F1 results: Winners and losers from qualifying at the F1 U.S. Grand Prix

AUSTIN, Texas — The Max Verstappen March rolls on.

After taking pole position for the F1 Sprint race at the United States Grand Prix on Friday, Verstappen enjoyed a nearly perfect Saturday here at the Circuit of the Americas. Verstappen captured a win in the F1 Sprint race earlier in the day, and capped off his afternoon by taking pole position for Sunday’s main event ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

“It was, I think, a good qualifying. I think the conditions weren’t easy, with stronger winds today compared to yesterday,” said Verstappen in the FIA Press Conference after qualifying. “So, Sector 1, yeah, it was a bit harder to be consistent because the car was moving around everywhere. But I guess everyone, of course, is in the same boat with that. And then, yeah, just Q1, Q2, just trying to progress every time with the lap time. I didn’t feel like in Q3 the track was actually any better — maybe slightly worse, actually, I think for a lot of people.

“But, yeah, just trying to find a little bit more pace. And luckily it was there in the car, so just seemed a little step forward compared to yesterday’s qualifying.”

Here are the full qualifying results from the F1 United States Grand Prix, along with some winners and losers:

If you had any doubts coming into the United States Grand Prix, you can cast them aside now.

The comeback is definitely on.

Max Verstappen stormed to pole position Friday for the F1 Sprint race here in Austin, and then took the win in that race earlier in the day to add another eight points to his season total. Making matters better for the Red Bull driver? The fact that the two drivers he is chasing in the Drivers’ Championship race — Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris — watched him take the checkered flag as spectators after crashing on the opening lap.

That moved Verstappen to within 33 points of Norris, and to within 55 points of Piastri.

Verstappen now has a chance to move even closer tomorrow, thanks to a strong performance in qualifying to take pole position ahead of Norris, who will start alongside him on the front row. With Piastri set to start sixth, Verstappen could truly close that 55-point gap.

Verstappen even missed out on his final push lap in Q3, but it did not matter.

“Yeah, it was good. I think every segment the car was very strong. Just trying to put the lap together around here sometimes can be quite tricky. Also, it’s very hot, very strong winds as well,” said Verstappen trackside after qualifying. “And then in that first sector, having a tailwind is challenging, let’s say it like that. Yeah, the first run in Q3 was good, just managed to improve a little bit from Q2, unfortunately, and I couldn’t do my final run. It was a bit messy with the out laps. But luckily, like you said, we didn’t need it. So, yeah, for us, again, a very strong result.”

For those wondering, if Verstappen, Norris, and Piastri finish where they start, Piastri would have 344 points, Norris would have 332, and Verstappen would have 306.

With five race weekends (and two F1 Sprint races) remaining.

This has been a weekend to forget for Isack Hadjar.

Hadjar qualified and finished 12th for the F1 Sprint race, and his qualifying effort here on Saturday afternoon ended almost immediately after it began. The Visa Cash App Racing Bulls driver slid off the racing line at Turn 6 early in Q1, careening into the barriers and bringing out the red flag:

Asked about that incident, and if more practice time on a normal grand prix weekend would have helped, Hadjar instead turned to self-deprecation.

“If I had another practice session, I would have crashed another practice session,” said Hadjar slyly.

It has been that kind of weekend for him.

Last year in Austin, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen locked out the front row for the 2024 United States Grand Prix. But when those two clashed at Turn 1, it opened the door for Charles Leclerc to storm into the lead from P4.

Could something similar happen tomorrow?

While Leclerc cannot control what happens in front of him, his qualifying effort on Saturday at least puts him in a position to capitalize should Norris and Verstappen open the door at Turn 1 when the lights go out tomorrow. Leclerc will start third on Sunday, behind Verstappen and just ahead of George Russell, who qualified fourth.

Leclerc even overcame a complete spin at Turn 20 earlier in the session, to take third when qualifying came to a close:

Speaking trackside after qualifying, Leclerc admitted that P3 was a “surprise” given the results from earlier in the weekend.

“Yeah, I mean, it was quite a big surprise, especially considering the weekend that has been very difficult for us since the beginning. We tried and put everything together in qualifying. We managed to do so, but I think there are still things we need to understand from this car because there’s a bit too much of a swing of performance in the same weekend without fundamentally changing the car,” said Leclerc. “So we’ll look into it. But it’s been an interesting Sprint race this morning. I think we’ve learned a lot. We applied that in qualifying, and it seems to be working. So I hope that from now on we kind of catch back a little bit.”

It is important to remember that Oscar Piastri remains in the lead in the F1 Drivers’ Championship race, currently with a 22-point lead over Lando Norris and a 55-point lead over Max Verstappen.

But if you feel like that gap is even smaller, you would not be alone. Verstappen’s recent run of form, as well as some difficult results for Piastri, have made that margin seem razor-thin, especially heading into Sunday, when Verstappen will line up at the front of the grid, with Piastri back in P6.

The Australian driver indicated that he had struggled to get into a rhythm during the session, as he did on Friday during F1 Sprint qualifying.

“I mean, just getting in the rhythm with the car,” said Piastri when asked after qualifying where he was struggling. “It’s, you know, a track that is tough and you need a lot of confidence on and there’s a lot of corners to make you pay for it if you don’t have that feeling.

“Just unfortunately lap time didn’t come.”

Piastri remains in the driver’s seat for the Drivers’ Championship, but things are getting tighter and tighter at the front. And starting sixth on Sunday, he’ll need to clear Charles Leclerc, George Russell, and Lewis Hamilton just to get back with his main challengers for the title.

So he has some work to do when the lights go out.

The F1 Sprint race came to a bitter end for Oliver Bearman, who was given a ten-second penalty for an incident with Kimi Antonelli that ended up dropping him out of the final points position.

He made up for that with a strong performance later in the day, qualifying eighth. It also marked his second consecutive appearance in Q3, after he started ninth at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Speaking with the media after qualifying, Bearman admitted he was “proud” of what he and the team had accomplished on Saturday.

“Yeah, I don’t know what you guys thought, but I felt pretty hard done by this morning, so yeah,” conceded Bearman. “Actually, I thought I had a race ban for a minute, so I was really, really annoyed.

“But no, obviously with everything that happened, I had a bit of fire in me,” continued Bearman. “And and yeah, with the difficulty I would say of this weekend for myself, rookie going into this track on a sprint format, very bumpy circuit and quite unique, one rated quite difficult by the drivers, plus that I only put the upgrade on the car in sprint quali, it was really an uphill climb before the weekend and I knew it was going to be a huge challenge.

“So to be standing here in P8, I’m really, really proud of myself and what the team have achieved.”

Alexander Albon looked to be through to Q2 at the end of the first segment of qualifying, as his final push lap was enough to avoid elimination.

Then, however, came the news every driver dreads following a lap: His time had been deleted for exceeding track limits. Instead of moving on to Q2, Albon was headed to talk to us in the media pen.

“It was fine margins and it’s an annoying mistake,” he conceded to us moments later.

Albon also noted that the team made some setup changes to the FW47 following the F1 Sprint race that, while beneficial, proved challenging when heading straight into qualifying.

“We figured there was a bit of an issue with the car in sprint quali and the sprint race, and we fixed it,” described Albon.

“It’s hard to know. We need to have a look at the data, but the balance was unbelievably different once we fixed the problem. In a good way, but also in a way that just took me by surprise.”

As Sainz noted when speaking with the media, Williams has often shown better pace on Sundays than on Saturdays, so that could give Albon a chance to fight forward tomorrow.