‘Beautiful lap’ propels Lando Norris to pole for United States GP

Lando Norris hailed the best lap of his life after he saw off rival Max Verstappen to take pole position for the United States Grand Prix and keep his championship dream alive.

Verstappen claimed his first win in nearly four months when he led every lap of the sprint race at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas earlier on Saturday to extend his title advantage from 52 to 54 points.

Norris finished third – after he was passed by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz on the final lap – but he bounced back in qualifying to take the top spot, beating Verstappen by just 0.031 seconds.

Norris set the early pace in the shootout for pole, and then lucked-in when George Russell crashed out in his Mercedes at the penultimate corner.

At the time, Verstappen looked set to beat Norris’ lap, but all the drivers were forced to back off with Russell in the barriers following his high-speed shunt.

That allowed Norris to take what could prove a pivotal pole – his fourth from his last five outings – with Verstappen joining him on the front row for Sunday’s race.

Sainz lines up third, one spot ahead of Charles Leclerc with Norris’ McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri fifth.

“It was a beautiful lap,” said Norris. “I can quite comfortably say it was the best of my career.

“I told the team I had set the bar too high because I knew I would not be able to improve with my second lap.

“I got everything out of the car. I knew I had to risk more and give it that little bit extra. It was not a lap I could have repeated.

“But it’s what we needed to do. Quite simple. We have been on the backfoot pretty much the whole weekend, we haven’t had the pace of the Ferraris or Red Bulls, but this is box number one ticked. It will be a tough race but we are in a good position.”

The same cannot be said for Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes man has won a record five times in Austin, and he was expected to be among the contenders for pole.

But Hamilton endured a horror show that left him in 19th. It marked the first time since he crashed out of qualifying in Brazil in 2017 that Hamilton has qualified so far back.

“What has happened to this car, man,” said the seven-time world champion over the radio after he finished six tenths behind Russell in the other Mercedes.

Russell, who progressed to Q3 and, despite his late crash, finished sixth, has now out-qualified Hamilton at 14 of the 19 events so far.

Hamilton will be bumped up one place to 18th with Liam Lawson sent to the back for taking on a number of new engine parts in his RB.

Hamilton blamed his shock result on a suspension failure he sustained in the earlier sprint race.

“In the sprint we had some sort of failure from the formation lap on the front suspension,” said Hamilton, who started seventh and improved by one position in the shortened race. “I had that throughout the sprint, and that made the balance really difficult.

“The car was a nightmare in qualifying. I should probably start in the pit lane, otherwise I won’t be going anywhere from where I am.”