2026 Formula 1 United States GP
F1 United States GP: Follow qualifying at Austin with live timing
Follow along for updates from F1's qualifyinh session at the United States Grand Prix weekend
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And that's all from us - a tantalising Antonelli-Verstappen front row tomorrow, but can the Italian sew up the title at the end of play on Sunday? Let's find out.
Catch you again tomorrow!
As we said, Ferrari - once again - just didn't seem to find that progression from practice. It's been a common theme; they'll start a weekend in rapid form, but the pace seems to plateau as we get into Q2 and Q3.
Antonelli, pole for the US Grand Prix: "We got pole, so we'll try to win tomorrow. Max has been very quick, and did an incredible job in qualifying so it's not going to be easy. Hopefully we'll be leading into Turn 1 and we'll try to set the pace, even though it's going to be very tight. Very happy with qualifying today, Q3 was very tough with the wind, gusty, unpredictable, but happy to stick it on pole."
Verstappen, second place: "Q3 was not good, Q1, Q2 was nice, but for whatever reason with both sets [of tyres] I just didn't have the balance. No mistakes, but just no grip and I had no grip. On the final lap, you can see it's not happening with the tail wind so you push a bit more, you hit the bump wrong and the car's like a kangaroo and you have a massive slide. Not very happy with Q3, to be honest, not what I wanted, but if it's P2 I'll take it."
Hadjar, third place: "I'm happy with P3, because it's been incredibly hard for me since the start of the weekend. Couldn't find the right balance, this morning I couldn't even set a lap on the softs because the car was that hard to drive. I'm thankful for the hard work of the team through the weekend, I've been a bit tough with them so I want to apologise! We had a shot at pole, but had a massive tailwind through Turn 13 and 15, but I'm happy to have fought back like that."
Q3 order
1. Antonelli
2. Verstappen
3. Hadjar
4. Leclerc
5. Hamilton
6. Russell
7. Piastri
8. Norris
9. Lindblad
10. Lawson
Norris has had his lap deleted, as did both Red Bulls - Verstappen had a huge snap at Turn 19, hence his failure to improve. Neither Red Bull went faster on that second run, however, so those two deletions change nothing.
Norris drops down to eighth, which gives Russell a reprieve back to sixth.
Russell doesn't improve, and stays fifth, but Antonelli doesn't improve either.
Leclerc improves, but stays fourth. Verstappen stays second and doesn't improve, and nor does Hadjar.
Hamilton moves ahead of Russell, as does Norris, but Piastri doesn't improve. That's an Antonelli pole!
Russell's found a smidgen of time in the first sector, as has Antonelli - just a couple of hundredths. Leclerc has also found 0.008s on Antonelli's benchmark.
But, Russell's lost time in this middle sector, as Antonelli finds another tenth on his best. Leclerc's also lost time to Antonelli.
Here come the final runs. The Mercedes pair want to do their laps nice and early, followed by Leclerc, Verstappen, Hadjar, Hamilton, Norris, and Piastri.
Lindblad's got his lap on the board, so probably won't go again.
After the first runs, it's Antonelli from Verstappen, Hadjar, Leclerc, Russell, Hamilton, Piastri, Norris, Lindblad, and Lawson (who hasn't done a lap).
Lawson is indeed tyre-saving and helping Lindblad out a bit, which will minimise the damage of his five-place grid penalty for tomorrow.
Norris was strong in the first sector, but lost about half a second in the final part of the lap and only goes eighth. Piastri's currently ahead of his team-mate, as McLaren looks fourth-best here at the moment. Time to find, however.
Russell starts us off with a lap, followed by Antonelli. Good first sector from Russell, Antonelli is even quicker, and Verstappen is 0.05s quicker than the championship leader.
Antonelli's quickest of the three in the middle part of the lap here, but how does it shake out?
A 1m34.476s for Russell, which Antonelli brushes aside with a 1m34.035s. Verstappen is 0.179s slower than the lead Mercedes, as Hadjar also splits the Mercs.
Leclerc only gets fourth with his first effort, as Ferrari doesn't seem to be finding the progression through qualifying again. Hamilton is only sixth.
Q3 time!
Here's the fight for pole. Lawson's already got out of his car, so he's probably helping Lindblad out a little bit by sacrificing his own qualifying - he'll start ninth at worst anyway.
Eliminated in Q2
11. Gasly
12. Hulkenberg
13. Bortoleto
14. Colapinto
15. Alonso
16. Bearman
Bearman had his last lap of that session deleted, so he drops to 16th.
Russell holds the car from a snap in Turn 19, and it's a 1m34.305s to go top.
Antonelli then finds a smidgen more time, and posts a 1m34.278s, but Leclerc then gets a 1m34.198s to go top.
Piastri improves to sixth, which leaves Lawson on the cusp. Bearman doesn't improve enough to get into Q3, and nor does Alonso, but Gasly gets up to ninth!
Lindblad then gets up to ninth, and Lawson puts Gasly back down into 11th.
Hulkenberg doesn't improve on that lap, so the tow didn't seem to play out as Audi planned. If, indeed, it was planned.
Russell's on a flyer, purple first sector, purple second sector, can the tyres hang on in the final sector?
