Max Verstappen snatched pole position for the 2025 US Sprint in a dramatic climax to sprint qualifying.
McLaren’s Lando Norris finished fastest in Practice and continued his form throughout sprint qualifying until Verstappen produced a last-lap stunner to snatch pole position from the Brit in a hectic session.
FP1
Verstappen was first out on track and set 1m 38.797 as the initial benchmark but several drivers quickly beat his lap time, as Williams’ Carlos Sainz went fastest with 1m 37.462 as everyone ran the hard tyre in their opening stints.
Once Verstappen lowered the benchmark time to 1m 36.192 in the ninth minute, Sainz found a further 0.062s, before Norris displaced his ex McLaren teammate with 1m 36.126 a minute later.
Verstappen responded with 1m 35.426 in the 14th minute only for Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton to displace him with 1m 34.857 five minutes later.
Red flags brought the opening runs to an end in the 20th minute after Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll lost some bodywork which landed on the kerb at Turn 19, where drivers ran wide at high speed.
Once the session resumed in the 26th minute, everyone turned focus to race simulations until the final seven minutes when attention switched to qualifying simulations, which saw Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda initially go quickest with 1m 34.531.
Verstappen however displaced his teammate with 1m 33.648, only for Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso to go 0.009 seconds quicker, but nobody could stop Norris from topping the session with 1m 33.294.
Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg was a surprise second-fastest after he left his best lap time to the checkered flag as many opted for the soft tyre, except for George Russell, Hamilton, Isack Hadjar, Liam Lawson and Andrea Kimi Antonelli who ran the medium tyre at the end.
Sainz’s session was curtailed by a gearbox issue whilst Charles Leclerc had to abort his qualifying simulation due to gearbox and oil-related issues.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1m 33.294 |
| 2 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber | + 0.255 |
| 3 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 0.279 |
| 4 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 0.345 |
| 5 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.354 |
| 6 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 0.626 |
| 7 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.637 |
| 8 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | + 0.671 |
| 9 | Isack Hadjar | Racing Bulls | + 0.861 |
| 10 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | + 1.039 |
| 11 | Esteban Ocon | Haas | + 1.074 |
| 12 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Sauber | + 1.184 |
| 13 | Yuki Tsunoda | Red Bull | + 1.237 |
| 14 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 1.316 |
| 15 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | + 1.325 |
| 16 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | + 1.359 |
| 17 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 1.371 |
| 18 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | + 1.443 |
| 19 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | + 2.580 |
| 20 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 2.786 |
Sprint Qualifying
SQ1
Hulkenberg led a queue of cars straight out on track but it was Hadjar who set 1m 34.856 as the benchmark but Hulkenberg, Lawson, Hamilton then Verstappen lowered the benchmark time to 1m 34.140 on opening medium-tyre runs.
Leclerc, Gasly, Ocon and Colapinto found themselves in the bottom five alongside Bortoleto whose lap time was deleted for an error at Turn 19.
At the checkered flag, Leclerc and Gasly survived at the expense of Bearman who qualified 16th ahead of Ocon, whilst Tsunoda missed the line to start his final lap and was eliminated in 18th position.
Ocon qualified 19th ahead of Bortoleto who failed to set a lap time.
Norris topped SQ1 with 1m 33.224 set at the checkered flag ahead of Verstappen and Piastri.
SQ2
Verstappen was first on track in Q2 and set 1m 33.163 as the initial benchmark as drivers continued to run the medium tyre compound again.
Norris however displaced the Brit with 1m 33.033 in the sixth minute, whilst Lawson, Hulkenberg, Hadjar and Gasly opted to stay in the pits and do a single flier at the end of the segment instead, with Stroll slowest of the 11 who did an early lap time and joined the quartet in the elimination zone.
At the checkered flag, Hulkenberg was the only driver to make his gamble pay off as he avoided elimination at the expense of Antonelli, who qualified 11th ahead of Hadjar, Gasly and Stroll.
Lawson qualified 15th after a mistake at Turn 19 saw his lap time deleted, whilst nobody beat Norris’ initial fastest lap of the segment.
SQ3
With drivers allowed to run the soft tyre in the final segment, Russell was the first driver to hit the circuit and set 1m 32.888 as the benchmark time, ahead of Sainz by 0.023s in second as Albon managed to go slowest of the three initial runners as everyone else held back until the closing minutes.
Hulkenberg further lowered the benchmark time to 1m 32.645 with less than a minute left on the clock.
At the checkered flag, Norris posted 1m 32.214 to go onto provisional pole for the sprint but Verstappen snatched his third US Sprint pole by 0.071s from the Brit.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1m 32.143 |
| 2 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.071 |
| 3 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 0.380 |
| 4 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber | + 0.502 |
| 5 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.745 |
| 6 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 0.767 |
| 7 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | + 0.768 |
| 8 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | + 0.892 |
| 9 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 0.956 |
| 10 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.961 |
| 11 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 1m 34.018 |
| 12 | Isack Hadjar | Racing Bulls | + 0.223 |
| 13 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 0.240 |
| 14 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 0.376 |
| 15 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | No Time |
| 16 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | 1m 35.159 |
| 17 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | + 0.087 |
| 18 | Yuki Tsunoda | Red Bull | + 0.100 |
| 19 | Esteban Ocon | Haas | + 0.844 |
| 20 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Sauber | No Time |
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