pole

Hamilton also faces an investigation for failing to slow sufficiently for the yellow flags waved when Leclerc lost control.

Norris topped all three sessions in sprint qualifying and had a comfortable advantage over Piastri throughout.

He said: “It was a little bit tougher than I would have liked. But we did the job we needed to do, which was to be fastest today.

“Qualifying is always one of the best things here. It’s difficulty, it’s bumpy, it’s tricky, always a joy, always puts a smile on your face.

“But a long weekend, another qualifying and another couple of races to go but a good start.”

Rain is forecast for Saturday morning in Sao Paulo, when the sprint race is due to start at 14:00 GMT. Qualifying for the grand prix is at 18:00.

Norris’ result is the best possible start to the weekend and gives him the opportunity to build his championship lead – eight points are awarded to the winner of the sprint, seven for second and so on down to eighth place.

Antonelli impressed in second, his best time set on his first lap, while the surprise package of qualifying was Alonso, who set the fastest time in the second session and was just 0.253secs off pole in his midfield car in the final shootout.

His team-mate Lance Stroll was seventh fastest, ahead of Leclerc, Racing Bulls’ Iscak Hadjar and Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg.

Piastri, meanwhile, cut a somewhat forlorn figure. He had a difficult weekend in the US a week ago and thought he had found the answers. But as he put it: “What’s been a bit surprising here has just been that the gap has been the same pretty much every session.

“I feel like I’ve done some decent laps through the weekend, but everything seems to be about 0.4-0.5secs off.”

Team principal Andrea Stella said Piastri was losing a little bit everywhere, and Piastri said: “I feel like I did a reasonable job and the car felt reasonable as well. So, yeah, the lack of lap time is a bit of a mystery.”

Piastri has been off Norris’ pace whether on short runs or long, low fuel or high, so it is more in hope that he said of the race: “If I can unlock the pace in the car, we can have some fun. We’ve just got to try to unlock it.”

This is now Piastri’s fifth difficult weekend in a row, his form mysteriously evaporating since he won in the Netherlands at the end of August.

He did not talk directly about what this means for the championship, but there was no hiding the meaning behind one of his comments: “There’s a lot of things I could worry about, but ultimately being that far off when you feel like you’ve done a reasonable job is a difficult place to be. And so that’s my biggest concern at the moment.”

Stella said that the conditions in Mexico, like those in Austin, are ones in which Norris thrives and Piastri is less comfortable – low grip, hot tyres.

And he said that “every evidence, every piece of data, every indirect measurement of information we have, tells us that there is no problem with the car”.

He added that it was “good” for McLaren to be able “to confirm that we can have the fastest car”, adding that their “focus is to stop the momentum of Verstappen”.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen beat McLaren’s Lando Norris to pole position at the United States Grand Prix with championship leader Oscar Piastri down in sixth.

After the McLaren drivers crashed out of the sprint earlier on Saturday, neither was able to challenge Verstappen even though the world champion failed to complete a final run in qualifying.

Verstappen was sent out too late to get around in time to start a last lap before the chequered flag but still beat Norris by 0.291 seconds.

It was an imperious performance that underlined why McLaren are concerned about his threat in the drivers’ championship.

Norris saved his best for last in a difficult session to pip Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to second on the grid by just 0.006secs.

But Piastri, who has looked out of sorts all weekend, was not quick and he ended up 0.574secs off the pace, and behind Mercedes’ George Russell and the second Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton.

Piastri had looked to be struggling compared with Norris since the start of practice and was a good chunk off the Briton in all three qualifying sessions.

Norris said: “Disappointed not to be on pole but not a surprise for us to be just a bit slower than the Red Bull lately.

“A little couple of bits here and there I could have improved on and caught a few bumps a little bit wrong, that’s the difficulty of this track. Otherwise, all happy.”

Piastri said: “A pretty scruffy lap. Just didn’t really get it together. In some ways, I feel a bit fortunate to be third. The pace in the car is good. It’s nothing major, just been a bit of a messy lap and hopefully I can tidy it up tomorrow.”

The sprint offers eight points for the winner down to one for eighth place.

The stand-out performance in qualifying came from Hulkenberg, the first time he has qualified in the top 10 all year, and the best Sauber performance of the season.

Their previous top grid position was seventh for team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto in Hungary at the start of August.

