There's a long queue in the pit-lane as the drivers are eager to get out and bank a lap.

Jennie Gow
F1 pit-lane reporter in Austin

Austin is one of those places where you can never quite know what's about to happen.

It's cloudier now than it was before, it was bright sunshine, it was wall to wall sunshine earlier. Now it's a little bit cooler.

It's 5 o'clock in the afternoon, there is a real buzz of anticipation.

Right, well let's get to it shall we?

Q1 goes green at the Circuit of the Americas!

Ian Fergusson
BBC weather forecaster

Air temp 28.6C & the track 40.4C. Wind from the east, with gusts to 22mph in the past hour.

Dry weather continues through the rest of the weekend; FIA official risk of rain for qualifying is 0%.

BBC Sounds

Jennie Gow, Harry Benjamin and former McLaren engineer Marc Priestley are in the commentary box today. Full commentary of qualifying is available on Radio 5 Sports Extra, BBC Sounds and at the top of this page using the audio icon. You can also ask BBC Sounds to play United States Grand Prix qualifying via most smart speakers.

Image source, BBC 5 Live Sport

Image source, Getty Images

Lando Norris has put his McLaren on pole five times this season, his last being at the most recent race weekend in Singapore four weeks ago.

He is currently 54 points behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the drivers’ championship and will need to perform close to perfectly to keep his title hopes alive.

Norris has not taken pole in Austin before, but can he handle the pressure and put his McLaren on pole today?

Thumbs up for yes or thumbs down for no.

Nico Hulkenberg has been demonstrating some serious performance in the Haas in recent weeks in the qualifying sessions.

In Singapore before the four-week break he finished in sixth, and on Friday in Austin he did the same again but in sprint qualifying. Let’s see if the German can finish in the top 10 again.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Despite Lewis Hamilton not earning pole at the US Grand Prix since 2018, he remains the pole record holder with four starts from the top slot.

Hamilton is tied with seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher.

With an upgraded Mercedes, and after showing some positive performances so far this weekend, will he be in the fight for pole today?

Image source, Getty Images

RB's Liam Lawson will be racing for the first time this season after the emotional departure of Daniel Ricciardo which was announced days after the Singapore Grand Prix four weeks ago.

The New Zealander will be in the seat for the remaining six races of the season and will be looking to prove to RB and Red Bull that he deserves the seat for the 2025 season.

"It's very exciting, obviously a big weekend ahead, new track, sprint weekend and I haven't raced in a year," Lawson told Sky Sports.

On getting a seat in the RB, he added: "The idea was always that I would potentially get a seat at some point this year and that conversation was still happening throughout the year, but I just didn't know where it was going to be.

"Honestly, I don't think the team knew, it was very much up in the air and then Baku it was basically I got the confirmation, Christian [Horner] kept his word and put me in a seat."

On who he called first to share the news, he said: "My dad. It was like 3am in New Zealand and I called him and he answered straight away, so he was wide awake, he knew that [Baku] weekend was a time when we were having these discussions and yeah, he was ready for it, so it was cool."

Image source, Getty Images

Earlier in the sprint, Lando Norris was under investigation for "driving erratically" at Turn 15, while trying to defend third place from Ferrari's Charles Leclerc on the final lap.

But the FIA has said there is no further action. That will be a relief for Norris!

In the last five qualifying events at Austin, there have been five different pole sitters. The Ferrari drivers of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz took pole in 2023 and 2022 respectively.

The three-time world champion Max Verstappen started on pole in 2021, Valtteri Bottas in the Mercedes took pole in 2019, and his team-mate at the time, Lewis Hamilton, the year before.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Let’s rewind to last year’s US Grand Prix. It was the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc who took pole position, with McLaren’s Lando Norris in second and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton finishing third-fastest.

Max Verstappen took provisional pole but his lap time was deleted after exceeding track limits and ended up finishing the session in sixth.

Image source, Getty Images

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took his fourth sprint race win of the season after a smooth drive around Austin's Circuit of the Americas.

He said afterwards that it felt like “old times” as he took eight points for the win, with his title rival Lando Norris finishing in third.

The result extended Verstappen's lead over Norris in the drivers' championship by two points to 54.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz finished second, with his team-mate Charles Leclerc in fourth and the Mercedes of George Russell in fifth and Lewis Hamilton sixth.

It was also a double-points finish for Haas as their drivers Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg finished in seventh and eighth respectively.

