AUSTIN – Lando Norris will start the United States Grand Prix from pole position after a crash by George Russell in qualifying ended practice early, just as Max Verstappen appeared on track to beat the fastest-time McLaren driver .

Verstappen, who leads Norris by 54 points in the drivers' championship after winning Saturday's sprint race, was on a faster lap than his title rival when Russell crashed in the penultimate corner and showed yellow flags, effectively ending practice.

Norris was 0.031 seconds quicker than Verstappen after the first few runs in third qualifying, meaning he secured pole position at the end of the session.

When he was informed of the result over the team radio, he said: “Damn beautiful!”

After the session Norris said: “It was a beautiful lap, I didn't want to go much faster than I did – you know when you just do one lap you think it's going to be hard to beat that.” Everything is on that game and we were behind all weekend. We didn't have the pace of Ferrari or Red Bull so I had to do something and today I did that, a cool lap and a nice start to the race tomorrow.

However, after finishing third in the sprint race earlier in the day, the McLaren driver still faces the big challenge of holding off Verstappen on Sunday and converting his pole into his fourth career win.

Verstappen said afterwards: “In the first part of Q3 I lost a lot of time there, but I knew we still had a run. But I couldn't finish a lap, otherwise we had a really good chance. If I’m there.” In the front row there was at least the potential to be first.

Bryn Lennon – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images

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Carlos Sainz, who pushed Norris into second place in the sprint race on the final lap, qualified third ahead of his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc.

Sainz said the session was a good step forward: “Yesterday we were fifth, today we were third, so we took a good step in the right direction. I'm a little disappointed about the last lap because I was three tenths ahead on my lap, but that's easy to say now.

“I think we've made good progress, we should be in contention tomorrow if we get off to a good start and with the two guys at the front it should be fun.”

Norris' teammate Oscar Piastri starts in fifth place ahead of Russell's Mercedes in sixth, Alpine's Pierre Gasly in seventh, Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin in eighth and Kevin Magnussen's Haas in ninth.

Verstappen's teammate Sergio Perez will start the race in tenth place after failing to achieve a time in the third qualifying session.

Yuki Tsunoda missed out on a place at the top by 0.032 seconds and will start Sunday's race from 11th on the grid ahead of Haas' Nico Hülkenberg, Alpine's Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll's Aston Martin.

Daniel Ricciardo's successor at RB, Liam Lawson, chose not to set a time in the second quarter as he will start from the back of the grid regardless of his time due to a grid penalty for an engine change before the weekend. Lawson set a time in the first quarter that would have made the breakthrough for the third quarter, but only came back on track in the second quarter to try to slipstream his teammate Tsunoda.

Lewis Hamilton failed to get out of the first qualifying session after setting a lap 0.121 seconds behind the cut point for Q2. The seven-time world champion said the car was “a nightmare” and complained about imbalances in balance and a lack of grip.

Mercedes discovered a suspension problem on Hamilton's car after Saturday's sprint race, in which he finished sixth, but believed they had already fixed it before qualifying. Hamilton, who set the 19th fastest time in Q1, said he wanted to start from the pit lane on Sunday so the team could change its setup before the start of the race.

Russell, who reported he was fine after the crash, said he was “confused” about why it happened.

“I'm a bit confused why Lewis and I were fighting for pole yesterday and something was missing today,” he said. “The car didn't feel quite as good, it just seems to be a theme at the moment that if we find the sweet spot, we'll have a car that's capable of pole positions and race wins, and if we get that “Can’t find the optimal point.” We’re nowhere.

Williams drivers Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto also retired in Q1 and will start in 15th and 16th place ahead of Sauber driver Valtteri Bottas. Zhou Guanyu's second Sauber qualified 20th, but will start 19th with Lawson's penalty.