The 2024 F1 US GP qualifying recently took place after all 20 drivers competed in sprint qualifying and race on Saturday. The starting grid is now set for Sunday's Grand Prix in Austin, with McLaren's Lando Norris bagging pole position and his title rival Max Verstappen securing second place.
The Q1 session in qualifying saw a surprising exit of Lewis Hamilton. The Brit was unable to clock his fast lap due to a slight mistake, which triggered the track limit violation. Meanwhile, George Russell managed to get out of the elimination zone. Other F1 drivers who were knocked out were Alex Albon, Franco Colapinto, Valtteri Bottas, and Zhou Guanyu.
In Q2, the battle between midfield drivers continued as they tried their best to reach the top 10 places. While Kevin Magnussen was able to crack into the top 10, his teammate Nico Hulkenberg was out in Q2 by securing P12. A similar story took place at Alpine and Aston Martin, where Pierre Gasly and Fernando Alonso were able to push forward while Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll were knocked out in Q2.
Finally, in Q3, the battle for the top spots began. McLaren and Ferrari drivers fought with each other for the top three positions, but Lando Norris retained the provisional pole position for most of the session. Defending world champion Max Verstappen continued to push hard but was ever so slightly slower than Norris.
Another major talking point was George Russell's crash right before the end of Q3. The British driver crashed at Turn 19 while clocking a fast lap. Due to his crash, several drivers were unable to push one final time for a flying lap.
Here is the final starting grid for the 2024 F1 US GP:
- Lando Norris - McLaren
- Max Verstappen - Red Bull
- Carlos Sainz - Ferrari
- Charles Leclerc - Ferrari
- Oscar Piastri - McLaren
- George Russell - Mercedes
- Pierre Gasly - Alpine
- Fernando Alonso - Aston Martin
- Kevin Magnussen - Haas
- Sergio Perez - Red Bull
- Yuki Tsunoda - RB
- Nico Hulkenberg - Haas
- Esteban Ocon - Alpine
- Lance Stroll - Aston Martin
- Alex Albon - Williams
- Franco Colapinto - Williams
- Valtteri Bottas - Kick Sauber
- Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
- Zhou Guanyu - Kick Sauber
- Liam Lawson - RB
After the qualifying session, both Liam Lawson and Zhou Guanyu were pushed down to the last due to changes made to their car's power units.
Lando Norris was delighted with his pole lap for the 2024 F1 US GP
Lando Norris expressed his happiness towards his last flying lap that allowed him to clinch pole position at the 2024 F1 US GP. Speaking after qualifying, the British driver talked about how hard he pushed for that lap to stay ahead of the Ferraris and Red Bull's Max Verstappen, with whom he is fighting for the championship.
He was also happy to start the race from the front since he admitted that McLaren is not as quick as Ferrari and Red Bull at Austin.
“It was a beautiful lap. I was not going to go much quicker than what I did. You know when you just do a lap and you think it’s going to be tough to beat that, but I put everything out on the line. It’s all we needed to do," Norris said.
“We’ve been on the back foot pretty much the whole weekend. We’ve not had the pace of the Ferraris or the Red Bulls so I had to do something, and today I did that. A cool lap and a nice way to start the race tomorrow,” he added.
Lando Norris is currently second in the F1 drivers' championship table with 285 points and is chasing defending world champion and table leader Max Verstappen, who has 339 points.