Sprint Qualifying:

SQ1:

With just one hour of free practice earlier on in the day, the grid made their way out on track for the Sprint Qualifying session, which would determine the starting grid for Saturday’s Sprint race around the Circuit of the Americas.

With the Sprint Qualifying session times being shorter than the regular Qualifying, the drivers had 12 minutes for SQ1, with reigning Champion Verstappen heading the queue of cars out of the pit lane onto the track.

The Red Bull duo of Verstappen and Perez initially claimed the top two spots on the timesheet, before a surprise flying lap from Haas’ Magnussen saw the Danish driver move into P1, with Perez dropping down the order as a result of his lap time being deleted due to exceeding track limits.

He soon recovered as his final flying lap time saw him promoted to P7, pushing the Williams pair down into the elimination zone. Franco Colapinto managed to also improve on his next flying lap, however, his teammate Albon suffered a spin on his final attempt, resulting in the Thai driver remaining in the elimination zone and now out of the remainder of the Sprint Qualifying.

Late drama came in the form of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri who ran wide at Turn 19 and consequently had his lap time deleted due to track limits, which saw the Australian driver dropped down to 16th place and out of the session.

With Charles Leclerc topping the session, Piastri and Albon were joined by Ocon in 17th and the Kick Sauber duo of Bottas and Zhou in 19th and 20th respectively, with all five drivers not progressing through to SQ2.

SQ2:

Another busy start came as SQ2 began, with 10-minutes on the board, and the Mercedes duo were amongst the first to take to the track to set their fastest laps. After setting the early pace, the Ferrari pair of Sainz and Leclerc soon made their mark, sandwiching Hamilton and settling into first and third place.

Verstappen soon joined the top-runners, placing his Red Bull up into P2, with only 0.016s separating him from Sainz’s time of 1:33.274s in the top spot.

Perez once again found himself at risk of elimination as SQ2 entered its final minutes, with the Mexican driver ultimately running out of time to improve his time, having left it too late to place a competitive time on the board.

Tsunoda soon moved up to 10th place, pushing the Red Bull of Perez down into the elimination zone in 11th place.

Gasly had to settle for 12th place, alongside the Aston Martin pair of Stroll and Alonso with a disappointing session seeing them bow out of the Sprint Qualifying in P13 and P14 respectively. Lawson, would be set to line up in 15th place after having his lap time deleted for track limits, in what had been an impressive debut performance so far.

SQ3:

With the Soft Tyre being the mandatory compound to be used in SQ3, Hamilton was once again one of the first to head out onto the circuit, although he soon questioned the team’s decision to go out so early as many of the other drivers initially chose to remain in the pits.

Turn 12 saw Colapinto spin on track, briefly bringing out the yellow flags, which caused some problems for Hamilton behind as he clocked a time almost half a second slower than teammate Russell.

The rest of the grid returned to the track to put in their final efforts in an attempt to displace Russell from his provisional pole position after a 1:32.845s attempt.

Verstappen was the only driver able to better Russell’s time, going quicker by a mere 0.012s to place his Red Bull on pole for the Sprint race on Saturday.

Leclerc had to settle for third place, with Norris joining the Monegasque driver on the second row. The second Ferrari of Sainz claimed fifth ahead of Hulkenberg, Hamilton and Magnussen. The top-10 was completed by Tsunoda in ninth and Colapinto in 10th place.

Sprint Race:

Max Verstappen ended his winning drought on Saturday in the Sprint race at the United States Grand Prix, taking a lights to flag victory to extend his Championship lead over Lando Norris.

There was only one change to the starting order for Saturday’s Sprint, with Williams’ Alex Albon being set to start from the pit lane after specification changes were made to the car.

With lights out, pole-sitter Verstappen had a good launch off the line to keep a hold of his lead going into Turn 1. Championship rival Norris also made a stellar start, with the McLaren driver fighting side-by-side with the two Ferrari’s before moving into P2 past Mercedes’ Russell – after starting fourth on the grid.

Lap 2 saw the beginnings of an intense battle between the two Ferrari drivers, as Carlos Sainz looked to set up a move to take fourth place. Going into Turn 1, it looked like the move was completed for the Spaniard, however, Leclerc was then able to get himself back in front. This intra-team battle was benefiting those ahead as Verstappen was now just under a second ahead of Norris, with Russel in P3 and now with some clean air to try to catch-up.

