Charles Leclerc will start Monday morning’s United States Grand Prix from pole after Max Verstappen had his best Q3 time deleted for a track limits violation. The three-time world champion’s time on his final run was the best of the session by 0.005 seconds but deleted as he ran wide at the exit of Turn 19.
The pole is the Ferrari driver’s third of the season, and he will have McLaren’s Lando Norris alongside on the front row.
Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz complete the second row, ahead of George Russell in fifth, who bettered Verstappen’s time from his first Q3 run after the chequered flag fell, relegating the 2023 champion to sixth.
Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon, Sergio Pere and Oscar Piastri round out the top ten, respectively.
Hamilton was the early pacesetter in Q1, going fastest over Norris, while track limits at Turn 19 and Turn 20 troubled several of the field, including Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg, who had his best time deleted, which relegated him to 16th.
Despite running a new upgrade package, Aston Martin also had both cars eliminated in the opening run. Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll suffered from front brake issues in FP1 and failed to deliver a fast enough time to progress to Q2. Alonso will start 17th, while Stroll is left 19th, next to the Williams of Logan Sargeant.
Alex Albon was the other driver eliminated and starts from the ninth row, in 17th.
Yuki Tsunoda, Daniel Ricciardo and Stroll all find themselves under investigation for possibly exceeding the maximum lap time while building towards a flying run.
Ricciardo, returning from injury after breaking his hand at Zandvoort, set a time fast enough to qualify for the final shootout in Q2. He also found his lap deleted for a Turn 19 violation, which dropped him to 15th.
He will start next to Kevin Magnussen, 14th, and behind the Alfa Romeo pairing of Guanyu Zhou and Valtteri Bottas. Yuki Tsunoda was the other driver eliminated and starts eleventh, narrowly failing to progress ahead of Perez by 0.018 seconds.
Should Ricciardo’s time stood, Perez would have been eliminated in Q2.
The battle in Q3 came down to the wire, with Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren threatening Red Bull’s 2023 dominance.
Leclerc was fastest on the early Q3 runs, ahead of Hamilton and Verstappen. He would improve his time on his final run, setting a 1:34.723, which was enough to claim the pole.
Norris jumped to second on his final run, 0.154 seconds behind Leclerc, while Hamilton moved to third after the chequered flag, falling just 0.009 seconds short of a front-row start.
Sainz and Russell also improved, leaving Verstappen’s earlier time, which stood as his best, the sixth fastest of the session. Verstappen’s time deletion resulted from a slide at Turn 19, which put him fully over the white lines by a tight margin.
The United States Grand Prix returns for the Sprint Shootout at 6:00 am on Sunday (NZ time), followed by the Sprint Race at 10:15 am.
Coverage of the United States Grand Prix begins at 7.45 am on Monday.
Header Image: Scuderia Ferrari
