Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took pole for the sprint race at the United States Grand Prix, while title rival Lando Norris finished fourth in his McLaren.
Verstappen, who is 52 points ahead of Norris with six races to go, sent Mercedes driver George Russell to pole position with 0.012 seconds in Austin.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was third fastest, 0.226 seconds slower than Verstappen, and Norris was 0.250 seconds behind in fourth.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton finished seventh, splitting Haas drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen.
Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri was eliminated in the first session after his lap time was canceled for exceeding the track limits in the penultimate corner and will start the sprint in 16th.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was eliminated in the second session and will start eleventh.
The sprint event, which carries eight points for a win, seven for second and so on up to eighth place, takes place on Saturday at 7pm BST.
The result was a blow for Norris, who must finish with Verstappen averaging almost nine points per race, especially as both Red Bull and McLaren are among the teams having upgrades to their cars this weekend.
Verstappen, who had not qualified fastest since the Belgian Grand Prix at the end of July, said: “We had a good day. The car worked quite well and was happy to be first. It’s been a while.”
McLaren has had the fastest car for some time and Verstappen is fighting a rearguard action, as Norris has eaten his lead in every race since the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August.
The Brit said: “Not very good. Not a great day. To be honest, I struggled all day with balance and set-up. In a way, happy with P4 because it could have been a lot worse, but the lap was shocking. “
And he played down the relevance of McLaren’s upgrade package, saying: “It’s not a new package, it’s pretty much the same. In terms of pace, we are where we need to be.”
Mercedes, on the other hand, had high hopes for their upgrade package, their first major one in months, and initially it seems to have made a big difference.
Russell said: “Really happy because it’s been a while since we were on the front row and it was a really tough session but at the end the lap really came together and my last sector was really strong which made it difference .
“We knew we had potential in the car. The car feels great so far with these upgrades. It’s close, but surprised ourselves a bit with that P2. I’m just excited to be in this position again. a while ago.”
Both Russell and Hamilton set out early in the session at the Circuit of the Americas, while the other frontrunners opted to wait until the last minute.
But this backfired when Williams driver Franco Colapinto, the only other driver on track with them, spun at Turn 12 and Hamilton had to slow for the ensuing yellow flags.
Hamilton believed the problem had cost him pole position.
“I was just unlucky with the yellow flag, I was 0.4 seconds ahead,” said the seven-time champion.
“It is what it is. The great thing is that the team has taken a step with the car, the upgrade has clearly worked. I’m really grateful to everyone at the factory. It’s not the end of the day. Tomorrow we one more chance.”