“Satisfied, happy, as you might imagine,” the German said. “P1 looked too good to be true. We weren’t sure if it was the real deal but we were able to continue that trend. Hopefully we can hang on to it this weekend.

“The pace was just there. The car seemed to be fast and in a good window, hit the sweet spot, I think that’s all.”

MAX VERSTAPPEN blasted Formula One title rival Lando Norris for getting in his way after failing to land a maiden pole position at the Singapore Grand Prix.

George Russell denied old rival Verstappen the front row seat with a lightning-quick lap of 1:29.158 – a new record at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

3

3

Verstappen, 28, is eyeing a first-ever win in Sunday’s race to complete the career set of winning at every F1 track on the 2025 calendar.

However, the flying Dutchman aimed a stinging shot at McLaren’s Norris – who had claimed Verstappen was “almost impossible” to beat because he had been “born into F1″ – by accusing him of forcing him into a mistake in the final sector of his lap.

Speaking in a unique three-driver post-qualifying press conference because of the sweltering temperatures, which triggered a first-ever heat hazard warning issued by the FIA on Thursday, Verstappen was asked about a mistake during the final few corners.

The raging Red Bull driver replied: “Yeah, that’s what happens when there’s a car two seconds in front of you cruising in front.

“So that’s noted, will be remembered as well.”

When pressed on the identity of the culprit, Verstappen replied: “Not Oscar [Piastri]. So yeah, that was a bit of a shame. Otherwise, I think it could have been close for a pole.

“It’s very exciting here in qualifying. A little bit disappointed not to be first but for us this weekend the car has been really good.

Briton Russell was delighted with his top spot, a first-ever pole for him in Singapore after a “challenging day” on Friday following a crash in FP2.

BEST ONLINE CASINOS – TOP SITES IN THE UK

He said: “It’s good to come back and get a good result today.

“There’s a long sweaty race tomorrow but I knew there was potential in the car because Kimi [Antonelli] was doing an amazing job all weekend and I gained quite a lot from seeing what he was capable of doing.”

On the prospect of keeping four-time world champion Verstappen behind him going into Turn 1, Russell added: “Yeah, I mean Singapore’s not always been the kindest to me in the past.

“That’s been through my own doing the majority of the time. I’m not going to get carried away with this pole position. But it’s the best place to start.

“There’s a good pole side advantage here so I like to think I can hold the lead into Turn 1, but obviously this guy on my left is pretty good at race starts and sending it down the inside.”

Such a claim seemed off-beat considering Verstappen is 69 points behind McLaren championship leader Oscar Piastri, who scored third in Saturday’s qualifying.

Yet wins in Italy and Azerbaijan and a strong result in qualifying is threatening to split the drivers’ title race wide open despite the comparative dominance of McLaren for most of the season.

Piastri said: “I obviously would have wanted more but I don’t think we had four-tenths in it to go and get pole.”

Team-mate Norris, who will start P5 in the race, addressed Verstappen’s claim after the session.

He said: “Red Bull always complains. There was no problem with Max driving behind me. Yes, he was riding behind me. But there was such a huge distance, so no problem.”

There was early hope for Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari in qualifying as he topped the first session, but he ultimately ended up in P6 with team-mate Charles Leclerc in P7.

3

Piastri said he simply did not have the pace to compete and was 0.366secs off pole.

He said he and McLaren had expected to be able to compete at the front.

“My first lap of Q3 felt reasonable,” Piastri said. “It certainly didn’t feel 0.4secs off. We just didn’t have the pace tonight, which was a little bit of a surprise for us. We were relatively confident going in.”

Piastri’s performance, though, was a return to form for the Australian after a difficult race in Baku, where he made a series of mistakes, culminating in crashing on the first lap.

Starting two places in front of Norris, he has a good chance to extend his 25-point championship lead.

Norris said: “We weren’t quick enough., the Mercedes were quite a lot faster. I didn’t put it all together and you need to do it on a track like this.

“There’s still chances so we have to wait and see.”

Hamilton outqualified Leclerc for the first time since the British Grand Prix to underline an upturn in his form in recent races.

He was fastest in the first session and said he felt Ferrari had mismanaged the rest of qualifying.

“The pace was there,” Hamilton said. “We just didn’t optimise the sessions, Q2 onwards.

“I’m definitely more comfortable in the car, this weekend I think I have been driving really well.

“P6 is not good. I definitely think we should have been further ahead but it was all about tyre temp today. It is every week. Tomorrow is going to be tough from where we are. There is not really much we can do from here.”

