Max Verstappen controlled the US GP sprint race, winning by almost 10 seconds from Lewis Hamilton who got by Charles Leclerc at the start.
But the F1 world champion faces a tougher challenge of repeating his sprint race triumph in Sunday’s grand prix as he starts from sixth place, having lost his best lap that was good enough for pole due to exceeding track limits in Friday qualifying.
That allowed Leclerc to take pole and he’ll be joined on the front row by McLaren’s Lando Norris, who finished 0.876s behind the Ferrari driver in fourth in the sprint race.
Hamilton, who also qualified third for the sprint, will start from the head of the second row for Mercedes and in front of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
George Russell will be hoping for a cleaner Sunday after a sprint Saturday stalled by a three-place grid drop for blocking Leclerc in sprint qualifying and then a five-second penalty for overtaking Oscar Piastri while off the track in the sprint race which meant he finished eighth.
Source: Autosport