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

It was a Sprint Qualifying of two halves for the Red Bull garage at the United States Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen taking his first pole position in any format since Austria, as Sergio Perez found himself out in SQ2.

In an upgraded Red Bull RB20, Verstappen lapped the Circuit of The Americas in the top three for both the 12-minute SQ1 and the 10-minute SQ2 segments, before a scintillating final lap in SQ3 gave him pole for Saturday’s Sprint by just 0.012s from Mercedes’ George Russell.

READ MORE: Verstappen pips Russell to Sprint Qualifying pole in Austin by 0.012s

That meant Verstappen took P1 in any kind of qualifying session for the first time since the Austrian Grand Prix back in June – much to the championship leader’s delight.

“We had a good day,” said Verstappen. “Of course, Sprint Qualifying is always very difficult. [With the tyres] you do medium, medium and then a soft. You never really know how much you can push but I’m happy with today. I think all day the car was working quite well, and of course I’m very happy to be first. It’s been a while so very pleased with today.”

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.

“I think we’re struggling a little bit with the ride issues in high speed, something we will have a look at,” added Perez. “Our long run pace looked very promising this morning, so I think we’ve got some work to do. For the rest of the weekend, the main target is to be strong in the race.”

READ MORE: Lawson to start from back of the grid in Austin after being hit with engine penalty

Aside from Verstappen and Norris’s title fight, Red Bull will also look to maximise points this weekend – with a total of 34 available in Austin thanks to the Sprint format – as they look to close down McLaren’s 41-point advantage in the constructors’ standings.