Simply Lovely Saturday Launches Verstappen Into the Fight for the WDC

Despite not being able to put down a second flying lap during Q3, Max Verstappen’s first run in the session was more than enough to secure his seventh grand prix pole position of the year. 

Lando Norris will be alongside him on the front row, while Oscar Piastri struggled throughout all of qualifying, and will be starting further behind from P6.

The two McLaren drivers both looked like they were fighting their cars during the session, with Norris saying that the track felt, “quite a bit more tricky than it was yesterday,” citing changing conditions and increased wind. 

Yet troubles started even earlier for both of the papaya party,  when contact involving Fernando Alonso, Nico Hulkenberg, Piastri and Norris took out both of the McLarens at turn one of the sprint. 

Meanwhile, Verstappen sped off into the distance, continuing his streak of leading every single sprint lap in Austin to win the race. And with that win, Verstappen was able to take a substantial, eight-point chunk out of the lead Norris and Piastri have on him in the drivers’ standings, bringing the gap between himself and Piastri down from 63 to just 55. 

And this, combined with how the race qualifying unfolded, might just have fully swung the door open for Verstappen to challenge for the World Drivers’ Championship.

With six races and two more sprints ahead, Verstappen just needs to gain an average of 9.3 points per race weekend on Piastri to defend his title (something that a P1 for Verstappen and a P3 for Piastri would be more than enough to achieve). While this is still a challenging task, if there is anyone that can do it, it’s Verstappen, who has been steadily eating away at the gap between him and the two McLarens since summer break.

And he has placed himself in the perfect position to keep chipping away at it during tomorrow’s main event.

Charles Leclerc rounds out the top three grid positions. Full qualifying results are below:

Cover image via Red Bull Content Pool.