Image source, Getty Images

Good evening everyone. I hope you’ve all had a lovely Autumnal Saturday, now let’s get settled in for qualifying to determine the race order for tomorrow's grand prix.

The grandstands are packed as the excitement continues to build after a tense sprint race earlier which ended with Max Verstappen taking victory, that’s four out of four for the Red Bull driver this season.

Qualifying gets under way at 23:00 BST.

Jennie Gow, Harry Benjamin and former McLaren engineer Marc Priestley are in the commentary box. Full commentary of qualifying is available on Radio 5 Sports Extra, BBC Sounds and at the top of this page using the audio icon. You can also ask BBC Sounds to play United States Grand Prix qualifying via most smart speakers.

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent in Austin

Image source, Getty Images

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took his first Formula 1 victory for nearly four months with a controlled drive in the sprint race at the United States Grand Prix.

Verstappen’s win extends his championship lead over McLaren’s Lando Norris to 54 points.

Norris was running second going into the final lap but a lock-up at the first corner allowed Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz to slip by in Austin.

The Briton then had to fend off the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, which he managed to do to the flag, helped by a mistake by Leclerc into Turn 15.

Verstappen’s victory was his first in F1 since the sprint event at the Austrian Grand Prix in June, and could be a decisive development in the title race on a weekend where Red Bull have introduced a major upgrade to their car.

Read the full report here

Image source, Getty Images

Phew. I think we can say that was a great sprint race to get us in the mood for tomorrow's main show.

The slate is wiped clean now, so any mistakes or mishaps from the shorter dash are now forgotten. It's time for drivers to fully focus on securing the perfect qualifying place for Sunday.

We'll head back into the pits, but come back and join us for qualifying build-up at 22:30 BST.

See you shortly!

Mercedes' George Russell speaking to Sky Sports: "If you look at it as an overview, I was quick in the beginning and then I had no tyres left but the Ferraris were kind of right behind me and they weren't exactly relaxing so I kind of felt like if I back up a little bit, they're going to be on my tail. I spoke to Lewis after the race and he had no rear tyres left so we're clearly missing something."

"It's just getting on top of these tyres. It's a little bit hotter today, the first time we ran on the medium tyres. In practice, the hard tyre felt really great, we had really great race pace and you could push really hard on it. Clearly on the medium, it was different. It was a bit of a shame to end up P5, it's only the sprint race and it's almost a practice session ahead of the main race tomorrow so we got another opportunity."

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella on Sky Sports: "We have always at least internally, with great clarity, looked at Singapore, Zandvoort, Hungary, races in which we were dominant, we looked at that as exceptions. The reality of Formula 1 is that is it's a very tight competition, not always you're going to enjoy this kind of advantage.

"The reality is that you need to keep improving all the time, fight on track, maximise the potential of the car, maximise the exploitation of the tyres so for me, today, it's just more a realistic picture of what we have seen across the entire year."

"There are four cars, four different cars in contention to fight for podiums. I think for today, Mercedes, they just suffered some extra degradation otherwise they are there. With new tyres, they were the fastest car. So that's it, that's what we have to face, but it's encouraging that we are there."

"There's a few things I think we have learnt in terms of usage of the tyres, in terms of setup, we will try and use this information now in preparation for qualifying and the race."

"I definitely think Ferrari looks like one of the fastest in new tyres. Yesterday, in qualifying, I think they had a couple of issues, otherwise they could have been pole position in the sprint qualifying."

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner on Sky Sports: "A real energy boost for the whole team because there's a huge amount of work into the these cars and to get that win, I think it's our first win since June so you know great to get that. I think it just gives everybody a lift and the performance of the car was very strong and Max [Verstappen] managed the race beautifully throughout."

On the Ferraris: "They looked very competitive. They were pushing each other hard and that usually takes quite a lot out of the tyre particularly in the first sector and they will be very strong in the race tomorrow for sure but I think what was encouraging for us was if you look at Max [Verstappen]'s last lap, he managed those tyres well, he still had quite a bit of performance left in them."

Charles Leclerc did flag on the Ferrari radio that Lando Norris was "moving under braking" on the final lap as the two fought over third place, and now the Briton is under investigation for "driving erratically" at Turn 15.

However, Norris will get the opportunity, along with Leclerc, to give his side of the story when the pair visit the stewards shortly.