Sprint Qualifying Highlights | 2025 United States Grand Prix

Good afternoon and welcome to Texas. We're at the Circuit of the Americas, poised and ready to run qualifying to set the grid for the fourth sprint race of the season. I don't think Tsunoda's gonna make it round for another lap, you know. That whole bunch going slowly out on a hot day. I think Tsunoda's gonna be out of this before he can have a chance to reply. Fourteenth, but will tumble down with Albon and Leclerc finding time. Okay for Charles Leclerc, he fights the car through the 20th and final corner, and over the line he goes,

and it's scrapping all over the road, so he improves. Albon goes up to 6th position, and Yuki Tsunoda is done. He did not get a lap in. So is Ocon, and so is Bortoletto. It's an absolute mess at the final corner. There was enough time, but they want to drive at a slow pace on that out lap, and it's actually cost them.

I thought it would be safe, but it's absolutely not.

Shorter time on the clock for Sprint Qualifying. Sprint Qualifying, and the first part of it, that will, did another lap, good enough for fourth position. Then it's Norris, Antonelli, Albon improved as Norris takes back top spot. And that is a lap and a half, fastest in all three sectors. Track still improving, but so many of the field further down haven't got the chance to find a bit of time because they've left the garage too late in that traffic jam. So is Gasly and Colopinto the only two that can now knock out Stroll and Behrmann. Colopinto hasn't.

He got close, not close enough. The driver that scored a point here last year, 16th, and Gasly looking to improve and does so to knock out Oliver Behrmann. So our last gasp lap for Pierre Gasly gets him up to P15. We're riding on board with Isaac Haja, who will find himself happily through, and Hulkenberg finds himself out there as well. But it's Behrmann demoted by Gasly at the end that's the main story. Hulkenberg went well in practice, has gone well again in SQ1. So coming out of the pit lane, this is with enough time on the clock that you're trying to keep the tires, that the warm-up lap is important for the preparation of the tires,

and then suddenly you're racing, and that is just bizarre stuff if you consider that this was just leaving the pit lane. And that's Ocon at the front of the queue who's also out without the chance to improve, and he's backing them all up there to try and get his own space, but it doesn't matter, they're not going to get around. Baermann, Colopinto, Tsunoda and Ocon bought Leto Pays for going beyond track limits on his first run

and they were all tripping over each other and it's cost them. 20th and final corner for the Frenchman who gets up to 10th position and demotes Charles Leclerc. But Hulkenberg's going quicker, is not going to stand for too long, I don't think, if this man can hook up these final two corners.

This is the crucial one, left-hander at 19. Judged really, really nicely. He hasn't made a top 10 of any qualifying session all season long. P5! Oh, and it sounded so good through 19 as well, squeezed on the gas, none of that nasty understeer, none of the scrapping oversteer.

Hülkenberg is flying today.

Well, he is loving the balance of the car in sharp contrast to Charles Leclerc, who is not having fun at all. So Hajar's in the drop zone. You've got Pierre Gasly's gone over the line in 12th position. Stroll is in 14th and done. Liam Lawson's time was deleted for going beyond the white lines. And Charles Leclerc currently in 13th, up on his teammate Lewis Hamilton, who is also on the racetrack at the same time.

And Antonelli is in trouble as well, having completed a lap and is only 9th with a barely improvement from Kimi Antonelli. So there's going to be a big scout going out. Is it going to be Hamilton Leclerc or Antonelli? Here we go, deep breath into 19. That's judged all right for Charles Leclerc.

Track will be at its best, improving by a tenth of a second by every minute that we run. And it's 8th position then. Can Lewis Hamilton, currently in 11th, progress and demote the man who replaced him at Mercedes? The answer is yes.

That's an error from Antonelli. Six thousandths is nothing, so that is goodbye to Q3 at this stage for Kimi.

That is Liam Lawson going beyond track limits.

What the **** was that?

And we also got track limits at Turn 19.

Maybe we're the car we're sitting in the middle of the road.

Antonelli is into 11th place and it's Hadjar, Gasly, Stroll and Lawson. Norris has done the fastest first sector of anyone,

as you might expect on a McLaren on soft tyres.

Others need to think of the title and need to think of their weekends. He is just enjoying finally having that Sauber speaking to him, gathers it together, and can he keep it across the line to go fastest of anyone so far? He's two tenths ahead of George Russell.

Welcome back Nico Hülkenberg. What a day he's had. Provisional pole, but will it last? Because Norris is going very quickly. The Ferraris are tethered through two sectors. Look at Lando Norris, well up on Hülkenberg with the final sector he's been so strong on so far today to come.

Charles Leclerc across the line to fifth position. Lewis Hamilton will be ten seconds back on the racetrack. Norris going very, very quickly. Verstappen in the first sector, going even quicker still. Piastri's first sector is abject. He's two tenths down on Norris. He's two and a half tenths down on Verstappen. Fourth position for Lewis Hamilton. Norris going well, Verstappen going well. Piastri needing a response in the final two sectors of the racetrack. Lando Norris taking pole by four tenths of a second. Monster middle sector from Norris. You can see Piastri is well down.

Verstappen's the threat now for Norris' pole position here. Very quick in the first sector. Piastri running wide as well.

He's got to keep it together.

Piastri hanging on to it. The championship leader looking, at the very least, for top three. That's what he's looking for at the moment. It might be close with Hülkenberg after that mistake, you know. Hanging on to it, one corner to go. Verstappen will rival up against Norris. Can Piastri minimize the damage? It's not been the cleanest lap.

He's three tenths of a second away from Lando Norris, but can Max Verstappen take it away from Norris and start at the front of the field once again? He can! Three in a row for sprint poles in Austin for Max Verstappen, who beats his two championship rivals. One by three tenths of a second and the other by seven hundredths of a second. It's a sprint race in Austin.

And once again, it's Max Verstappen at the front.

Good job, Max. Fantastic job.

Hard work complete. Well done.

3.1 is a bit better. Good job, Tom.

So it's Max Verstappen once again, the driver who is lighting up a trail at the Circuit of the Americas. He is the driver that will lead away and he has led every single lap around the sprint format when it comes to this circuit. format when it comes to this circuit. It is game on for the McLarens.