Lando Norris beats Max Verstappen to Pole for the U.S. Grand Prix

19th October 2024

MCLAREN'S Lando Norris will start the U.S. Grand Prix from the front of the field after setting a time of 1:32.330, ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

Credit: Mark Thompson / Getty Images

Championship leader Verstappen, who was just 0.031 seconds off the pace, will start tomorrow's race in second place, and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz managed to secure third.

Norris achieved the session's fastest time during his first run, describing it as "a beautiful lap". He said: "I was not going to go much quicker than what I did. I put everything out on the line."

His second run showed slower on telemetry before a yellow flag was activated due to an incident at Turn 19 involving Mercedes' George Russell, which neutralised everyone’s progress and helped keep the McLaren driver’s time at the top.

Looking ahead to the race tomorrow, Norris said: "I will do my homework. We already made some changes to hopefully improve the direction, but time will tell. We'll work hard. We've done a good job so far. Box number one ticked, but tomorrow is going to be a tough race."

In contrast, Verstappen was improving on his final lap before the yellow flag interruption.

"It seemed like we were competitive, and we made some changes to the car. We hope they will work for tomorrow," the Dutchman shared after the session.

Sainz carried his momentum from the sprint race into qualifying and was happy with his results: "The target [was] to do a step in qualifying [today] compared to yesterday. Yesterday we were P5; now we are P3, so [that's] a step in the right direction." His teammate Charles Leclerc will start fourth.

In a shocking twist, Mercedes' Sir Lewis Hamilton was eliminated from the first round of qualifying and will start the Grand Prix from 19th. The seven-time World Champion had his first lap time deleted due to exceeding track limits and, on his second run, was unable to deliver a competitive enough time.

A demoralised Hamilton reflected: "I'm P19, so I don't know [where the pace went]. I know something was broken in the sprint [race], but the guys worked really hard to fix it. It was terrible in quali; it is demoralizing, but it is what it is, and I look forward to next week."

The U.S Grand Prix runs tomorrow (October 20).