AUSTIN (AFP) – Lando Norris oozed satisfaction on Saturday after beating series leader and three-time champion Max Verstappen to pole position for Sunday’s United States Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver clocked a best lap in one minute and 32.330 seconds to outpace his Red Bull rival, who leads the title race by 54 points with six races remaining, by 0.031 seconds.
"It was a beautiful lap," said Norris, after claiming his first American pole and his fourth pole in five races as he seeks to overhaul Verstappen.
"I was not going to go much quicker than I did. When you just do a lap and you think 'damn, it's going to be tough to beat that' ... I put everything out on the line and it's what we needed to do.
"We've been on the back foot pretty much the whole weekend. We've not had the pace of the Ferraris or the Red Bulls, so I had to do something and today I did that so yeah, a cool lap and a nice way to start the race!"
He added that he enjoyed the sensation of the speed experienced at the Circuit of the Americas.
"Inside you're like 'damn, this is fast' and it's exciting and it just gives you a good feeling, it's bumpy and it's fast, especially sector one so it puts a smile on your face, and definitely ending quickest puts the biggest smile on your face too."
He said it had been a tough weekend for McLaren.
“A tough day, a tough weekend for us, but we changed quite a bit, I think we reviewed everything we could and we made the improvements we needed to make, so maybe we weren't the quickest car out there today.
“Carlos (Sainz) said he was going to go quicker, Max (Verstappen) said he was going to go quicker so I'm lucky but I'll take it."
Verstappen said: "On the first lap in Q3, I lost quite a bit of time. That's unfortunate, but I knew we had another run, but then unfortunately, I couldn't finish the lap – otherwise, I think we had a really good shot."
He added that winning the morning sprint race had given confidence back to Red Bull as he and the team aim to end an eight-race winless run dating back to the Spanish Grand Prix in May.
"It seemed that we were competitive," he said. “So we made some minor changes on the car, which felt nice. I hope that also will be a positive for tomorrow."
Russell crashes, Hamilton 19th
A last minute crash involving Mercedes' George Russell, who skidded off-track into the barriers at Turn 19, brought a tense qualifying session to a premature end as Red Bull’s Verstappen was attempting to improve his lap time.
He aborted his lap as the session ended, leaving him second behind McLaren’s Norris, Verstappen's main title rival as he defends a 54-point lead in the drivers' title race.
Russell was unhurt and climbed from his car.
For Norris it was a fourth pole position in five races and his sixth this year as he chases Verstappen in pursuit of the championship.
Norris ended the session on pole with a fastest lap of one minute and 32.330 seconds to beat Verstappen by 0.031 ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.
Oscar Piastri was fifth in the second McLaren ahead of Russell, Alpine's Pierre Gasly, two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin, Haas's Kevin Magnussen and Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull.
"It was a beautiful lap," Norris said. "I was not going to go much quicker than I did. I put everything out on the line. We have been on the back foot, so I had to do something!"
Verstappen said: "Unfortunately, I couldn't finish my lap because I think I had a pretty good shot, but that's how it goes."
The session began in warm sunshine with a track temperature of 39 degrees Celsius and the air at 28, near-perfect for most teams, but too hot for the tyre-munching Mercedes cars as demonstrated in the morning sprint race won by Verstappen.
That saw Russell and Hamilton struggle with degradation, resulting in major set-up changes for Hamilton before qualifying began with Alex Albon, in his 100th Grand Prix, returning to the Williams pits after an exploratory lap.
That left Sainz and then Norris to set early bench-mark laps in 1:34.029 before a revived Verstappen went top in 1:33.390.
It was clear Red Bull were back in the groove after several months' floundering for progress while Mercedes, notably, were struggling – Russell and Hamilton in 16th and 17th with five minutes remaining in Q1.
Gasly then went top for Alpine before being usurped by Leclerc in 1:33.241 before Verstappen regained the initiative and, just as Russell grabbed third place, Hamilton was eliminated in 19th.
For the seven-time champion, it was a stunning flop. On one of his favourite circuits he had never previously qualified outside the top five and had won six times and started from pole three times.
He was joined in missing the cut to Q2 by Williams' Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto and the two Saubers of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.
Hamilton nightmare
Only 24 hours earlier, Hamilton had seemed unfortunate not to have taken pole for the sprint race when he was thwarted by yellow flags.
"The car’s a nightmare," he said.
Liam Lawson, having replaced Daniel Ricciardo, was a notable third for RB, but starts Sunday's race from the back of the grid due to an engine-change penalty.
Verstappen was soon out again to top Q2 before Norris beat him in 1:32.851 ahead of Piastri and Russell on their first runs. Leclerc had not clocked a time, but was soon out behind Verstappen as he began the second runs.
The Dutchman went top with 1:32.584 as Leclerc took third behind Norris before Sainz went second to push them down.
Out from the second session RB's Yuki Tsunoda, Nico Hulkenberg of Haas, Esteban Ocon of Alpine, Lance Stroll of Aston Martin and Lawson, who did not clock a lap.
Russell led out for the top ten shootout, but it was Norris and Piastri who set the initial pace until split by Sainz before Verstappen took second, leaving Norris on top.