Max Verstappen pips George Russell to pole for United States sprint race

Max Verstappen was the man to beat in sprint qualifying as he pipped George Russell to pole by just 0.012s.

It was a tight session at the Circuit of the Americas with 0.2s between the top five drivers in sprint qualifying.

The two Mercedes drivers were the first drivers out in SQ3, with Russell taking provisional pole.

Lewis Hamilton was on course to beat it after a blistering S1, but made a mistake into Turn 12.

After that, no one was able to topple Russell’s top time, until Verstappen was able to do so.

The Dutchman will be looking to add yet another sprint victory to his CV on Saturday.

After qualifying, Verstappen noted: “We had a good day. Of course, Sprint Qualy is always very difficult, you never really know how much you can push.

“The whole day the car was working well. I'm happy to be first, it's been a while, so happy with today.

“This track is amazing to drive. With new tarmac, a little bit of old, then the bumps, it's not easy but it's fun.”

Russell secured second ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

F1 title contender Lando Norris secured fourth, while Carlos Sainz was sixth.

Rounding out the top 10 was Nico Hulkenberg, Hamilton, Kevin Magnussen, Yuki Tsunoda and Franco Colapinto.

Oscar Piastri was the shock early elimination in SQ1, leaving him 16th on the grid for the sprint.

Piastri was deemed to have exceeded track limits at the penultimate corner meaning his best lap was deleted.

He will start ahead of Esteban Ocon, Alex Albon, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.