Verstappen roared again in the pole sprint in Austin and Norris made things difficult

A step forward is expected Red Bull in Austin after suffering so many races, from the past Imola GPwith many problems. The evolutions were released this weekend in a more representative and favorable layout. And there, for now, is the world champion, Max Verstappenroared again, winning pole for the sprint, commanding the grid for this Saturday’s short race (8pm/DAZN), and perhaps sending a first warning to all his rivals for the rest of the weekend .

Max took first place by beating George Russell’s Mercedes at the horn by just 12 thousandths. He came out last on the track to beat any thousandths of a second on the time and he did it with another fast turn. However, the 11th place of his teammate ‘Checo’ Pérez, who fell in SQ2, continues to cast doubt about a car that only works in the hands of the Dutchman.

With 6 Grand Prix remaining until the end of the World Championship, Verstappen He started by beating his rival for the title, a Lando Norris who was 52 points behind and who in Saturday’s sprint race could further complicate the already complicated battle against the best driver on the grid. At stake, on this Saturday’s short date, is 8 points of victory, a plunder that now seems closer. Verstappen was first, and Norris was far behind, 4th on the grid after remaining 0”250 behind Leclercwhich was third in a Ferrari with no improvements.

McLaren revealed 4 new performance features in its package, in the best car on the grid since Imola. There are many parts, more than Red Bull, something that probably costs them not to maximize the performance of their car with only one hour of free practice available.

Sainz, 5th

Carlos Sainz finished SQ2 with the best time and that put him in contention at a track where Ferrari didn’t expect to be so close to the best. The Spaniard finished 5th, just 6 thousandths behind Lando and 0.256 behind Verstappen’s best time But Ferrari is a better car in the race this year and from fifth place we will have to see if , with the package presented at Monza. , On a more representative and “normal” track, the Spaniard could fight for the first three places in the sprint.

Alonso experimented with settings

With up to 6 performance enhancements to the car, with only an hour of free testing before the real fire, and with how hard the Aston Martin team has to find the settings key every time it reveals new features, there has been Alonso a complex task in the sprint classification. He chose to continue learning about his car by trying new settings, but he couldn’t make it into the top 10. This time there were no miracles. The Asturian gave it a try, but he would start 14th after his time was disallowed for exceeding track limits. Your priority is to learn from the news to capitalize on it in future appointments.

This Saturday, the classification

After the sprint event this Saturday, the classification (00:00) will be held for this Sunday’s race. A new opportunity for Norris to try to catch up with Verstappen, for Sainz to try to improve on 5th place to fight the race and for Fernando Alonso to choose to approach that very competitive and complicated Top-10.