Verstappen secures pole for Austin Sprint, Perez and Piastri endure early elimination

F1 Grand Prix, GP United States, Circuit of The Americas

Reigning world champion Max Verstappen bounced back in the sprint qualifying at the United States Grand Prix to claim pole position for the Saturday's 100km dash, beating the Mercedes of George Russell and the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. F1Technical's lead journalist Balazs Szabo reports on Sprint Qualifying.

The rules for the sprint qualifying meant that drivers were restricted to Pirelli's yellow-banded medium compound in the opening qualifying session.

Ferrari continued its fine form from the sole practice session, with Charles Leclerc topping the 12-minute segment, beating his future team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who displayed a much more impressive performance after his struggles in FP1.

McLaren's Australian driver Oscar Piastri endured a shock result in SQ1 as he had his best lap time deleted which meant he ended up outside the top 15. As a result of the track limits violation, the two-time F1 race winner will line up in P16 in tomorrow's Austin 100km sprint dash.

Esteban Ocon also failed to progress from the opening session while Williams racer Alex Albon suffered a dramatic spin on his final effort. Although the Thai driver managed to remain on track, the incident resulted in the William man remaining in the drop zone.

Kick Sauber's Valtteri Bottas finished in 19, with his team-mate Zhou Guanyu rounding off the field.

The following session saw Carlos Sainz set the benchmark, again on Pirelli's medium tyres, with the Spaniard fractionally beating the likes of Verstappen and his team-mate Leclerc.

Sergio Perez found himself in the drop zone as the session approached its final stages, and the Mexican did not have enough time to try to go for another hot lap. It means that the six-time F1 race winner will start tomorrow's sprint race from P11 on the grid.

Pierre Gasly ended the segment in P12, while there was double disappointment for Aston Martin with Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso exiting in P13 and P14. Liam Lawson, who has replaced Daniel Ricciardo from this weekend, ended up in P15, with both the New Zealander and Alonso having their lap times deleted for track limits violations.

As per the rule, the final part of the sprint qualifying saw drivers use the soft compound. Franco Colapinto and the Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were the first ones to head out on to the track for their final push lap.

In the end, Verstappen was able to clinch the sprint pole, beating Russell by just 0.012s. While Ferrari looked mighty in the final two segments, the Scuderia slightly fell back on the soft tyres.

Charles Leclerc ended up third fastest, with Norris alongside him on the second row, while Sainz took fifth ahead of Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg in sixth.

Hamilton had a messy lap, and ended up down in seventh, while Kevin Magnussen added to a strong day for Haas by going eighth fastest. RB driver Yuki Tsunoda set the ninth-fastest lap, with Colapinto down in 10th after a spin during his flying lap.