By Alan Baldwin
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) -Red Bull’s Formula One leader Max Verstappen took pole position for the Saturday sprint race at the U.S. Grand Prix with McLaren rival Lando Norris qualifying a ‘shocking’ fourth and in danger of losing momentum in the title battle.
Mercedes’ George Russell joined triple world champion Verstappen on the front row with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc third.
Verstappen, who last year won both the 100km sprint and Sunday grand prix at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas, lapped with a fastest time of one minute 32.833 seconds — 0.012 quicker than Russell.
The Dutch driver, who has won all three sprints so far this season, leads Norris by 52 points with six rounds and a maximum 180 points remaining.
“The whole day the car was working well. I’m happy to be first, it’s been a while, so happy with today,” he said of his first pole of any sort since Austria in June.
“This track is amazing to drive. With new Tarmac, a little bit of old, then the bumps, it’s not easy but it’s fun.”
The sprint pays out eight points to the winner, and rewards the top eight, which means Verstappen could well have extended his lead before the main race.
“We will do the best we can in the sprint but we also know the most points are available on Sunday, so that’s where we really want to do well,” he said.
Norris will be unable to count on support in the sprint from team mate Oscar Piastri after the Australian had his fastest lap deleted and failed to progress beyond the first phase, qualifying only 16th.
“In a way, I’m happy with P4 because I felt like it could have been a lot worse. But my lap was shocking,” said the Briton.
“Not a terrible day — it could have been worse, could have been better, but I’ll take it.”
Verstappen’s team mate Sergio Perez will start well down the field in 11th.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz will line up fifth with Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg sixth and Mercedes’ seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton seventh.
Kevin Magnussen gave U.S.-owned Haas a further boost with eighth place on the grid while Yuki Tsunoda was ninth for RB and Argentine rookie Franco Colapinto continued to impress in 10th for Williams.
Colapinto’s team mate Alex Albon, who will make his 100th grand prix start on Sunday, qualified only 18th after a 360 degree spin.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Toby Davis)
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