Williams, whose drivers Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz qualified 12th and 13th, have been reported to the stewards because their rear wings were found to exceed maximum dimensions. This is likely to lead to their disqualification from qualifying.

Leclerc’s crash made it another dire day for Ferrari after Hamilton failed to make the top-10 shootout.

The session ran for two hours and the six red-flag stoppages broke a record that had previously been tied by the 2022 Emilia-Romagna and 2024 Sao Paulo Grands Prix.

The first person to crash was Williams’ Alex Albon, who hit the inside apex at Turn One, causing the first of three red-flag stoppages in the first session.

Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg caused the second, by crashing at Turn Four, and the session ended a few seconds early after both Alpine drivers made mistakes at the same corner after the restart.

Pierre Gasly first sped up the escape road, before his team-mate Franco Colapinto misjudged his entry into the same corner, despite waved yellow flags, and crashed on the exit.

Haas driver Oliver Bearman then brought out the next red flag when he oversteered into the wall on the exit of Turn Two early in the second session. The session then ran to the end without incident, although Piastri hit the wall on the exit of Turn 15 but was able to carry on with his lap.

The excitement was increased during the stoppages in the final session because light rain was starting to fall, which may have influenced the crashes of Leclerc and Piastri.

Leclerc, who had been on pole in Baku for the past four years, went straight on into the tyre barrier at Turn 15, before Piastri did the same thing at Turn Three on the restart.

With temperatures of about 30C accompanied by intense humidity continuing to pose a challenge to the athletes in the Japanese capital, Cairess was unable to complete the men’s marathon.

The 27-year-old Briton, a medal contender after placing fourth at the Paris 2024 Olympics, stopped by the roadside with less than three of the 26.2 miles remaining and the lead group beginning to move out of reach.

“I tried my best. I just got too hot, simple as that really. The conditions were so tough,” said Cairess, who finished third in last year’s London Marathon.

“When I stopped, I just took ages to just feel all right again. I used all the stations to be diligent with the ice and the sponges. While it helped, it just still got too hot.

“I did a decent amount of preparation for the conditions, as much as I could balancing it with training. I’ve not known conditions like it, but this is only my fourth marathon. I did the best I could.”

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen snatched pole position for the Italian Grand Prix from Lando Norris with the fastest lap in Formula 1 history.

The Dutchman’s time of one minute 18.792 seconds beat the lap set by Lewis Hamilton at Monza in 2020 for Mercedes by 0.095secs – at an average speed of 164.484mph.

Norris had just leapt to the top of the times after a difficult first run left him seventh, but Verstappen pipped him by 0.077 seconds for his first pole since the British Grand Prix in July.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, leading Norris by 34 points in their championship battle, was third fastest, ahead of the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.

But the seven-time champion has a five-place penalty and will start the grand prix at Monza 10th.

That promotes Mercedes’ George Russell to fifth, ahead of team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda.

Verstappen’s pole time seemed to surprise even the Dutchman himself, after he struggled for pace through the practice sessions.

Verstappen said he “had to commit a lot” in the high-speed corners because of the low-downforce set-up the team had chosen, which made the car on edge in the demanding corners.

The low wing levels come with pros and cons – it gives faster speed on the straight but makes the car more difficult through the corners and potentially increases tyre wear.

Verstappen said: “We looked a bit slow on the other wing plus it was understeering to the moon, and I needed to get rid of that understeer. It was light on downforce but it seemed to work.”

Piastri was quickest after the first laps of qualifying but he failed to improve on his second lap, at least partly because of a couple of slides of the rear out of the final corner, Club.

The championship leader said: “I was happy with the first lap. It was mega, to be honest. I was trying to think of how I would go faster and I didn’t.

“The second lap was a bit messy but it has been tight all weekend; a little on the table, but we’ll never know if it’s enough.”

Piastri said he was “not that surprised Max is quick here”, it’s quite similar speed and conditions to Suzuka,” where Verstappen won from pole.

Norris, who trails Piastri by 15 points going into the race, which marks the halfway point of the season, said: “Good qualifying. I am not going to be unhappy with third, would love to be pole but Max did a good job, a fun qualifying today. Not the top but still a good day.

“It’s going to be fun tomorrow, a good fight, with the three of us, and probably with Lewis and Charles and George as well.”

The grid gives the Australian a good chance to extend his championship lead over Norris, who had a tricky session.