Kevin Magnussen was noted by the stewards for leaving the track and gaining an advantage on Lap 1 – a foreshadow for the Grand Prix race on Sunday – whilst running in P7 at Haas’ home Grand Prix. Meanwhile, Sergio Perez experienced a mishap of his own after locking up whilst pushing his Red Bull in P10.

Lap 6 saw Sainz finally making a move stick on his teammate Leclerc, with a move down the inside of his teammate going into Turn 15, whilst Russell also seemed to have pace as he closed the gap and was now in his own respective battle with Norris for P2.

Sainz was the man on a mission in the Sprint Race, making a move on Russell to take third place behind Verstappen and Norris ahead. This left the Mercedes driver defending strongly against the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, however, this was short-lived as by Lap 10, the Monegasque driver had managed to make an overtake stick, demoting Russell down to fifth place.

Further down the order, Perez was himself in a defensive position against Yuki Tsunoda whilst battling for P10, soon being joined by Oscar Piastri. The McLaren driver would soon be hit by a five-second time penalty for an earlier incident in the race where he was deemed by the Stewards to have forced Pierre Gasly off the track.

The three-way battle soon ended in favour of the Australian driver, who took P10 going into Turn 1, with things also heating up at the front end of the race as Sainz had closed to within one second of Norris before being joined by Leclerc to make it another three-way battle.

With the Sprint Race nearing its conclusion, Norris made a costly mistake and locked-up – possibly due to struggling with his tyres – allowing Sainz to capitalise and take second place. The McLaren was soon under pressure from Leclerc, whilst Verstappen crossed the line to take victory around the Circuit of the Americas by more than three seconds from Sainz.

Norris narrowly managed to hold onto third place ahead of Leclerc, with the Mercedes duo of Russell and Hamilton taking fifth and sixth place ahead of the Haas pair of Magnussen and Hulkenberg – who produced an impressive performance for the team at their home race. Perez claimed ninth place ahead of Piastri, with Tsunoda crossing the line in 11th ahead of Williams’ Franco Colapinto. The Argentinian driver continuing to impress since his mid-season debut.

Lance Stroll took P13 for Aston Martin, closely followed by the Alpine duo of Gasly and Ocon. Lawson, Albon and Alonso were next to cross the line, with the Kick Sauber pair of Zhou Guanyu and Valterri Bottas once again rounding out the grid in P19 and P20 – Bottas had his own moment at the conclusion of the race after having to pull over at Turn 13 due to his brakes seemingly catching fire.

Qualifying:

Fans wouldn’t have to wait long for the next instalment of cars on track, as Qualifying to determine the grid for Sunday’s United States Grand Prix was soon underway.

Q1:

With the green light to start the session imminent, a queue of cars had already formed in the pitlane, with the Williams of Alex Albon the first to take the track as Q1 began. Those out and attempting their first flying lap were joined by Kick Sauber’s Valterri Bottas – whose car seemed to have been repaired after his late brake fire at the end of the Sprint Race.

Verstappen continued his fast pace into Qualifying, setting the early time to beat with a 1:33.690s. The track conditions seemed to be improving much quicker than anticipated as Alpine’s Pierre Gasly soon took the top spot away from Verstappen by 0.140s. RB debutante Liam Lawson also managed to move into the top five after a stellar first attempt.

Track limits seemed to be the main problem this weekend for a large percentage of the drivers, with lap times being deleted for the likes of Leclerc and Tsunoda. After having his lap time deleted, Tsunoda found himself at risk of being eliminated from qualifying with only a few minutes remaining, whilst being joined by Bottas, Russell, Hamilton and Zhou in the bottom five.

The Mercedes pair soon retook to the track for their final attempt at a flying lap to get themselves out of the elimination zone, and while Russell set a time good enough to move safely into third place, Hamilton remained in P16 after a moment in the middle sector caused him to lose out on time. With time running out, Hamilton found himself unable to set another competitive time, and therefore the seven-time World Champion was knocked out of qualifying.

Verstappen put himself up into the P1 spot once again with a 1:33.046s, whilst Hamilton found himself pushed even further down the order, ending the session in P19.

