Norris claims pole position for the US Grand Prix as Russell ends up in the barrier

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

McLaren driver Lando Norris beat his championship rival Max Verstappen to take pole position for the United States Grand Prix. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo reports on the qualifying session.

The majority of the field headed out on a set of used soft tyres for the first run to assess track conditions. The final stages of the 18-minute session then saw all drivers bolt on a fresh set of red-walled tyres.

There was a big shock at the end of Q1 when Lewis Hamilton was unable to better his lap in P16 following a scruffy middle sector and, given that there was not enough time to go again, the seven-time world champion was pushed down to a final position of P19.

The two Williams drivers displayed strong pace in yesterday’s sprint qualifying, but they were knocked out in the opening segment just as the Sauber pair of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.

The second qualifying segment saw Max Verstappen dominate proceedings, by setting a 1m32.574s on a fresh set of soft compound. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz finished second, but he was almost three tenths of a second adrift.

Charles Leclerc struggled for pace in the middle section of qualifying, but still managed to set the fourth-quickest lap, from Sergio Perez in P5, Oscar Piastri in P6 and George Russell in P7.

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly displayed a hugely impressive performance on the softs, getting himself through into the final part of qualifying.

Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen continued to show his fine form while two-time world champion Fernando Alonso also made it through after a tough sprint race earlier on Saturday.

Lando Norris set the quickest lap in the first half of the final qualifying segment, beating his championship rival Max Verstappen by just 31 thousands of a second.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc ended up third and fourth quickest, ahead of Oscar Piastri and George Russell.

Pierre Gasly managed to carry over his fine form from Q2 to end up seventh fastest. Fernando Alonso had only a single set of fresh softs, and the Spaniard elected to complete his only flying lap between the two stints of his rivals.

The dying minutes of the session saw Verstappen and Sainz post eye-catching times through the first two sectors, but they were unable to complete their laps as Russell crashed into the barriers at Turn 19, causing a yellow flag zone that pretty much ended the session for everyone.