Verstappen locks down Austin as title fight tilts again: Norris alongside, Piastri on the back foot
Max Verstappen is doing this the hard way, but make no mistake: he’s doing it. The Red Bull driver completed a Sprint–Grand Prix pole double at the United States Grand Prix, planting the RB on P1 at Circuit of The Americas and tightening the vise on a championship fight that keeps twisting by the weekend.
Lando Norris joins him on the front row after a clean, quick Q3 that left McLaren smiling on one side of the garage and grimacing on the other. Drivers’ Championship leader Oscar Piastri missed the top five, a bruising P6 that leaves him staring at damage limitation on Sunday in a race that’s rarely kind to anyone starting in the thick of it.
Ferrari, meanwhile, looked tidier than they’ve been in weeks. Charles Leclerc hustled it to third, and George Russell will park a Mercedes on his outside in fourth — timely punctuation for the Brit, who arrived in Austin with a fresh contract and a sharper edge. Lewis Hamilton launches the sister Ferrari from fifth, a solid platform for the seven-time champ to pick a fight with the papaya and the silver car up the road.
Then comes the interesting bit. Kimi Antonelli’s cool-headed rise continues with P7, the teenager neatly backing up Russell’s effort and giving Mercedes two live bullets for race day. Oliver Bearman stuck it in eighth — another statement from the rookie that he doesn’t need a calendar to figure out he belongs. Carlos Sainz in ninth and Fernando Alonso in tenth round out a top 10 loaded with storylines and elbows.
Beyond that, the chase for points looks busy. Sauber’s Nico Hülkenberg will lead the queue from 11th, with Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson — quietly effective all weekend — alongside in 12th. Yuki Tsunoda starts 13th in the second Red Bull, a long way from Verstappen but close enough to make this a strategic headache for a handful of midfield teams on Sunday.
Pierre Gasly lines up 14th for Alpine, his teammate Franco Colapinto 15th in a tidy effort from the rookie. Gabriel Bortoleto is 16th for Sauber, ahead of Esteban Ocon in the Haas. Alex Albon finds himself 18th for Williams, with Lance Stroll 19th after a five-place grid penalty for the Sprint incident that wiped out Ocon. Isack Hadjar, whose qualifying ended almost as soon as it began with an early crash, starts 20th.
The grid, at a glance:
– 1. Max Verstappen
– 2. Lando Norris
– 3. Charles Leclerc
– 4. George Russell
– 5. Lewis Hamilton
– 6. Oscar Piastri
– 7. Kimi Antonelli
– 8. Oliver Bearman
– 9. Carlos Sainz
– 10. Fernando Alonso
– 11. Nico Hülkenberg
– 12. Liam Lawson
– 13. Yuki Tsunoda
– 14. Pierre Gasly
– 15. Franco Colapinto
– 16. Gabriel Bortoleto
– 17. Esteban Ocon
– 18. Alex Albon
– 19. Lance Stroll (five-place penalty)
– 20. Isack Hadjar
What does it all mean? Verstappen’s “recovery mission” — his own phrase as the points deficit began to stretch earlier in the year — has real momentum. He’s turned up the wick over one lap, and in Austin that matters. COTA’s first sector rewards commitment, but its long lap and toothy bumps punish sloppiness; a clean pole lap here is usually a sign the car will be easy on its tyres when it counts. If the Red Bull keeps its rear tyres alive through the Esses and into the long Turn 11 traction zone, Norris is going to need a mighty first stint to keep the pressure on.
McLaren’s pace is not in question. The question is which McLaren shows up at lights out. Piastri’s P6 puts him in spitting distance of Hamilton’s Ferrari and Russell’s Mercedes but leaves him vulnerable to the divebombers behind. He doesn’t need to win this one — he needs to make sure Verstappen’s points haul doesn’t come with a knockout blow. Expect McLaren to think aggressively on offset strategy if clear air opens up.
Ferrari’s picture is brighter than the last few rounds. Leclerc looks confident, Hamilton looks poised, and the car seems planted in the high-speed changes of direction that typically highlight their weaknesses. If they nail their tyre offsets, there’s a realistic shot at splitting Verstappen and Norris on merit.
Further back, Antonelli’s seventh gives Mercedes a strategic lever to pull if Russell gets trapped in a DRS train. Bearman in eighth and Sainz in ninth set up a feisty midfield brawl that could swing on undercuts; COTA’s pit delta isn’t cheap, but the tyre drop-off often makes the call for you.
Keep an eye on Tsunoda and Lawson. They start just outside the points, and both have the race craft to steal something if the leaders compress or if late Safety Cars turn this into a sprint-within-a-Grand-Prix. Stroll, starting 19th after that Sprint penalty for tangling with Ocon, has a quick car in clean air — the problem is there won’t be much of it.
As ever in Austin, wind direction and track evolution will be the great variables. The story tends to change once the sun dips and the surface rubbers in. But for now, the headline is simple: Verstappen has his foot back on the neck of this title fight. Norris is the nearest threat. And Piastri’s cool head is about to be tested by 56 laps of Texas heat and a field that smells opportunity.
