Formula 1 in Texas

LIVE: Track reopened! First times

Max Verstappen(Bild: AFP/MARK THOMPSON)

Perfect day for Max Verstappen! After his victory in the sprint races, the Red Bull driver raced to pole position in qualifying in Texas on Saturday. Behind the Dutchman, Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc will start from P2 and P3.

Formula 1 World Champion Max Verstappen has clearly won qualifying for the US Grand Prix in Austin. The Dutchman took his 47th pole position on Saturday, beating Lando Norris (McLaren) and Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) to the line. Prior to that, the Red Bull driver had celebrated a start-finish victory in the sprint, with Mercedes driver George Russell and Carlos Sainz in the Williams in second and third. Both McLaren cars retired after a pile-up at the start.

The starting grid:

"It was good. I think the car was very strong in every section," said Verstappen, who is third in the world championship thanks to his sprint success and is now only 55 points behind leader Oscar Piastri. The latter was unable to finish higher than sixth in qualifying. Due to a chaotic lap after the pit exit on his second attempt, Verstappen was unable to set a final fast lap, "but fortunately we didn't need it," added the four-time champion. "The decisive factor was that we significantly improved the car compared to the sprint," said Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko in the ORF interview.

Russell finished fourth, just ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the second Ferrari. Haas youngster Oliver Bearman delivered a surprise by finishing eighth on the grid. A heavy impact by Isack Hadjar into a tire stack caused an interruption in the first qualifying section, but the Racing Bulls driver was uninjured.

First corner was the McLaren duo's undoing
Piastri was the key player in the sprint at the start. The space next to Nico Hülkenberg and Norris was simply too tight for the world championship leader in the first corner. The Australian was virtually leveraged out by Hülkenberg's right front wheel and subsequently damaged his car and that of his team-mate Norris. The incident was classified as a conventional racing accident by the stewards. "That was terrible. None of our drivers are to blame," said McLaren boss Zak Brown in an interview with Sky Sports.

Because there were dozens of pieces of debris on the track, the safety car was deployed afterwards. The race ran without any major highlights and came to an end in the middle of a second safety car phase. Hamilton finished fourth ahead of his Ferrari team-mate Leclerc.