Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has increased the heat on McLaren rivals Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris after taking pole position for the sprint race at the US Grand Prix in ‘extraordinary’ scenes. It comes after former Haas Formula One team principal Guenther Steiner urged McLaren to start favouring Piastri in the drivers’ championship, or risk seeing Verstappen snatch the title from under their noses.
And the Dutchman’s incredible display in qualifying for Sunday’s (AEDT) sprint race in Texas will only heighten those concerns for McLaren. Legendary F1 commentator Martin Brundle was blown away by Verstappen’s speed in Austin, as the four-time world champion took the best lap in the last seconds of a closely contested session to outpace Norris by 0.071 seconds.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has piled more pressure on McLaren and F1 championship leader Oscar Piastri with a blistering drive to take pole for the sprint race at the US GP. Pic: Getty
“He once again delivers something nobody else on this grid can deliver at this time. Absolutely extraordinary, the way he just kept the speed,” Brundle said in commentary for Sky Sports. It sealed Verstappen’s third consecutive sprint qualifying success in Austin, where he will start on pole ahead of Norris and his McLaren teammate Piastri, who expressed his disappointment after coming in three-tenths of a second adrift of his rivals.
“I think a pretty scruffy lap to be honest,” Piastri said about his sprint qualifying display after admitting he could have done better. “I just didn’t really get it together. I feel a bit fortunate to be third, but I think the pace in the car is good.”
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was disappointed after clocking the third-best time in qualifying for the sprint race at the US Grand Prix. Pic: Getty
Lando Norris ‘not surprised’ by Max Verstappen’s speed
Norris set a commanding pace in practice to throw down the gauntlet to his rivals, and also topped the first two sessions of sprint qualifying. But it was Verstappen who surged to the top of the charts, with Norris insisting that he was not surprised or concerned about the Red Bull champion’s blistering pace.
“Of course, I would’ve loved to have been on pole but it’s not a surprise for us to be just a bit slower than the Red Bull, but still pretty happy,” Norris told reporters. “A little couple of things here and there I could’ve improved on, and just caught a few bumps a little bit wrong, I’d say, but that’s just the difficulty of this track.”
However, it was another stunning reminder from Verstappen that he remains a chance of snatching an unlikely fifth world title after resurgent form at the back-end of the year. The Dutchman finished above both McLaren drivers at the Singapore GP, cutting Piastri’s lead to 63 points in the championship.
It came after a first-lap tussle between the McLaren teammates that has Norris facing unspecified ‘repercussions’ after the team decided he was responsible for the collision with Piastri. It’s understood those consequences will be sporting ones and Norris suggested it could even be something that counts against him for the rest of the season.
F1 figure urges McLaren to favour Oscar Piastri’s title bid
The Singapore incident led to calls for McLaren to start prioritising Piastri’s world title bid, having already wrapped up the constructors’ championship. And former Hass boss Steiner said allowing Piastri and Norris to continue going to-to-toe could lead to disastrous consequences, particularly with the threat of the red-hot Verstappen looming large.
“I’m sorry, and it’s nothing against Lando. Oscar put himself in the first two-thirds of the races in a better position,” Steiner said. “Now it’s ‘you go and win the World Championship’ because if they lose the Drivers’ World Championship now, I wouldn’t be happy.
“And then you have got two unhappy drivers. At least if you favour one, you’ve got only one unhappy driver… What I would do is I would say support Oscar to win the championship. Because they are coming close now.”
There are 33 points up for grabs across the weekend in Austin, with the sprint race followed by Monday morning’s (AEDT) grand prix. Officials have declared a ‘heat hazard’ for the second race in a row, with temperatures on Saturday and Sunday expected to exceed 31 degrees Celsius at the Circuit of the Americas.
with agencies