He missed the final chicane on his first lap of the top 10 shootout and had to be reminded not to push too much in the braking zones.

His second attempt was slower than Alonso’s first and Norris failed to improve on his final run, and was bumped further down by Russell, Antonelli and Hamilton.

Norris said: “Just a couple of big mistakes. One, hitting the wall on the last lap in the exit of (Turn) Seven and first lap, I think, last corner. So, yeah, just two mistakes that cost me, I guess.

“We’ve clearly not been as quick as normal. I think that’s just because of the layout of the track. I think the cars have been performing relatively well and I was happy through all of qualifying. Maybe not the car to take pole today, but good enough to be up there and fighting for top three.”

Alonso’s sixth place was Aston Martin’s best grid position of the season and confirms the progress the team have made since introducing an upgrade at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.

“We maximised for sure the potential of the car,” Alonso said. “I feel happier with the car since Imola, since the upgrade.

“At the beginning of the year, it was a challenge to understand what the car needed and what kind of direction in the set-up I needed to go, but since Imola I am more comfortable and I can be more precise on the feedback and make the changes that I know will make the car faster and sometimes you succeed on that.

“Last four races, four Q3 (places). It makes the whole team a little more relaxed.”

Rounding out the top 10 behind Leclerc were Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar and Williams’ Alex Albon.

But Hadjar faces an investigation for impeding Williams’ Carlos Sainz at the end of the first session, preventing the Spaniard from progressing.

Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda, who qualified 11th, will start at the back because of a 10-place grid penalty for overtaking Piastri’s damaged McLaren after a red flag during final practice.

Stewards rejected Tsunoda’s explanations for his actions, saying Piastri was not going slow enough to excuse the breaking of a safety rule.

Lando Norris said his pole position at the Monaco Grand Prix was a “step in the right direction” and “quite a big thing” after being unhappy with his form since the start of this season.

The McLaren driver trails team-mate Oscar Piastri by 13 points in the championship after the Australian’s four victories to Norris’ one.

The pole was Norris’ first since the Australian Grand Prix at the start of the season, while Piastri has taken three.

Norris said: “To classify it as a breakthrough, you also need consistency of results.

“I can look at it both ways. It’s a breakthrough that I had a good Saturday. For me it’s at least a step in the right direction, which I’m very, very happy about.

“But it’s one weekend. Consistency is a big part of it, too, and I will be happier if I know and can get to that point where I am confident into every session that I can perform like I did today, because I think my performance was at a very, very strong level.

“If I go into Barcelona and Canada and the next few races and I can perform at this level, that is my goal.

But certainly today is a step in the right direction, whether it’s a small step or big step, it’s a step and that’s all I need for now.”

Norris beat Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by 0.109 seconds in an exciting session in Monaco, as pole swapped between Norris and the Monegasque over their runs.

Leclerc did one flying lap, while McLaren chose to do two, staying out on track but cooling their tyres in between. Norris took pole, Leclerc snatched it from him, before the Briton grabbed it back again.

Norris has been working hard on improving his qualifying performance this season, after explaining that he has been finding it difficult to trust the McLaren car enough to be able to take it consistently to the limit in qualifying.

Asked to explain his step forward, he said: “Things from the car, just it being Monaco and a very different layout, a very different kind of style of driving that’s needed here. It’s a lot more risk commitment rather than just absolute car balance, in a way.

“And also things that I’ve been working on to improve, to do a better job.

“Never because I’ve not had the pace – just more that I’ve never put it together come Q3. today was probably the first time since Australia that I’ve really put it all together.

“It’s not like I’m driving quicker, it’s I’m driving in a better way, in a smarter way.

“But there’s been a lot of work that’s gone on. For me, even if I was pole in any other track, I think it probably would have been the pole that’s meant the most to me.

“It probably means even more that’s in Monaco, but more because of what’s happened over the last couple of months. It may not seem like a lot, but for me, it’s quite a big thing. So, yeah, like I said, a very, very good moment.”

He said he always believed he would get on top of the problem.

“I don’t think I have ever doubted what I can do,” Norris said. “I have got frustrated. I have been unhappy, because that’s normal if you don’t win, don’t get pole, you’re not going to be happy, especially when it’s where you should be. It’s what the objective is.

“Of course I’ve had those moments but I have never certainly this year doubted what I am capable of doing and having a day like today backs all that up so I’m happy with that.”