Daily Times

Austin: Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will start on pole for the United States Grand Prix with world champion Max Verstappen down in sixth after qualifying on Friday. Verstappen was set to take his 11th pole of the season only for the Red Bull driver’s last flying lap time to be deleted due to track limits. Lando Norris’s McLaren will share the front row of Sunday’s race at Austin with Leclerc. Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes is on the second row with Carlos Sainz in the other Ferrari. Leclerc was bubbling after his 21st career pole. “I love this track. I love the vibe around this track, the city and the country. It is great to be here,” said the man from Monaco. He added: “As a team we did a great job. We know in these sprint weekends it is more important to have a clean FP1 and we did. “After that I was feeling good and I was happy throughout qualifying. Really happy with starting on pole position.” Starting from the third row with with George Russell’s Mercedes, Verstappen has work to do to win a 15th race of the season on Sunday to match his record haul from 2022 a fortnight after sealing his third successive world title in Qatar.