Verstappen Completes a Perfect Saturday with Another Bite at McLaren

Max Verstappen's relentless pursuit in the latter part of the World Championship is commendable. McLaren, once poised to dominate, has faltered in defence, and the Dutch shark is ready to take another bite. Following his colossal victory in Saturday's sprint race, where he clawed back eight points due to a double KO, he will start Sunday's United States Grand Prix from pole position, ahead of Norris, who settled for the second-best time, and Piastri, who, with a hastily repaired car, will start from a lacklustre sixth place.

The World Championship leader will need to grit his teeth to climb and maintain his position in the general classification, as a repeat of this result during the race in Austin, Texas, would see him breathing down the neck of the reigning champion. In a notably even qualifying session, Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso came close to causing an upset but will have to settle for ninth and tenth positions, respectively, which offers a glimmer of optimism.

The session began with a scare due to a severe crash by Isack Hadjar, delaying the effective start of Q1 by a few minutes. After the incident, aware that track conditions would progressively improve, teams gambled on setting a sufficient lap time in the initial attempts while eyeing a chance to go out in the final moments. Some, like Sainz and Alonso, took a bold approach from the start: new soft tyres and a strong lap time.

The Mercedes drivers, Russell and Antonelli, along with Verstappen, who wanted to add pole position to his morning sprint race win to increase pressure on McLaren, did not need to hold back. The Dutchman was the fastest from the start, sending a clear warning to Piastri and Norris, still reeling from their clash in the short race, who advanced to Q2 with modest eleventh and twelfth places.

Those eliminated in this first cut were Bortoleto, Ocon, Stroll—who will start last due to his absurd crash in the sprint—Albon, who had his lap time deleted for exceeding track limits, and the crashed Hadjar.

Like a sequel, the second part of this qualifying session was a perfect continuation of the first, albeit with a slight change: the challenge behind Max Verstappen, who only needed a couple of attempts to dominate, came from Ferrari. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were very strong from the start, to the point of challenging Mercedes and even McLaren for the role of the four-time world champion's pursuers.

Attention then turned to who would be left out. It wasn't the Spaniards' turn, as both Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz comfortably crossed into Q3, in ninth and seventh, respectively. Those who didn't make it were Hulkenberg, Lawson, Tsunoda, Gasly, and Colapinto. Few expected these five drivers to be in the final round.

The culmination of a perfect Saturday for Max Verstappen was a pole position secured on his first Q3 attempt. The Dutch driver knew that improving track conditions could work in his favour, but he pushed so hard to reach the last moment that he was just a few metres short of making a second attempt. He didn't need more, as neither Norris nor Leclerc managed to improve, and Red Bull's minor miscalculation didn't grant them an extra reward.

Much further back, in sixth, Oscar Piastri will start. The Australian paid dearly for his sprint race error, and starting with a patched-up car in qualifying forced him to settle for a position that is not expected for the World Championship leader. The close competition worked in his favour, as those behind him were only a few hundredths away. Proof of this are the times of Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso, ninth and tenth, respectively, with just 10 thousandths between them and less than a tenth of a second separating Piastri from them.