AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, a three-time Formula One world champion, secured pole position for the Saturday sprint race at the U.S. Grand Prix, with Charles Leclerc from Ferrari joining him on the front row.
During the qualifying shootout, the top three drivers were separated by a mere 0.069 seconds, with Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes coming in third.
Verstappen was the fastest in the final session and recorded a time of 1:34.538, with each driver having one run on soft tires.
Initially, McLaren’s Lando Norris claimed second place, but Leclerc managed to surpass him, placing him third after having his best lap removed during Friday’s qualifying session. Leclerc’s time was only 0.055 seconds slower than Verstappen’s.
Hamilton then finished his run, pushing Norris further back to fourth place.
Oscar Piastri, a rookie from McLaren, secured the fifth-fastest time. Just two weeks ago, he won the sprint race in Qatar from pole position. Carlos Sainz from Ferrari came in sixth, followed by Sergio Perez from Red Bull in seventh place.
“It’s going to be an exciting afternoon,” commented Verstappen, who recently clinched his third title in Qatar. “You can see a lot of different cars being very close to each other, so you don’t know what’s going to happen in the Sprint Race.”
The sprint race awards points only to the top eight finishers. This marks Verstappen’s third pole position in five such races this season.
(Writing by Alan Baldwin in London; Editing by David Holmes)
