Verstappen takes US sprint pole from Norris

14 hours ago 15

Red Bull's Max Verstappen adjusts his helmet after taking pole position for the United States Grand Prix sprint race

F1 Correspondent in Austin

Red Bull's Max Verstappen beat McLaren's title rivals Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to take pole for the sprint race at the United States Grand Prix.

Verstappen, with the very last lap of the session, displaced Norris at the top of the timesheets by 0.071 seconds in Austin.

Piastri, leading Norris by 22 points in the championship with six races to go, was 0.309secs behind his team-mate.

Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg was a sensational fourth, ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin.

Williams' Carlos Sainz took seventh, ahead of the first of the struggling Ferraris, driven by Lewis Hamilton.

Their team-mates Alex Albon and Charles Leclerc completed the top 10 at the Circuit of the Americas.

Verstappen's pole position underlined McLaren's belief that the Dutchman is still in title contention, despite being 63 points off the lead.

The four-time champion has won two of the past three races and finished second in the other following a revival by his Red Bull team.

"It's been a nice qualifying, throughout all the segments it was quite close," Verstappen said.

"It was just about trying to put it all together. I still expect it to be a tough battle tomorrow in the sprint but that's exactly what we want to see, right?

"The wind is very gusty and the track is very bumpy so the car can easily step out on you in the high speed."

The sprint race is at 18:00 BST on Saturday with qualifying for Sunday's main grand prix at 22:00.