F1 US Grand Prix LIVE: Sprint race schedule and time as Max Verstappen starts on pole
F1 live updates from the Circuit of the Americas as Lando Norris looks to close the gap to Max Verstappen
Lando Norris risks losing ground to Max Verstappen in his bid to be crowned world champion after seeing his rival take pole position for Saturday’s sprint race in the United States.
Norris, who trails Verstappen by 52 points heading into the concluding six rounds of the campaign, will line up three places behind Verstappen for the 19-lap dash after he qualified a disappointing fourth at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas.
Verstappen has not won since the Spanish Grand Prix, nearly four months ago, but he pulled out an impressive lap in the closing seconds to beat Mercedes’ George Russell to top spot by just 0.012 seconds.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will line up from third, one place ahead of Norris, with Lewis Hamilton seventh.
Follow live updates from the United States Grand Prix with The Independent
F1 US Grand Prix LIVE: Lando Norris only fourth-fastest!
Norris’ car, covered in flow-vis paint, can only go fourth-fastest - but it would have been cancelled in qualifying as he went off the track!
Top of the timesheet? Carlos Sainz with a 1:33:602, 0.021 secs quicker than Charles Leclerc - a Ferrari one-two!
Max Verstappen is third, 0.013 secs quicker than Norris in fourth, with Oscar Piastri in fifth.
6-10: Hamilton, Russell, Magnussen, Alonso, Tsunoda
Advantage Ferrari heading into sprint qualifying later!
F1 US Grand Prix LIVE: Oscar Piastri almost crashes!
Piastri went into the pit lane way too hot and had to drastically stay on track to avoid the wall!
At the top, with all the runners now on softs, Carlos Sainz has toppled Max Verstappen for first place - with Fernando Alonso a surprise name in third!
Lando Norris? Yet to set a time on softs. Five minutes to go!
F1 US Grand Prix LIVE: Max Verstappen still P1
The championship leader still top with a 1:33:855, 0.783 secs quicker than Sergio Perez in second.
The rest of them? Still not on softs!
3-10: Sainz, Leclerc, Russell, Norris, Alonso, Bottas, Lawson, Tsunoda
10 mins to go!
F1 US Grand Prix LIVE: Red Bull duo kick-off the soft tyre running
Max Verstappen storms to the top of the timesheet with a 1:33:855, 0.862 seconds quicker than Carlos Sainz on the hard tyres. Sergio Perez is third on softs, but is not happy.
“The main struggle was the ride in the low speed, I started to bounce a lot more.”
4-10: Leclerc, Russell, Norris, Alonso, Bottas, Lawson, Tsunoda
McLaren, incidentally, have brought seven upgrades to this race!
F1 US Grand Prix LIVE: Charles Leclerc leads after 20 minutes!
It’s Ferrari one-two early on on the hard tyres, with Charles Leclerc’s time of 1:34:966 setting the pace at the top - 0.265 secs quicker than teammate Carlos Sainz.
George Russell is third, four-tenths down, with Max Verstappen fourth and Lando Norris in fifth.
6-10: Bottas, Lawson, Perez, Tsunoda, Piastri
F1 US Grand Prix LIVE: Lewis Hamilton spins!
High-speed spin in sector one for Lewis Hamilton, but he keeps it out of the barrier by nothing more than pure luck!
“You’ll have to check those damn tyres, and the floor.”
Interesting session so far this, a lot of drivers struggling with grip on this resurfaced track!
F1 US Grand Prix LIVE: Gasly spins at turn 1!
Pierre Gasly - in the ORANGE Alpine this weekend - has a spin at turn one!
“Just lost it on braking.”
All the cars on hard tyres to start with...
F1 US Grand Prix LIVE: Verstappen and Colapinto almost collide!
Verstappen has to bail out late to stop a collision with Colapinto!
Did the Argentine not see him?
Verstappen’s engineer, GP: “There you go, you know what the state of play is this weekend.”
F1 US Grand Prix LIVE: First practice underway!
Here we go with first practice then, at the resurfaced Circuit of the Americas!
A clear day in Austin, if not scorching hot - there’s a slight chill in the air in Texas!
Liam Lawson among the first cars out on track - as they practically all get out there straight away!
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