Winners and losers from the 2024 US Grand Prix sprint qualifying

An extremely tight sprint qualifying session for the US Grand Prix has seen Max Verstappen back on pole for the 19-lap dash on Saturday.

There were plenty of storylines up and down the field as the session unfolded on Friday, with only one hour of practice for the drivers to themselves used to their surroundings at the Circuit of The Americas.

Winners and losers from US Grand Prix sprint qualifying

Winners

Max Verstappen

For the first time since July’s Austrian Grand Prix sprint, Max Verstappen will start from pole position on Saturday – and it was a sterling lap from the Red Bull driver to place his car P1 on Friday.

Beating George Russell by just 0.012s in his final flying lap in SQ3, Verstappen is now back on top heading into the sprint and, with title rival Lando Norris starting in P4 – who bemoaned a “shocking” lap on his part, it’s a chance for the reigning World Champion to put a few more points between the two of them.

After his longest run of races since 2020 without standing on the top step, he may have a better chance than many people thought of winning this weekend – and the sprint may be a good indicator of that.

Franco Colapinto

With each passing performance, Franco Colapinto has shown why Williams team principal James Vowles was right to place faith in him to perform for the rest of the season.

In a session in which team-mate Alex Albon spun and went out in SQ1, the rookie made it through to SQ3 and has every chance of adding another point to his tally if things go his way in the sprint.

Colapinto admitted to media including PlanetF1.com that talks around his future have not progressed regarding 2025, with only Sauber and VCARB uncontracted for next season as it stands.

Wherever he ends up, be it in another series as a full-time Williams reserve or on loan elsewhere, his short time in Formula 1 has seen Colapinto show his talents on the world stage.

Haas

In one of the more under-the-radar showings, Kevin Magnussen gave an indicator of Haas’ underlying pace from the off in SQ1 by going two tenths quicker than Verstappen on their first flying runs.

In the end, both Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg comfortably made it through to SQ3 and finished P6 and P8, marking one of their strongest joint qualifying performances of the season.

They’ll be looking to back that up with points in the sprint and, if they can replicate that in Grand Prix qualifying and the race on Sunday, hopes will be high for a solid points haul at one of their home races this weekend.

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Losers

Oscar Piastri

It’s a rarity that Piastri has been in this part of this column this season, but track limits were not the Australian’s friend at the famously-tricky Turn 19 on his final flying lap in SQ1.

Such has been his consistency, this is the first time Piastri has not made Q3 or SQ3 at any race this season – so while he was the big-name exit early on in this session, his otherwise excellent season on that front counts in his favour.

He has to be counted among the ‘losers’ for this session based on the result alone, but given how consistent he has been up to this point, we should also take a moment to congratulate him on the streak he had put together to this point.

Alex Albon

Albon’s dominance in qualifying in the past few seasons over his team-mates has been one of the great features of his career resurgence at Williams, but his spin – also at Turn 19 – proved a costly error that saw him out in SQ1.

In four qualifying/sprint qualifying sessions against Franco Colapinto, his record against the Argentinian rookie now sits at 2-2 in the head-to-head – having gone 18 months with just two sprint qualifying defeats to his name against Logan Sargeant.

The caveats apply of just one practice session, a resurfaced track and Turn 19 having been probably the most difficult corner for the drivers to get consistently right over the years, but Albon will be looking to do better in Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday.

Sergio Perez

Not the return to action Checo will have been wanting on Friday, going out in SQ2 to leave him with work to be done in the sprint.

Being eliminated earlier than expected will have been compounded will have been somewhat compounded by the session ending with Perez being in something of a ‘VCARB sandwich’, with Yuki Tsunoda having qualified for SQ3 in P10 and Liam Lawson, in his first race of the season, one place and just 0.040s behind.

As with the other drivers on this list, the same caveats apply, but given the performance still within that Red Bull – his team-mate putting his car on pole – Perez will have been hoping for better.

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