F1 Sprint Qualifying Results: McLaren BEATEN as Max Verstappen launches comeback at United States Grand Prix

Max Verstappen threw down a brilliant final lap in sprint qualifying at the United States Grand Prix to take sprint pole for the third year in a row.

The Dutchman will be chased down from the start by Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, starting in second and third, with Nico Hulkenberg taking a surprise fourth place on the grid after strong showings throughout the day.

Meanwhile, Yuki Tsunoda's Red Bull annus horribilis continued in Austin, getting eliminated from sprint qualifying in the first part of the session.

A horrible pit lane traffic jam saw three drivers sent out too late to make it around to the start-finish line to start their final flying laps, with Tsunoda among them as he locked himself into 18th for Saturday's sprint race.

The title-challenging trio of Norris, Verstappen and Piastri dominated the entire session, setting the first, second and third best times respectively in both SQ1 and SQ2 to lay down an early marker.

Ferrari stars Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton both struggled mightily for pace, squeezing through SQ2 in P8 and P10 respectively after the former was 13th fastest in SQ1 – finishing SQ3 in exactly the same order they finished the previous outing.

F1 Qualifying Results: United States Grand Prix 2025

*Despite not setting a lap time in SQ1, the FIA have determined that car 5 (Bortoleto) is allowed to start the US GP sprint race having set 'satisfactory times in practice' on Friday.

How does F1 sprint qualifying work?

The qualifying session is split into three finite windows, which provide a dramatic prelude to Sunday's race.

The bottom five drivers are eliminated at the end of SQ1, with a further five eliminated after SQ2.

Then, SQ3 gives us a shootout between the remaining 10 drivers in the battle for positions at the front of the grid.

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Written by

Chris Deeley - Editor

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