At the start of a weekend in which Red Bull’s car has proved the centre of attention off the track, Verstappen coped the best with having only one hour of practice running to prepare for the Sprint event’s first competitive session and pipped Mercedes’ George Russell to qualifying’s fastest time by 0.012s.
Saturday’s short 19-lap race – which starts at 7pm live on Sky Sports F1 and offers eight points to the victor – will mark the first time that F1’s championship leader has started from a pole position since the Austrian GP on June 30, the season’s last Sprint weekend.
The final driver to complete his SQ3 effort, Verstappen uncorked a well-judged 1:32.833 lap of the Circuit of the Americas to edge out Russell, who had been the first car on to the track in the session a few minutes earlier.
But Norris, who trails Verstappen by 52 points in the world championship and knows he needs to up his recent rate of gains if he is to overhaul the Dutchman before the end of the season, was a disappointing fourth and will share the second row with third-quickest Charles Leclerc of Ferrari.
In a further unexpected disappointment for Constructors’ Championship leaders McLaren, Oscar Piastri qualified only 16th after losing his final fastest time in SQ1 due to a track limits infringement at Turn 19.
Rivals Red Bull then lost Sergio Perez in SQ2, the under-pressure Mexican again not doing enough to make the top 10 and qualifying 11th.
