Events are moving quickly in Austin, as qualifying for the US Grand Prix followed just hours after the sprint race, which was won by Lando Norris.
In Q1, the trio of Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, and Sergio Pérez dominated the field on the first flying lap. However, a few minutes later, Charles Leclerc, Pierre Gasly, and Carlos Sainz took the lead, and by the end of Q1, Verstappen, Leclerc, and the returning Liam Lawson rounded out the top three. Among those eliminated, to the great surprise, were Lewis Hamilton, the two Williams cars, and Stake's Alfa Romeo cars.
In Q2, Norris, Verstappen, and Piastri set the pace, and by the end, Verstappen, Sainz, and Norris had made it into the top three. Track conditions steadily improved, the competition intensified, and at this stage, the US Grand Prix qualifying session was practically a three-car event. However, there was no continuation for the two VISA RBs, Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon, and Nico Hülkenberg, who were eliminated from the upcoming battles.
After this, the decisive Q3 arrived, in which it was almost impossible to predict who would win. According to this, at the end of the first attempts, the leaderboard was Norris, Verstappen, and Sainz, but the time gap between the leaders was almost negligible. Verstappen started his final flying lap sensationally, but he couldn't translate his pace into results, as qualifying was interrupted due to George Russell's accident.
All this meant that Lando Norris took pole position ahead of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz!
