Verstappen draws first blood on Norris to end pole barren streak

Max Verstappen scored his first pole position since May to put F1 title rival Lando Norris in the shade at the start of the United States Grand Prix weekend.

Following a tough period for the three-time F1 champion that has seen Norris close the gap at the top of the drivers' standings to 52 points, Verstappen ended a barren pole run stretching back to the Austrian Grand Prix at Spielberg almost four months ago.

With a lap of 1:32.833s, the Red Bull driver pipped Mercedes' George Russell by 0.012s, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc third, and Norris having to settle for only fourth quickest, a quarter-of-a-second adrift.

Verstappen has a perfect record in the sprints this season having won the previous three, and he has also won the last three USGPs at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin.

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz lines up fifth ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in his Haas, with team-mate Kevin Magnussen eighth, the duo either side of Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton, who was second quickest in SQ1 on medium tyres, was less happy on the softs that are allowed for SQ3. He also bemoaned the fact he was sent out too early in the session.

RB's Yuki Tsunoda starts in ninth, and in his first sprint qualifying, Williams rookie Franco Colapinto continued his outstanding start to his F1 by reaching SQ3, although he blotted his copybook by spinning out of Turn 12, meaning he will line up 10th.

Piastri suffers shock exit, Perez out early too

With only medium tyres allowed for the first two sessions of sprint qualifying, the opening stanza was fascinating as all 20 cars battled to avoid the drop zone, and it was Piastri who suffered the most.

On his final flying lap, Piastri posted a time that would have been good enough for seventh quickest, but in exceeding track limits at Turn 19, the lap was deleted.

It means the Australian will be of no service to Norris in the sprint as he will start 16th, missing out on a place in SQ2 by 0.016s to Alpine's Pierre Gasly. It was the first time in the four sprints this year a McLaren had failed to make SQ3.

Piastri was knocked out alongside the second Alpine of Esteban Ocon, and Williams' Alex Albon, who hit the inside of the kerb at Turn 19 hard, sending him into a spin and wrecking his chances of reaching SQ2.

On the back row, and despite a raft of updates on the car for this weekend, Stake's wretched season continued as Valtteri Bottas finished a tenth of a second behind Albon, whilst team-mate Zhou Guanyu was more than three-tenths further back on the Finn.

Come SQ2, like Norris, Verstappen lost his rear gunner, too, as Sergio Perez was knocked out, with the Mexican starting 11th as he only improved on his SQ1 time by a tenth of a second.

Perez finished two-tenths of a second adrift of Tsunoda, whose new team-mate Liam Lawson will start 15th. The New Zealander initially finished 0.236s behind the Japanese on his return to competitive F1 action after replacing the ousted Daniel Ricciardo.

Lawson, however, exceeded track limits at Turn 1 and so will start behind 12th-placed Gasly and the Aston Martin duo of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso. It is the third time this season the Canadian has out-qualified the two-time champion in sprints.

For the team, however, such positions are a disaster as it came into the weekend with a plethora of updates on its cars.