2025 United States Grand Prix Sprint Qualifying Review

Linus O'Howell
Oct 18, 2025
2 min read

The first of 3 Sprint Qualifying sessions in the space of 6 weeks took place around the Circuit of the Americas!

SQ1

In Sprint Qualifying 1, Oliver Bearman, Franco Colapinto, Yuki Tsunoda, Esteban Ocon, and Gabriel Bortoleto were the five slowest drivers! Oliver Bearman’s first lap ultimately wasn’t good enough to get out of the first part of Sprint Quali, whilst Franco Colapinto’s Alpine simply wasn’t quick enough! Both Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon continued their poor Qualifying performances, failing to get to the line in time for one final run, whilst Gabriel Bortoleto didn’t get a time on the board at all (his one and only lap got deleted for track limits)! Lando Norris topped SQ1 for McLaren, just over a tenth clear of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull!

SQ2

In Sprint Qualifying 2, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Isack Hadjar, Pierre Gasly, Lance Stroll, and Liam Lawson all failed to make it into the Top 10 shootout! Andrea Kimi Antonelli will be super frustrated to have missed out on SQ3 by just 6 thousandths of a second, whilst Isack Hadjar barely found any time between SQ1 and SQ2! Pierre Gasly did a better job to get his Alpine “up” in 13th, ahead of the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll, whilst Liam Lawson saw his one and only lap in SQ2 get deleted for exceeding track limits! SQ2 ended up with the exact same outcome as SQ1; Norris ahead of Verstappen by over a tenth of a second!

SQ3

In Sprint Qualifying 3, a superb 1:32.143 was enough for Max Verstappen to start his weekend with a Sprint Pole! Max has dominated Sprints at COTA in the past, and he’s put himself in the best position to do that again tomorrow! Lando Norris had to settle for second, just 71 thousandths off Pole, whilst Oscar Piastri was quite a bit down in third! The star of the day proved to be Nico Hulkenberg, who managed to put his Kick Sauber into a sensational P4, ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes, whilst Fernando Alonso did a cracking job to pip Carlos Sainz to 6th by just 1 thousandth of a second! Ferrari’s lack of pace continued as Lewis Hamilton managed to beat Charles Leclerc, with Alex Albon splitting the two teammates to qualify in 9th!