McLaren’s Lando Norris beat title rival Max Verstappen’s Red Bull to pole position at the United States Grand Prix with what he said was “the best lap of my career”.
Norris was helped by Mercedes driver George Russell crashing late in the session, which prevented any driver improving on their second laps.
Norris had been 0.031 seconds quicker than Verstappen on their first laps, but the Dutchman had started his final lap much better than the Briton, only for both to have to abort.
Although luck played its part, the result was just what Norris needed after Verstappen won the sprint race earlier in the day.
With Norris finishing third behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, Verstappen extended his championship lead by two points to 54.
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That made Norris’ task in the championship even tougher – he needed to take an average of nearly nine points per race out of Verstappen for the remaining six grands prix of the season to beat him to the title.
By taking pole position, Norris has given himself an opportunity to claw back some of that gap in the grand prix, although Verstappen’s pace has looked formidable all weekend after Red Bull introduced some upgrades on to their car.
McLaren had been struggling in comparison but Norris excelled himself to go fastest on the first runs before Russell’s accident confirmed his pole.
“It was a beautiful lap,” Norris said. “I was not going to go much quicker than I did.
“When you just do a lap and you think it’s going to be tough to beat… I put everything on the line, I needed to do it.
“We’ve not had the pace of the Ferraris or Red Bulls so I had to do something, and I did that.
“It was a very good lap. I can probably say quite confidently the best of my career.”
Both Norris and Verstappen made mistakes at Turn 19 on their first laps. Norris had a slide, forcing him to catch the rear, while Verstappen had to lift after missing the apex.
Verstappen was then 0.2secs quicker than Norris in the first sector on their second runs – and Norris was slower there than on his first run – before they both had to abort.
Verstappen said: “On the first lap in Q3 I lost quite a bit of time there. I knew we had another run but unfortunately I couldn’t finish the lap, but that’s how it goes. At least the potential was there to be first, so that’s very good.”
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri took fifth, 0.620secs slower than Norris, while Russell was still sixth despite his crash.
For team-mate Lewis Hamilton it was a terrible day. The seven-time champion qualified 19th, Mercedes saying he had “messy balance and front locking”.
Why were McLaren struggling?
Norris’ pole was his fourth in the past five races, while Verstappen has not been fastest in qualifying since the Belgian Grand Prix in July, when he was demoted by a penalty for using excessive engine parts.
Norris has also won two of the past four races, with team-mate Piastri one of the other two.
Norris said he “didn’t have an easy answer” to explain the switch in performance this weekend.
He pointed out that although he dominated at the last race in Singapore and the Netherlands, Piastri’s victory in Baku came about because the Australian “drove better than the others”, adding: “So if we just go back two races we were not the quickest car. That’s our version of events.
“I could not have gone any quicker than the lap I did today, which shows we are not as fast (as Red Bull).
“And even if we go back to Singapore, Ferrari were very quick until qualifying. The final stint, Charles was the quickest car on the track. It has been very close, closer than people think, even though we have dominated some races.”
Verstappen said: “Singapore has never been a good track for us. All the low-speed corners and bumps, our car does not really work on that.
“This is a very different track layout and we made the car a bit more stable and that helps the tyres out a bit.”
What happened to Mercedes?
Russell qualified on the front row for the sprint race, and Hamilton looked like he could have got pole for that event had he not come across yellow flags on his qualifying lap.
But the Mercedes cars struggled with tyre wear over the 19 laps of the sprint and both drivers were confused as to where the potential they had shown had gone.
Russell said: “It was just a really difficult session. Yesterday we had a car, (in which) both Lewis and I (were) fighting for pole position. Today we were both nearly out of Q1.
“I was 0.6secs away from pole at the start of Q3. I was on a really strong lap, I was 0.5secs up at one point, and then it went away from me in sector three and then I had the crash.
“It’s really disappointing because the team have worked so hard to bring these upgrades to the car and I was just trying too hard to find something that in all honesty wasn’t there. And I paid the price. Really quite upset with how it’s ended.”
Russell said there were not enough upgraded parts for him to run them in the race, so he will have to revert to an older-specification car.
“Lewis has kindly offered me his but we’re not going to do that,” he said.
Hamilton, who has won five times on this track, more than any other driver, said: “Naturally in the moment I feel massively deflated but it could always be worse. Still very fortunate to be here, but it is really tough, it has been a terrible day.
“This is a track I have done well at for many, many years and this is the first year it has been really bad.”
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, Haas driver Kevin Magnussen and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez completed the top 10.
