US Grand Prix: Max Verstappen overtakes Lando Norris to take pole position in the Austin sprint race

Piastri appeared to be suffering compared to Norris from the beginning of the trials and was outperforming the Briton in all three qualifying trials.

“I’m disappointed not to be on pole but it’s no surprise we’ve been a little slower than Red Bull recently,” Norris said.

“I could improve some parts here and there and catch some wrong bumps, that’s the difficulty of this track. Other than that, everything is happy.”

“Very sloppy lap. I couldn’t really put it together. In some ways, I feel a bit lucky to be third. The car’s pace is good. It’s not a big deal, it was a bit of a messy lap and I hope I can sort it out tomorrow,” Piastri said.

The race provides eight points to the winner down to one point for eighth place.

The outstanding performance in qualifying came from Hulkenberg, his first time qualifying in the top ten all year, and Sauber’s best performance of the season.

Their previous grid position was seventh for teammate Gabriel Bortoletto in Hungary at the beginning of August.

“Satisfied and happy as you can imagine,” said the German. “P1 looked too good to be true. We weren’t sure if this was the real deal but we were able to continue the trend. Hopefully we can stick with it this weekend.

“The pace was there. The car looked fast and in a good window, and it got to the right point, I think that’s it.”