Lando Norris took pole for the 2024 US Grand Prix as Max Verstappen had to settle for second as George Russell crashed in the dying moment of Q3 denying the Dutchman a crack at pole.
After the Sprint race and with teams applying some changes to their cars (parc ferme can be broken between the Sprint and qualifying), qualifying started in clear conditions with track temperatures at 39 degrees Celsius and air temperature at 29 degrees.
Now the teams can use any tyres they wanted, not like Sprint qualifying where Medium were mandatory in the first two stages (SQ1 and SQ2), so all the drivers were out on the Soft compound from the beginning.
The drivers from the midfield and lower midfield put in their flying laps first, the Norris went fastest with Sainz following in second.
Piastri then went third fastest while Leclerc had his first lap deleted for exceeding the track limits.
Verstappen then started his flying lap and went fastest while Perez behind him posted the third fastest time.
Russell and Hamilton soon start their first flying laps and went tenth and 14th respectively after opting for used Softs
Then Gasly took the top spot while Hulkenberg slotted in third while Tsunoda had his lap time deleted and dropped down the order.
Then the second run of laps started and Leclerc went to the top while Hamilton had his lap time deleted for abusing track limits. Sainz was up to third.
Norris’ second lap was good for fourth as Verstappen set out on his second flying lap as well as Russell and Hamilton.
In the end, Verstappen topped Q1 with a 1:33.046, 0.195s ahead of Leclerc in second while Lawson was third in the VCARB, 0.293s off the pace. Norris was tenth.
The first to drop out of qualifying was Alex Albon in the Williams and missed out by 0.018s with teammate Franco Colapinto 17th fastest, 0.011s behind.
Valtteri Bottas was 18th fastest in the Sauber, 0.090s behind Colapinto.
Then came the shock, Hamilton was out of qualifying, 19th fastest after losing his lap time for track limits after exceeding track limits at Turn 12.
Zhou Guanyu was 20th.
Q2: Gasly puts Alpine in Q3
The 15 remaining cars set out for Q2 and Verstappen was the first driver to set a timed lap on used tyres and went fastest and then Perez went second fastest four tenths behind his teammate and on new Softs.
Gasly then posted the second fastest lap while Sainz was third with Leclerc going fifth fastest on old tyres. Stroll soon drops Leclerc to sixth and took fifth fastest on for Ocon to take the position.
Alonso went sixth fastest the Tsunoda jumped to fifth only for Hulkenberg to take that position with Magnussen in sixth.
Norris went out on new Soft tyres and went fastest, two tenths faster than Verstappen while Piastri went third fastest and Russell fourth.
Order after the first run: Norris – Verstappen – Piastri – Russell – Gasly – Sainz – Perez – Hulkenberg – Magnussen – Tsunoda – Ocon – Alonso – Stroll – Leclerc – Lawson
Lawson did not set a time as he will drop ten positions for a power-unit related grid penalty. He would take part in the second round to give Tsunoda a slip stream.
With less than four minutes, the second run of laps began and when those were over, it was Verstappen who went fastest with a 1:32584, over two tenths faster than Sainz.
Norris who opted for one run on new Soft tyres and did not run again was third fastest ahead of Leclerc in fourth and Perez in fifth.
The first driver to drop out was Tsunoda who lost out by three hundredth of a second despite VCARB’s attempt to give him a tow. He was 11th fastest.
Hulkenberg was 12th fastest, while Magnussen made it to Q3, the German 0.038s behind Tsunoda and 0.053s ahead of Ocon in 13th.
Stroll was 14th fastest with Lawson in 15th. The Kiwi will start the race from last on the grid.
Q3: Russell’s anti climax
And then there were only ten. Q3 was underway to set the top ten places for the starting grid of the 12th US Grand Prix to be held at Austin.
Russell went first going fastest the Magnussen second fastest. Norris took over the top spot with Piastri second behind him only for Sainz to take second fastest and Leclerc behind him in third.
Then Verstappen went second fastest behind Norris who was on provisional pole by 0.031s.
Round one and the order was: Norris – Verstappen – Sainz – Leclerc – Piastri – Russell – Gasly – Magnussen – Perez – Alonso.
Perez had his first lap time deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 9, while Alonso did not take part in the first round of laps. The Spaniard went for his solitary lap just before the second round with all other drivers in the pits.
With less than three minutes remaining from Q3, the second round of laps started and just as Verstappen and Norris were doing their final runs, Russell crashed at Turn 19 and brought out the Yellow flag.
That meant, Verstappen who was improving could not complete his lap and had to settle for second place while Norris took pole.
