.
And now no one is out because we have a red flag. Isack Hadjar has hit a wall hard enough to draw the attention of medical staff, though he seems alert … and angry.
Q1 is 18 minutes today. That will eliminate five of the 20 cars. Q2 is 15 minutes to eliminate another five, and then Q3 is 12 minutes.
We did seem to have some issues in sprint qualifying with cars that were not on their fast laps getting in the way of cars that were. It is a peculiar qualifying system, isn’t it?
Twenty seconds to Q1 …
We’re being treated to a bit of music from the University of Texas marching band. Nice, but as someone who grew up in Georgia and has family ties to the University of Southern California, I’m obliged to be only somewhat impressed.
The Texas football team will play at Kentucky this evening, so the crowd might be able to make it to their TV sets in time to watch a tricky SEC clash.
Georgia is up by … no, wait, Ole Miss just scored.
We’re just a couple of minutes away from qualifying.
Can we take a moment to marvel at how efficiently the F1 driver intro video establishes driver personalities?
Niko Hulkenberg looks like a distinguished veteran.
Carlos Sainz, name-dropped in the nightclub scene of the recent F1 film, brushes his hair back from his face.
Isack Hadjar looks like a confident rookie.
Ollie Bearman and Kimi Antonelli look like they’re reassuring their parents that they’ll finish their homework after the race.
Lance Stroll looks like he doesn’t care what the internet says.
Fernando Alonso looks like the man with the weathered and wizened face from the Most Interesting Man in the World ad campaign.
George Russell is … well … not really sure what he’s doing.
Lewis Hamilton looks like one of the all-time greats but still hungry for more.
Oscar Piastri looks like he makes being handsome a lucrative part-time job.
And Max Verstappen puts forth an air of inevitably about his next 10 years of winning races.
The qualifying record of 1:32.029 around this 5.513km circuit belongs to once and future F1 driver Valtteri Bottas, set way back in 2019. Verstappen was close to that mark yesterday, winning the sprint pole in 1:32.413. Norris came in at 1:32.214, with Piastri a bit farther back in 1:32.523. Next was Niko Hulkenberg, who was rewarded by being caught up in the McLaren carnage in the sprint.
The other bit of fallout from the sprint race is that Lance Stroll will get a five-place grid penalty for an incident that took him out of that sprint along with the unfortunate Esteban Ocon. Stroll also got two points on his license, bringing him to seven over the past 12 months. He still has five to spare.
Apparently, there is indeed a roller-coaster under construction near the race track, part of a massive new theme park.
“Work still going on in the McLaren garage” is the word from the broadcast crew before Martin Brundle and Lando Norris take a look at the star-spangled track, including the unique upward climb to Turn 1, much like a roller-coaster.
Qualifying countdown
The scriptwriters for the F1 film starring Brad Pitt must now be in charge of the current season. How else do you explain the McLarens’ newfound intramural magnetism that keeps knocking title contenders Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris out of the way of the Max Verstappen march of re-conquest?
We’ve all been doing math trying to figure out if Verstappen really has a chance to defend his title, but if Piastri and Norris can’t make it through the first lap without denting each other, then it becomes a simple matter of Verstappen Points Minus Zero Equals Verstappen Wins Again.
We’ll see what the constructors’ champions can do with their two would-be champions’ cars in time for qualifying. Apparently, the word from McLaren is that Niko Hulkenberg and all the other drivers near the front of the sprint race should have zipped into another dimension to clear the way for their drivers to race each other?
If you have a hot take on what happened in the sprint race or what is happening now, please do drop me a line.
Norris and Piastri collide before Verstappen wins sprint race
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri collided with each other on the first lap again as the title rivals were both dumped out of the United States sprint.
The buildup to the weekend has been dominated by the “consequences” imposed by McLaren on Norris after the team held him responsible for banging wheels with Piastri in Singapore a fortnight ago. That minor tap paled into insignificance compared with the carnage at turn one of Saturday’s sprint in Austin, as Norris was left with only three tyres on his car.
Starting from third, Piastri – who leads Norris by 22 points in the championship standings – attempted to cut back up the inside of his teammate but turned into Sauber’s Nico Hülkenberg and, as a result, smashed into the rear left of Norris’s car.
Norris was spun round as his left-rear tyre was sent careering across the track. Piastri limped on briefly but suspension damage also put paid to his involvement in the 19-lap dash – where Max Verstappen clinched victory.
McLaren’s decision to involve themselves in the title fight by punishing Norris over the Singapore incident will prompt questions over what they decide to do after this latest collision.
McLaren’s CEO, Zak Brown, told Sky Sports from the pit wall: “That was terrible. Neither of our drivers to blame there. That’s some amateur-hour driving by some drivers up there at the front, [they] whacked out two guys.”
McLaren have further cause for concern in the shape of Verstappen. The crash between the tussling pair threw the door wide open to the Dutchman to claim victory as he looms ever larger in the championship picture. His eight points for winning the sprint means he has cut Piastri’s advantage to 55 points and trails Norris by 33.
Starting from pole, Verstappen was clear of the first-lap chaos – where Hülkenberg and Fernando Alonso were also eliminated – and he led away from George Russell at the safety-car restart. But Russell, fresh from signing a new Mercedes deal after his win in Singapore, was intent on making a fight of it as he lunged up the inside of turn 12 on lap 19 but failed to make the corner as both cars were forced off the track.
Verstappen pulled clear after that incident to claim a routine win as Carlos Sainz – starting from seventh – took an impressive third for Williams.
Lewis Hamilton finished fourth ahead of his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc after diving past the Monegasque on lap nine.
Qualifying for Sunday’s main race gets under way at 4pm local time (10pm BST).
• Beau Dure will be covering the qualifying action later.
Updated
