Charles Leclerc beat Lando Norris to pole position for Sunday’s United States Grand Prix after Max Verstappen had his fastest time deleted for exceeding track limits.
Red Bull Racing’s pace advantage was reduced by the mixed demands of Circuit of The Americas and its rapidly evolving grip levels, turning the battle for pole into a genuine four-way contest between Verstappen, Leclerc, Norris and Lewis Hamilton.
Leclerc took provisional pole at the end of the first laps, in part thanks to Verstappen arriving at the last corner immediately behind teammate Sergio Perez, understeering through the left-hander in the Mexican’s dirty air.
The Dutchman was furious over team radio, with his shot at pole relying on his final lap.
Nearing the end, Leclerc was again quickest, improving his time as the first of the contenders over the line.
Verstappen started the lap badly, with a lockup at Turn 1 that sent him wide, but a phenomenal final sector more than made up for the lost time, sending him 0.005s ahead of the leading Ferrari.
That purple final split included a clear wide exit at Turn 19, and he had his timed deleted shortly after crossing the line, dumping the 2023 world champion to a disappointed sixth and handing pole back to Leclerc — the Monegasque’s second Sunday P1 start of the year.
“I think as a team we did a great job,” Leclerc said. “We know [on sprint weekends] it’s more important than ever to have a clean FP1. We did.
“I was feeling good on the lap. I was happy throughout qualifying.
“The last lap in Q3, there were [some] mistakes here and there, but I think it wasn’t easy for anybody.
“I’m really happy to be starting from pole on Sunday.”
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Norris was an unexpected second and just 0.13s off pole, the McLaren driver having forecast a more difficult weekend for his car ahead of the session.
“I’m happy; It’s been a good day,” he said. “It was probably not expected, so a good bonus for the whole team.
“I think we had it today. There was enough in it to get pole. A bit of a shame that one opportunity maybe missed again, but I’m happy nonetheless.”
Lewis Hamilton was just 0.009s behind Norris for Mercedes in his upgraded W14, making it three different manufacturers inside the top three.
“I have to say a big thank you to everyone back at the factory,” he said. “They’ve been pushing so hard to improve our car.
“We have taken a bit of a step closer to these guys this weekend.
“Unfortunately they’re just a little bit ahead but we’ll give it another shot tomorrow [in the sprint].”
Carlos Sainz and George Russell were 0.2s and 0.3s off pole in fourth and fifth but ahead of the error-prone Verstappen in sixth.
Alpine teammates Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon were split by 0.065s in seventh and eighth ahead of Sergio Perez, who was 0.45s off pole, and Oscar Piastri, for whom a mistake in the middle sector confined him to 10th.
Yuki Tsunoda led the way for AlphaTauri in his upgraded AT04, missing out on the pole shootout by just 0.018s.
Alfa Romeo teammates Zhou Guanyu were 12th and 13th.
Haas teammates Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg validated the massive overhaul of the Haas car this weekend with 14th and 16th respectively, though the German lost a better lap after exceeding track limits.
Daniel Ricciardo was sandwiched between them in 15th, the Australian 0.277s behind teammate Tsunoda on his first race back from injury.
Fernando Alonso was the shock Q1 elimination. Despite never having qualified lower than 10th for a grand prix this season, the Spaniard said he extracted the maximum from his upgraded Aston Martin on his way to 17th on the grid and 1.177s off the pace of the session.
Alex Albon qualified 18th ahead of Lance Stroll in the second Aston, the Canadian severely hamstrung by reliability issues during first practice that restricted him to five slow laps.
American rookie Logan Sargeant will prop up the grid from 20th.
