BSports - Latest Sports News & Updates

The Dutchman claimed pole for the F1 sprint race in Austin as the team reveals it experimented with different set-ups during the only practice session

Max Verstappen topped the times at the Circuit of the Americas on Friday in the first of two Formula 1 qualifying sessions this weekend – another sign of Red Bull's recent progress with the RB21.

Heading into the race weekend, team boss Laurent Mekies suggested that Austin’s medium-speed corners would suit McLaren better, saying McLaren “killed” Red Bull in Zandvoort, but Verstappen’s performance in Texas underlines the step that the team has made.

It applies not only to pure performance, but also operationally. In earlier parts of the season, Fridays have often been a weakness for Red Bull. More often than not, the team had to overhaul its setup overnight before finding an acceptable compromise for qualifying. This time, with only one practice session, the RB21 was immediately competitive. Above all, it is confirmation that the team understands its 2025 car better than in the first half of the season.

Red Bull’s practice approach: Tsunoda’s set-up provides a direction

Because of that limited practice time at COTA, Red Bull split its programme between the cars of Verstappen and team-mate Yuki Tsunoda to gather two different data sets.

“During any qualifying session we are trying to maximise the performance of the car by trying to go as low as possible on set-up,” technical director Pierre Wache explained. “During FP1 we tested two types of set-up across the two cars, and we realised that Yuki’s set-up was a little bit better.”

That insight was then applied to both cars ahead of sprint qualifying, which “helped the high-speed bottoming that we have in the corners here,” Wache added.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Laurent Mekies, Red Bull Racing Team Principal

"It achieved performance in the car without losing out in the low speed,” Wache said. “Then it was a very good performance extraction from Max today. He really put it all together to get pole.”

Where Wache mentions Verstappen's pole lap, others at Red Bull were mostly looking at the Dutchman’s final sector. Helmut Marko told Motorsport.com that Verstappen went “sideways” in Turn 1 – which Verstappen referred to on team radio – but recovered all of that in the last sector. Team boss Laurent Mekies singled out the very last corner in particular.

“Honestly, he manages to surprise us every time he gets into that car. It’s unbelievable,” Mekies told Sky Sports F1. “It’s great to see all the hard work he’s putting into it in the background to get to that; it doesn’t come by coincidence.”

“It’s true to say that on that lap you nearly felt that he would – and he did – pull a crazy last corner in order to beat Lando. Obviously, he doesn’t have that information in the car, but he sent the car in the last corners and managed to create that small gap. It’s great for the team to have that sort of driver, and today it proved decisive.”

Data confirms Marko and Mekies' analysis

A look at GPS data backs up Marko and Mekies’ words about the last sector. In the graphics below, Verstappen and Norris’ fastest SQ3 laps are compared. It shows that Verstappen was 2 km/h faster than Norris at the end of the main straight – 311 versus 309 km/h – but McLaren had slightly better traction out of the final corner to start the flying lap.

This gave Norris a 0.026 second advantage at the first braking point. Verstappen’s small slide in Turn 1 – the one that Marko mentioned – then increased the gap to just over a tenth by the corner exit.

Read Also:

F1 US GP: Max Verstappen beats Lando Norris to sprint race pole

Max Verstappen needs help from McLaren for "not impossible" F1 2025 title - Helmut Marko

Through the flowing section of high-speed corners that followed – reminiscent of Suzuka’s Esses – Verstappen clawed that time back. It’s no coincidence, as it underlines the RB21’s strength in fast corners. From there, the two traded hundredths: Norris generally braked a fraction earlier than the reigning world champion but enjoyed marginally better exits. It meant, just as Mekies pointed out, that everything came down to the final corner.

Exiting the penultimate turn, Norris led Verstappen by 0.031 seconds. In what is now officially the Andretti corner, the familiar pattern repeated itself: telemetry confirms that Norris lifted and braked slightly earlier than Verstappen, who carried more speed into the corner and still managed to rotate the car. Just after the apex, Verstappen had flipped the deficit into a 0.130 second advantage.

Norris, braking earlier, could once again get on the throttle a bit sooner and regained some of the lost time thanks to a better exit, but not enough to get back ahead. On the line, Verstappen still enjoyed a 0.071-second margin to get his first sprint pole of the season.

The combination of extremely late braking and still managing a relatively good exit – something Verstappen has shown earlier this year in Suzuka as well – earned him pole, even if it’s just for a sprint race this time. With what Mekies called a “crazy” last corner, Verstappen made up a full tenth – exactly the margin that made the difference on Friday in Austin.