Max Verstappen gave another blow in the United States: he took pole
The four-time champion continues his pressure on the McLaren duo by winning the classification and will start in the lead on the 19th round of the World Cup. Lando Norris will start second and Oscar Piastri, sixth.
With five and a half dates left in the 76th Formula 1 season, the championship is red hot. Only five events ago, few imagined having Max Verstappen as a strong candidate to win his fifth title in a row. In those days, after the Hungarian GP, the question was between two: Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. The Dutchman, with a Red Bull that was not competitive, left the Hungaroring 97 points behind the Australian. But the champion never gave up and that gap was reduced to 55 after the victory in the sprint of the United States GP, round 19, and, a while later, he took pole position for this Sunday’s race. Meanwhile, in Woking, they bleed to death…
Verstappen signed his 47th pole position in F1 by winning the classification at the Austin track, in a round complicated by the heat and wind. In fact, at the end of Q3, Max couldn’t even make his last attempt and they didn’t even manage to overcome him. The Dutchman clocked 1m32s510 and was 291 thousandths ahead of Lando Norris, who will complete the first starting row, as happened in the short race.
The growth of the Dutchman’s threatening figure is proportional to McLaren’s decline in performance. Perhaps the nervousness of two pilots who are facing the chance of their first crown, who collide with a competitive beast that will never give up. At Red Bull they debuted a new bottom for the RB21 in Monza and hit the key to improve the aerodynamic load that it had to suffer. Since then, including the American sprint, Max has achieved three wins and two second places. Those from Woking, who celebrated the Constructors’ title in Singapore, are on their longest streak of the year without winning. And, with his boys showing cracks.
All the fortitude and granite personality that Piastri had shown until a couple of competitions ago succumbed. In Azerbaijan, he crashed in qualifying and on the first lap. He was nervous in Singapore after the contact he had with Norris, he complained bitterly on the radio and even insulted the team’s celebration on the podium. In the United States he was not strong in qualifying for the sprint and at the start of the short race he was badly damaged and his mistake was blamed on both MCL39. Incredibly, Norris, who had been psychologically weak all year, appears as the strongest when the definition approaches. But Verstappen’s threatening image is heavy.
Piastri, after his mistake in the sprint, completed his bad Saturday with just sixth place achieved in qualifying for the main race. The Australian needed to get among the three in qualifying so as not to increase his pressure. If Verstappen wins Austin, the pressure may be unsustainable for Piastri and Norris and all of McLaren. There will be 149 points left in dispute and tracks that Max likes very well like Las Vegas and Brazil in the middle. “I think Max has been fast all weekend, so we will have to wait and see if that carries over to the race as well. I didn’t make any mistakes in Q3, I just didn’t find the rhythm,” explained PIastri.
“The first lap in Q3 was good; I just managed to improve a little compared to Q2. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make my last attempt; it was a bit complicated with the starting laps. Luckily, we didn’t need it. But again, for us it was a very good result,” said Max to close a Saturday in which he kept everything and increased the psychological pressure in the opposite camp.
