2024 United States Grand Prix: Championship Rivals Start on Front Row

Lando Norris will start the 2024 United States Grand Prix on pole position after George Russell’s crash brought a premature end to the session.

Norrisis McLaren F1 Team’s first pole sitter in Americasince Lewis Hamilton at Indianapolis in2007. Verstappen – who has improving on his final attempt – will line up alongside his Championship challenger while the two Ferrari’s will share the second row. 

Hamilton’s Q1 exit was undoubtedly the biggest shock of the day and he’ll start ahead of only Zhou Guanyu and Liam Lawson, who takes a grid penalty.

Q1

Q1 started with a wait to see if Valtteri Bottas would make it out after his Sprint ended in flames due to issues with his rear brakes but the team did a great job to get his Sauber ready for action.

After the first runs, Verstappen went quickest by three tenths of a second but the surprise was Pierre Gasly, who was sitting top of the times for a while before getting knocked down by Verstappen and Leclerc into third.

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team duo didn’t start well with Russell and Hamilton both in the bottom five. Russell’s final run was a good one to elevate him to fourth, but Hamilton’s lap was a poor effort leaving him sixteenth with no time to do another run. The seven time world champion got his lap time deleted too, meaning he’ll start eighteenth on race day.

Yuki Tsunoda hadn’t set a lap until the final runs of the session but the Japanese driver did enough to make it through, ending up in twelfth. Lawson in the other VCARB 01 raised eyebrows, ending Q1 up in third.

Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto were knocked out alongside Bottas, Zhou and Hamilton.

Q2

Verstappen was once again the first driver to come out the puts in Q2 on a set of used tyres and once again he was setting the pace at the top of the times. Sergio Pérez couldn’t match his teammates time on new tyres, while Gasly was once again up there, going ahead of the Mexican. 

Norris went top on the fresh soft tyres, beating Verstappen by two tenths, with Oscar Piastri slotting into third on a set of new tyres.

Leclerc was sitting in the bottom five after the first runs but lifted himself from the drop zone with his final run into fourth. Pérez also lifted himself out of danger as did Tsunoda but his joy was short-lived as Fernando Alonso left it late to make the top ten shootout.

Kevin Magnussen knocked out Nico Hulkenberg while Esteban Ocon also improved to eleventh momentarily.  

Gasly made it through in eighth, with Alonso and Magnussen also making the top ten shootout. Tsunoda just missed out, despite a tow from his teammate, and will start eleventh ahead of Húlkenberg, Ocon, Lance Stroll and Lawson.

Verstappen topped the session ahead of Sainz – the same order as the Sprint. 

Q3

After the first runs in the top ten shootout, Norris was top of the times, putting in an excellent lap with Verstappen just +0.031s behind. Sainz and Leclerc were fourth and fifth while Pérez was only quick enough for eighth before his lap time was deleted for track limits at Turn Nine.

Before anyone got to do their final runs, Russell brought out a yellow flag in sector three, handing Norris pole position when Verstappen was almost two tenths up on the Britons time in the first sector.

Sainz and Leclerc stayed in third and fourth with the early end to the session. Piastri ended up in fifth, with Russell only sixth after crashing out. 

Gasly will start seventh after an excellent session throughout – Alonso will line up in eighth ahead of Magnussen. 

Despite getting into Q3, Pérez had a disappointing session, not even setting a lap time after his first was deleted for track limits and he’ll start tenth for Sunday’s Grand Prix.