(Motorsports news) Ferrari racer Charles Leclerc led the times in the Friday evening qualifying session to establish the Sunday GP grid, with a 1m34.723s final flying lap to edge off Norris by 0.13s. They were aided by Max Verstappen’s lap time being docked for violating track limits at Turn 19 after running wide on exit. Following that, the Red Bull driver was demoted to sixth place.

With Verstappen out of the way, Norris claims pole place was up for grabs, despite the fact that his goal for the session was not even to make the front row of the grid. “I’m content. “I’ve had a good day,” he said. “The end result was probably unexpected, so it was a good bonus for the entire team.”

“I didn’t make as many errors as I did in Qatar, which is a good thing.” But I believe we got it today. I believe there was enough in there to get pole position. “I know Charles admitted to making a few errors, but so did I. It’s a shame, really. That one opportunity may have been missed again, but I’m still overjoyed.”

Norris explained that he had left time on the table by exiting the Turn 11 left-hander onto the lengthy back straight. He thought the car’s consistency and braking performance were better than expected. As a result, even though he braked longer to gain time, the automobile turned more than intended.

As a result, believing he would miss the apex, he clipped the curb, jeopardizing his run down the backstraight by a tenth. Norris also made a mistake on his final turn. Starting from second place has previously proven useful in Austin because it puts the driver on the inside line for the opening left-hander.

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