‘It’s been a while!’ – Max Verstappen delighted with Sprint Pole in Austin as Sergio Perez rues ‘frustrating’ SQ2 exit

Asked what his gameplan was for the rest of the weekend – with Verstappen currently 52 points clear of title rival, McLaren’s Lando Norris, who took P4 in Sprint Qualifying – Verstappen replied: “Making the car driveable and good on the tyres in the race. That for us is the key.

“We’ll do the best we can tomorrow in the Sprint, but we also know of course the most points are available on Sunday, so that’s where we really want to do well.”

AS IT HAPPENED: Follow all the action from Sprint Qualifying at the United States Grand Prix

Perez had a tougher time on Friday evening in Austin, with his SQ2 efforts only good enough for P11 in the Sprint – where points are awarded to the top eight finishers, from eight points down to one.

“Very frustrating,” was Perez’s verdict. “Especially from SQ1 to SQ2, we didn’t have any progression; if anything we took a step back with the tyre, so that made things a lot trickier unfortunately, but it is what it is in the end. Hopefully we’re able to learn quite a bit as we did today with the car, and make sure in qualifying we’re able to put it all together.