Max Verstappen takes pole for Austin sprint race

Max Verstappen will start from pole position at the U.S. Grand Prix's sprint race after beating George Russell to the fastest time by 0.012 seconds.

Saturday's 19-lap race sprint race will present Verstappen with the opportunity to stretch his 52-point lead over Lando Norris in the drivers' championship, with the McLaren driver qualifying in fourth place.

Eight points are on offer to the winner of the sprint, with seven for second place and incremental drops of a single point down to eighth position.

Verstappen's fastest time in sprint qualifying secured him his first pole position since the Austrian Grand Prix in July and could herald the start of a Red Bull comeback after a series of struggles at recent races.

"I'm happy with today," the Dutchman said. "I think the whole day, the car was working quite well, and of course very happy to be first. It's been a while, so yeah, very pleased with today."

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Norris, in fourth place, was only 0.250 seconds off Verstappen, but Russell's Mercedes and Charles Leclerc's Ferrari were able to slot into the gap between the title contenders and will start second and third.

"Not very good, P4. Not a great day," said Norris. "Been struggling the whole day, honestly, with the balance and the setup. In a way, happy with P4, because I feel like it could have been a lot worse, but my lap was shocking.

"So yeah, not a terrible day, could have been worse, could have been better, but I'll take it."

Carlos Sainz secured fifth place on the grid for Ferrari ahead of the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg in sixth.

Lewis Hamilton was disappointed to only set the seventh-fastest time after yellow flags midway through his fastest lap saw him finish the session over half a second off Verstappen. He believed his time in the first sector had potentially put him on course for pole position before the yellow flag forced him to slow down.

Kevin Magnussen will start eighth in the second Haas ahead of RB's Yuki Tsunoda in ninth and another impressive performance from Williams driver Franco Colapinto in tenth.

Sergio Perez's struggles continued as the Red Bull driver failed to make the cut for Q3 by 0.192 seconds.

He will start from 11th on the grid ahead of Alpine's Pierre Gasly in 12th while Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso and Liam Lawson all had their fastest laps in Q2 deleted for exceeding track limits and will start in 13th, 14th and 15th respectively.

Lawson is making his return to F1 with RB this weekend after he was announced as Daniel Ricciardo's replacement following the Singapore Grand Prix. The New Zealander will start 15th for the sprint but is due to start from the back of the grid for Sunday's race after taking new power unit components this weekend that are beyond his car's quota for the year.

Norris' teammate Oscar Piastri was knocked out in Q1 after he had his fastest lap deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 19. He had set the seventh fastest time of the session, but a snap of oversteer in the penultimate corner saw all four wheels over the edge of the circuit and the time deleted.

Esteban Ocon will start 17th behind Piastri and ahead of Alex Albon, who looked set to make the cut before a spin in the penultimate corner. The Williams driver will start 18th ahead of the two Saubers of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu in 19th and 20th respectively.