Williams had a disappointing day, with both Albon and Colapinto being eliminated in 16th and 17th respectively, whilst Bottas ended the session in 18th ahead of teammate Zhou in 20th.

Q2:

With Q2 soon underway, Verstappen was keen to continue his time-topping ways as he was the first driver to head out onto the track. After initially placing himself at the top of the timing sheet with a used set of tyres, he was quickly displaced by Norris who set a time of 1:32.851 – almost two-tenths clear of Verstappen.

With only a few minutes remaining of the session, Ocon, Alonso, Stroll, Leclerc and Lawson were all sitting in the elimination zone. Lawson looked unlikely to be able to set another flying lap – although he would be set to start his debut Grand Prix from the back of the grid regardless of his Qualifying position due to a multitude of engine penalties.

Verstappen moved into the P1 spot by the time th chequered flag was waved, now sitting clear of Norris’ time by 0.267s, whilst Leclerc also managed to move himself out of danger by posting the third fastest time. Tsunoda initially moved up into ninth place with his final flying lap, however the RB driver was soon demoted thanks to Aston Martin’s Alonso.

A last dash effort from Magnussen ensured one of the Haas drivers would make their way into Q3 after snatching P10, whilst teammate Hulkenberg saw himself dropped out of Qualifying in P12 behind Tsunoda, after a lock-up of his final flying lap. They were joined by Ocon, Stroll and Lawson who all finished in 13th, 14th and 15th place respectively.

Q3:

With the top-10 shootout underway, Norris topped the times with his initial effort of 1:32.330s, whilst Verstappen looked set to top that, his final sector was not as good, meaning he crossed the line 0.031s off of Norris’ provisional pole time.

Sainz placed himself third, ahead of teammate Leclerc and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. Elsewhere, Perez saw his lap time deleted due to exceeding track limits, moving him down to 10th.

With the majority of the grid returning to the pits before their final runs, Alonso opted to have the track to himself and placed himself up into eighth on the board. Race Control then noted an incident in the pit lane, after Alpine released Gasly into the path of Verstappen.

Further drama came as most of the grid were setting their final laps. Norris had failed to make any improvement on his previous effort, whilst Verstappen looked set to be on a solid run. 

However, Mercedes’ George Russell lost the rear of his W15 as he passed through Turn 19, spinning off into the barriers and bringing out the double yellow flags, meaning that nobody that was on a lap would have been able to improve. This included reigning World Champion Verstappen, meaning that the Dutchman had to settle for P2, whilst Norris was safe in pole position.

Sainz placed his Ferrari in third, ahead of teammate Leclerc in fourth and Piastri in fifth. Despite his crash into the wall, Russell’s earlier effort was enough to keep him in sixth. Gasly, Alonso and Magnussen followed in seventh, eighth and ninth, with Perez down in 10th following the deletion of his only timed lap.

Grand Prix Race:

Charles Leclerc claimed victory at the United States Grand Prix, leading Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz to a one-two finish after a stellar move down the inside on the opening lap.

There were a few alterations to the starting order after qualifying; Mercedes confirmed that George Russell would be set to start from the pitlane after changes were made to his W15 under Parc Ferme conditions as a result of his Q3 crash, whilst Liam Lawson lined up at the back after taking multiple new power unit components and Zhou was handed a five-place grid penalty.

With lights out, Norris looked initially to have had the best start between himself and Verstappen, however, as the pair went side-by-side into Turn 1, Norris was seen to have been pushed wide. Charles Leclerc capitalised on the fighting to slip through into the lead with Verstappen trailing behind, whilst the second Ferrari of Sainz moved into third place ahead of Norris.

Sainz continued to push, looking to find a way past Verstappen into Turn 12. The Dutchman ran wide momentarily, however rejoined the track still ahead of the Ferrari. Further down the order, Hamilton had moved his way up to P12, whilst Ocon had dropped down to the back of the grid following an incident on the first-lap with Albon.

Hamilton’s strong pace soon came to an end, as the seven-time World Champion spun off the track before beaching his car in the gravel trap on Lap 3 – this incident triggered the yellow flags to be thrown before the Safety Car was then called upon. This Safety Car period would mark the first time a race had been neutralised since the Canadian Grand Prix.

Lap 5 saw racing resumed, with Verstappen sitting right on Leclerc’s rear wing, whilst Lawson made a move on Stroll to take P12. A four-way battle began at the rear of the grid between Russell, Ocon, Albon and Stroll – the latter struggling with the restart of the race and dropping down the order.

