Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent in Austin

Image source, Getty Images

McLaren’s Lando Norris beat title rival Max Verstappen’s Red Bull to pole position at the United States Grand Prix.

Norris was helped by a crash by Mercedes driver George Russell late in the session, which prevented any driver improving on their second laps.

Norris had been 0.031 seconds quicker than Verstappen on their first laps, but the Dutchman had started his final lap much better than the Briton, only for both to have to abort.

Although luck played its part, the result was just what Norris needed after Verstappen won the sprint race earlier in the day.

With Norris finishing third behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, Verstappen extended his championship lead by two points to 54.

Read the full report here.

Image source, Getty Images

Well I hope you enjoyed that because I certainly did. It looks like tomorrow will be a nail-biting start to the US Grand Prix with title rivals Lando Norris and Max Verstappen locking out the front row.

The Ferrari drivers of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc are starting third and fourth respectively, with Oscar Piastri in the McLaren rounding out the top five.

The live page will be up and running at 19:00 BST on Sunday to build-up to the US Grand Prix.

Lights out at Austin's Circuit of the Americas is at 20:00 BST.

See you tomorrow!

George Russell speaking to Sky Sports on his crash into the barrier on the penultimate lap in Q3: "I'm not too sure [what happened]. It was a great lap until turn 12, I was about four and a half tenths up, then lost it a bit at turn 12, similar to Lewis [Hamilton] yesterday and then lost loads of lap time, I [was] still probably a tenth or so quicker than my previous lap and then I went into the penultimate corner, turned in and then the thing just went on me and caught me by surprise."

"Maybe I was over pushing but just yeah, pretty disappointed by the damage caused to the car and all the work that will have to go on tonight and also a little bit confused yesterday Lewis [Hamilton] and I were both in the fight for pole and today, we were nowhere."

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella talking to Sky Sports: "Well the first lap was pretty much perfect. It would have been difficult for Lando [Norris] to improve with the second set of tyres, I saw Verstappen was on a fast lap, it could have been a problem for us in terms of pole position, so I think the yellow flag might have helped us."

"It would have been very close between Lando [Norris] and [Max] Verstappen but overall it's encouraging that we've been able to improve the car from the sprint performance, we made some tuning to the setup, I think we've [understood] some aspects also from a driving point of view, and Lando [Norris] and Oscar [Piastri] have been able to put it all together in this qualifying session.

"P1 and P5 is important for tomorrow and hopefully we will be able to re-use the tyre degradation in the sprint session."

Lando Norris after securing pole: "It was a beautiful lap. I was not going to go much quicker than what I did. When you just do a lap and you think 'damn, it's going to be tough to beat that' but I put everything out on the line and it's what we needed to do, we've been on the back foot pretty much the whole weekend. We've not had the pace of the Ferraris or the Red Bulls so I had to do something and today I did that so yeah, a cool lap and a nice way to start the race tomorrow."

On whether it's a challenge to regroup after the sprint race: "Around here it is because it's a lot faster and I mean this is one of the tracks where inside you're like 'damn, this is fast' and it's exciting and it just gives you a good feeling, it's bumpy and it's fast, especially sector one so it puts a smile on your face, and definitely ending quickest puts the biggest smile on your face too."

On the weekend so far: "A tough day, a tough weekend for us, but we changed quite a bit, I think we reviewed everything we could and we made the improvements we needed to make, so maybe we weren't the quickest car out there today, Carlos [Sainz] said he was going to go quicker, Max [Verstappen] said he was going to go quicker so I'm lucky but I'll take it."

Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who will start alongside title rival Lando Norris on the front row in P2: "On the first lap in Q3, I lost quite a bit of time. That's unfortunate, but I knew we had another run, but unfortunately, I couldn't finish the lap - otherwise, I think we had a really good shot.

"But that's how it goes. We're still on the front row. At least the potential was there for us to be on the front row. That's very good."

On what the team learnt from the sprint race that can be applied tomorrow: "It seemed that we were competitive, so we made some minor changes on the car, which felt nice. I hope that also will be a positive for tomorrow."

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, who starts third on tomorrow's grid: "Yesterday we were P5, today we are P3, so we've done a good step in the right direction. I was three-tenths up on my lap going into Turn 16 with only two corners left, but easy to say now.

"I think we've made some good progress and we should be in the fight tomorrow if we get a clean start. With the two guys in front, it should be a fun one."

On managing the tyres: "It's something we've struggled with as a team, getting the tyres in the right window for qualifying. We always seem to be quick in the race but in qualifying, we always have some ups and downs. It seems like we got it right - especially that last lap before the yellow flag. It seems we got them in the right spot because we suddenly found a lot of lap time going into the first two sectors.

Image source, Getty Images

A corker of a lap from Lando Norris in the end taking his first pole at the US Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen leads the drivers' championship by 54 points, but Norris will be starting on the front foot.

Will Norris get his fourth victory of the season, or will Verstappen be back to winning ways?

Let's see what the top three have got to say...

11. Yuki Tsunoda (RB)

12. Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)

13. Esteban Ocon (Alpine)

14. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)

15. Liam Lawson (RB)

16. Alex Albon (Williams)

17. Franco Colapinto (Williams)

18. Valtteri Bottas (Sauber)

19. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

20. Zhou Guanyu

1. Lando Norris (McLaren) - 1:32.330

2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

3. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)

4. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)

5. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)

6. George Russell (Mercedes)

7. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)

8. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)

9. Kevin Magnussen (Haas)

10. Sergio Perez (Red Bull)

Max Verstappen was raring to go for his final lap but the crash from George Russell stopped Verstappen from being able to improve.

That all happened in the last minute of Q3.

Yellow flagpublished at 00:01 British Summer Time 20 October 2024

00:01 BST 20 October 2024

George Russell is in the barriers, he confirms on the radio that he is OK!

Marc Priestley
Former F1 mechanic on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

Max Verstappen looks comfortable at the front and if he can start the race at the front, he's out of trouble in terms of not being in the pack, which over the recent rounds, where he's found himself third, fourth, fifth or sixth, he's right more in the mix.

That's a much more dangerous place to start a grand prix, the risk of having something go wrong and not finishing is so much higher so from a Max Verstappen point of view, if you can stick the car on the front row, on pole, pull away and stay out of trouble, it brings that risk of something happening that could really dent your points haul, become much lower.

Marc Priestley
Former F1 mechanic on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

A reasonably good and tidy lap from Alonso. He's not got a car that is genuinely capable of challenging most of the people around him.

But if he can put a solid lap time in, there is always a risk that others will get laps deleted as we've already seen from Perez at the start of this session.

It's getting tense and no one knows what will happen here.

Will Lando Norris be able to hold pole position, or will Max Verstappen go fastest?

The clock is ticking!

Sergio Perez has his lap time deleted after exceeding track limits and it's Fernando Alonso out on the track by himself in his Aston Martin with less than five minutes to go.

Max Verstappen is 0.031 seconds behind Lando Norris on the timesheet. That's looking like a cracking lap from Norris...

It's Lando Norris who goes fastest with a time of 1:32.330 as his team-mate Oscar Piastri goes third-fastest. Splitting the McLarens is Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari.

Lewis Hamilton will be starting from P18 tomorrow once Liam Lawson's grid penalty is applied. After his Q1 knockout in qualifying, he told Sky Sports: "We had some sort of failure from the formation lap, the front suspension, and I had that throughout the sprint race - and that made the balance really difficult.

"We did make changes in the direction we would've done yesterday, but the car was a nightmare today in qualifying. I should probably start from the pit lane, otherwise I won't be going anywhere.

"It's just a very inconsistent balance and no grip."