2024 United States Grand Prix: Championship Rivals Start on Front Row

Lando Norris will begin the 2024 United States Grand Prix on pole place after George Russell’s crash introduced a untimely finish to the session.

Norrisis McLaren F1 Workforce’s first pole sitter in America since Lewis Hamilton at Indianapolis in 2007. Verstappen – who has bettering on his ultimate try – will line up alongside his Championship challenger whereas the 2 Ferrari’s will share the second row. 

Hamilton’s Q1 exit was undoubtedly the most important shock of the day and he’ll begin forward of solely Zhou Guanyu and Liam Lawson, who takes a grid penalty.

Q1

Q1 began with a wait to see if Valtteri Bottas would make it out after his Dash resulted in flames resulting from points along with his rear brakes however the group did a fantastic job to get his Sauber prepared for motion.

After the primary runs, Verstappen went quickest by three tenths of a second however the shock was Pierre Gasly, who was sitting prime of the instances for some time earlier than getting knocked down by Verstappen and Leclerc into third.

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Workforce duo didn’t begin nicely with Russell and Hamilton each within the backside 5. Russell’s ultimate run was a great one to raise him to fourth, however Hamilton’s lap was a poor effort leaving him sixteenth with no time to do one other run. The seven time world champion acquired his lap time deleted too, that means he’ll begin eighteenth on race day.

Yuki Tsunoda hadn’t set a lap till the ultimate runs of the session however the Japanese driver did sufficient to make it by way of, ending up in twelfth. Lawson within the different VCARB 01 raised eyebrows, ending Q1 up in third.

Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto have been knocked out alongside Bottas, Zhou and Hamilton.

Q2

Verstappen was as soon as once more the primary driver to come back out the places in Q2 on a set of used tyres and as soon as once more he was setting the tempo on the prime of the instances. Sergio Pérez couldn’t match his teammates time on new tyres, whereas Gasly was as soon as once more up there, going forward of the Mexican. 

Norris went prime on the recent smooth tyres, beating Verstappen by two tenths, with Oscar Piastri slotting into third on a set of recent tyres.

Leclerc was sitting within the backside 5 after the primary runs however lifted himself from the drop zone along with his ultimate run into fourth. Pérez additionally lifted himself out of hazard as did Tsunoda however his pleasure was short-lived as Fernando Alonso left it late to make the highest ten shootout.

Kevin Magnussen knocked out Nico Hulkenberg whereas Esteban Ocon additionally improved to eleventh momentarily.  

Gasly made it by way of in eighth, with Alonso and Magnussen additionally making the highest ten shootout. Tsunoda simply missed out, regardless of a tow from his teammate, and can begin eleventh forward of Húlkenberg, Ocon, Lance Stroll and Lawson.

Verstappen topped the session forward of Sainz – the identical order because the Dash. 

Q3

After the primary runs within the prime ten shootout, Norris was prime of the instances, placing in a superb lap with Verstappen simply +0.031s behind. Sainz and Leclerc have been fourth and fifth whereas Pérez was solely fast sufficient for eighth earlier than his lap time was deleted for monitor limits at Flip 9.

Earlier than anybody acquired to do their ultimate runs, Russell introduced out a yellow flag in sector three, handing Norris pole place when Verstappen was virtually two tenths up on the Britons time within the first sector.

Sainz and Leclerc stayed in third and fourth with the early finish to the session. Piastri ended up in fifth, with Russell solely sixth after crashing out. 

Gasly will begin seventh after a superb session all through – Alonso will line up in eighth forward of Magnussen. 

Regardless of entering into Q3, Pérez had a disappointing session, not even setting a lap time after his first was deleted for monitor limits and he’ll begin tenth for Sunday’s Grand Prix.