Sainz voiced concerns over the radio that he was experiencing no power in the corners on Lap 9, whilst also alerting that there was a strong smell of fuel in the car. Whilst he initially began to lose time to Norris behind, the Ferrari team seemed to find a fix for the issue, and Sainz began to look competitive once again, remaining in third place and now 1.5s behind Verstappen.

Charles Leclerc faced no battles at the front, looking lonely in the Lone Star State, as he bridged a five second gap back to Verstappen, who himself was sitting in a solid second. However, the reigning Champion was informed over the radio on Lap 14 that Red Bull had detected a small issue with the RB20. 

George Russell had made further progress through the field after overtaking Franco Colapinto for 13th place – although moments later the Briton received a controversial five-second penalty for forcing Bottas off the track during an earlier battle.

The first rounds of pit stops soon came into play, as Tsunoda peeled into the pits after a brief battle with Hulkenberg. Magnussen soon pitted, which prompted Gasly to follow suit, however the Danish driver managed to make the undercut work, rejoining the track in front of the Alpine.

The leaders were still yet to pit, with the gap between race-leader Leclerc and Verstappen sitting around eight seconds, whilst Sainz held onto third ahead of the McLaren pairing of Norris and Piastri in fourth and fifth. However, on Lap 22, Sainz took to the pits to make his stop for a set of hard tyres, seeming to attempt an undercut on Verstappen.

Further down the order, an exciting battle was beginning to play out between Stroll, Albon and Gasly over 13th, 14th and 15th place. The Alpine driver soon found himself in further trouble as he was placed under investigation for overtaking Albon outside of the track limits. The Stewards deemed this was the case and handed him a five-second time penalty due to leaving the track and gaining an advantage, with Tsunoda also being handed the same penalty for a similar move on Albon.

Lap 31 saw Leclerc make a move on the yet-to-pit McLaren of Oscar Piastri, with the second Papaya car of Norris making his pit stop and returning to the track in P5, now 6.3s behind Verstappen. Piastri followed suit a lap later, albeit with a slightly slower stop than that of his team-mate, before rejoining the track in fifth place.

The yellow flags were briefly flown for a second time as Tsunoda suffered a spin at Turn 1, dropping the RB down to 14th. However, the main battle was between Norris and Verstappen, as the McLaren driver had closed the gap down to just over a second by the time they reached Lap 43.

A couple of lock-ups for Verstappen presented opportunities for an over-take to the British driver, however the Red Bull driver ultimately managed each time to defend against his Championship rival. The battle continued into the final few laps of the race, with the gap now down to a mere 0.3s.

On Lap 52, whilst going into Turn 12, Norris went off the track and returned back onto the track in front after what he and the McLaren team deemed to be Verstappen forcing him wide. The move was quickly noted by the stewards,and by the final lap of the race, it was confirmed that Norris had received a five-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

At the front of the race, Leclerc remained unbothered by what was occurring behind and crossed the line to take his eighth victory in Formula 1, with Sainz following in second to take Ferrari’s first one-two finish in the United States since Indianapolis 2006, and their third one-two finish in the last decade.

Lando Norris claimed third place at the line, however had only managed to make a five-second gap to Verstappen, meaning his time penalty would drop him down to fourth place and promote the Red Bull up onto the final spot on the podium.

Piastri finished in fifth place, ahead of Russell in sixth – an amazing drive after starting the race in the pitlane – with Perez and Hulkenberg following suit in seventh and eighth place respectively.

Lawson claimed a P9 finish, with Williams’ Colapinto claiming the final point in P10, missing out on an additional fastest lap point after Alpine’s Esteban Ocon snatched the point away at the chequered flag after pitting late on in the race.

Magnussed crossed the line in 11th, ahead of Gasly and Alonso in 12th and 13th place respectively. Tsunoda finished in P14, followed by Stroll – with Aston Martin failing to have scored any points in Austin.

Behind him, Albon took the chequered flag in P16, whilst Bottas, Ocon and Zhou were the final drivers to be classified in P17, P18 and P19 respectively. Hamilton remained the only driver to retire in Austin after failing to get out of the gravel after beaching his Mercedes in the opening laps of the race.