F1 United States GP live updates: Norris claims pole, following ...

Formula One is back in the U.S. for round 19 of the 2024 world championship at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas.

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How about this for one of the images of Austin qualifying in 2024.

This was Lewis Hamilton walking away from his Mercedes after exiting in Q1 — and only in P19.

Speaking to Sky Sports after his exit, Hamilton said:

???? “We had some sort of failure from the formation lap on the front suspension, and then had that throughout the race.

“That made the balance really difficult. We did change a couple of things in the direction we would have done yesterday and the car was a nightmare today in quali, so I think I should probably start from the pit lane tomorrow otherwise I won’t be going anywhere.”

Here is how the teammate battles look after qualifying in Austin. The victor this afternoon is in bold:

So what of the qualifying trends we flagged before today’s sessions? Well:

It ended a little sooner than we expected — and here is how the qualifying top-10 shook up at the end:

⏰ 0/12mins: It was shaping up to be a super close end to qualifying between Verstappen and Norris.

Verstappen was up in sector one on his previous best, while Norris was slightly down…

Only for George Russell’s final sector crash to bring out yellow flags.

It meant nobody could improve, giving pole to Norris by 0.031 seconds.

Norris and Verstappen side-by-side off the line tomorrow is going to be very exciting.

⏰ 0/12mins: That’s it. Double yellow flags. Big crash for Russell but he’s OK and steps out of his Mercedes.

And with that, Lando Norris claims pole for tomorrow’s United States Grand Prix.

⏰ 0/12mins: We have a yellow flag in sector 19, just as the clock ticks through time and the checkered flag comes out.

George Russell is in the barriers.

This may well be the final order here…

⏰ 2/12mins: Into the two-minute warning we go. One shot left for this lot.

Perez is without a time after he had to abort his previous flying lap for catching a corner.

We also get an unsafe release from Pierre Gasly, as he gets a little close to Max Verstappen.

⏰ 4/12mins: We have Fernando Alonso out there on his own as the Q3 minutes tick away.

It’s his first lap time in this final session, and his 1:33.309 is good enough for P8 — ahead of Magnussen and Sergio Perez, who is yet to set a time.

⏰ 5/12mins: Norris needed a response, and boy did he give it.

He caught a slide exiting the penultimate corner, but is half a second quicker than he went in Q2.

Verstappen hasn’t made the same kind of gain, and was 0.031s down at the end of his lap.

Really fine margins.

They’re head-to-head for pole now, it seems.

⏰ 7/12mins: Everyone has clocked a lap, with Lando Norris topping the times as it stands.

His 1:32.330 is currently worth provisional pole.

⏰ 8/12mins: That’s a strange radio message from Will Joseph to Lando Norris there, telling him to “trust the car” and the time will come to him.

It’s rare you hear Norris needing a giddy-up for some confidence.

Before Q3 started, Lewis Hamilton has confirmed his Mercedes suffered a mechanical failure on one of his out laps.

That no doubt explains his shock elimination in Q1.

⏰ 12/12mins: Here we are. Time to sort out the top 10 for tomorrow’s Grand Prix grid.

Bring it on — which I imagine is exactly what Max Verstappen is saying to himself…

Some really good laps from Max Verstappen so far in this session.

Although we didn’t get a second run from Norris in Q2, Verstappen did only one run on a fresh set of tires at the end, having gone slower than his Q1 best on the scrubbed set to begin with.

Biggest surprise of Q2? Nico Hulkenberg not making it through to Q3. Imagine saying that about Haas a year ago!

Here are the next five drivers to be eliminated — and where::

Although, another reminder that Lawson will start at the back of tomorrow’s grid due to all those RB grid penalties.

⏰ 0/15mins: That’s it, time’s up and no shocks here — bar Alonso pulling out a lap from somewhere.

And the Haas pair both getting bumped out when I think they were hoping to do something special.