The Audis are first on the scene, fresh tyres for both. Bortoleto begins a flyer, just as a McLaren leaves the pits.
He's backed off there, I think - some traffic got in the way there, but he's given Hulkenberg a tow.
Elimination zone with five minutes to go
11. Lindblad
12. Gasly
13. Colapinto
14. Bearman
15. Alonso
16. Bortoleto
Norris is just 0.068s off Verstappen there, while Piastri is 0.9s off his team-mate.
Russell goes third, 0.3s off Verstappen, while Antonelli rounds the final corner to take third off his team-mate.
Leclerc sets a 1m35.026s, but Hamilton does a 1m34.833s to go top.
Verstappen comes across the line, posts a massive 1m34.471s, and that's the gauntlet dropped by the Dutchman. Pick that one up, if you can.
Hadjar goes third for now.
Everyone's on the road, and Bortoleto and the Ferraris should be first to kick us off.
That said, Bortoleto's doing a second build lap, as Leclerc opens for a first attempt at a time in this part of the session.
Hamilton is slightly quicker in the first sector - but Verstappen finds even more pace over the Ferrari pair.
Q2 time!
Right, that's the slowest six out of the way, now it's time to decide who's going into the top 10 shoot-out for pole.
Eliminated in Q1
17. Ocon
18. Stroll
19. Sainz
20. Albon
21. Perez
22. Bottas
Alonso had a little fire at the back of his car, but he's made it into Q2.
"What a ****show," Albon rues, upset he was put out on track too early.
Albon wrestles his Williams across the line but stays 19th, as the car looked painful in that final sector.
Gasly is looking to get a lap in after losing his first effort - and he vaults up to 12th. Hulkenberg then goes eighth, and Norris slides to the top of the pops with a 1m35.029s.
Lindblad goes 10th, before Bortoleto hits seventh place. Bearman improves, but he's below Gasly.
Ocon, goes 17th but he stays in the drop zone, as Alonso stays 16th.
"My seat is getting very hot on my back," Russell says. Very much the hotseat, as he hopes his medium-tyre lap is enough. He has over a second on the cut-off at the moment, so he should be okay.
Albon starts a lap as he hopes to get out of Q1 - he's not had an easy weekend so far.
Elimination zone with 5 minutes to go
17. Colapinto
18. Ocon
19. Albon
20. Perez
21. Bottas
22. Gasly
Lawson has a moan about a Williams, which was slow in front of him.
Piastri's having another crack on the mediums, as are the Mercedes drivers; Russell gets a purple first sector going.
Does it work out? Piastri gets up to seventh, which brings him to within 0.642s of Leclerc's benchmark, Russell gets crossed up in Turn 20 but then moves ahead of Piastri for seventh, as Antonelli gets fifth - purple sectors 1 and 2, but lost time in the final sector.
Gasly's lost his time, first track limits ping of the session as he went off at Turn 9.
Bearman does a second run on the softs, and moves up to 11th. Stroll moves up to 14th, as Sainz breaks into 15th.
Alonso saves a slide in T20, and gets up to 12th to dump Colapinto into the bottom six.
Hulkenberg gets into sixth, ahead of the Mercedes pair, as Colapinto hurls his Alpine through the final corners and moves up to 10th.
Gasly goes faster than his team-mate by a tenth, as Lawson then cannons up to sixth. Grid-penalty encumbered Lindblad moves to 11th, before Bortoleto goes up to seventh.
Medium tyres for the Merc pair and Piastri, evidently confident of getting a decent benchmark in on the C3.
Hamilton gets a lap in, 0.155s off Leclerc, while Piastri is 1.3s off. Norris goes third, 0.357s off Leclerc.
Russell then posts a 1m36.241s, a second down on those mediums, and Antonelli is a tenth quicker than his team-mate.
Verstappen is 0.015s shy of Leclerc, and goes second; Hadjar drops into third, also within a tenth.
Bottas kicks off with a 1m38.853s, which is beaten by Perez. Bearman then sets a 1m37.254s.
Stroll, Sainz, and Albon drop in between the Haas and the Cadillacs.
Alonso then beats Bearman by a smidgen, before Ocon sets a 1m36.944s - but that's beaten by Leclerc's 1m35.200s.
Q1 is go!
The two Cadillacs are first on the road, followed by Bearman, Stroll, and the Williams pair.
Williams is struggling this weekend, so getting out of Q1 will be a stretch.
Five minutes until Q1 gets rolling - where we'll lose our slowest six runners.
Who's looking shaky? Cadillac and Williams will struggle, and anyone who can't get track limits right...
Track limits warnings
We had 207 (!) time deletions yesterday for track limits, but "only" 41 in FP3 - some of the white lines were widened overnight to reduce the quantity of offences.
Still, one imagines this should affect qualifying - especially when we start to get into the business end of the qualifying hour.
Alexander Albon, Williams
Photo by: Clive Mason / Getty Images
Grid penalties for Sunday
Colapinto - 10 places - new electronics
Bortoleto - 20 places - new battery and electronics
Lindblad - five places - new internal combustion engine (sixth of 2026)
Franco Colapinto, Alpine
Photo by: Clive Mason / Getty Images
