(Motorsports news) Verstappen, who became a three-time world champion last time out in Qatar, crossed the line in the last moments of Q3 at the Circuit of The Americas with a flying lap of 1m34.718s. This gave him a provisional pole position over Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc by 0.005s, but the RB19 driver quickly had his time removed for driving wide at the exit of Turn 19, dropping him to sixth place.

As a result, Leclerc will start first, ahead of McLaren driver Lando Norris. Verstappen claimed that his atypical blunder, which he called a “close call,” was the result of his attempting to make up for time lost in Turn 1, when he attempted to correct for an under-rotating car to turn in later, causing him to run wide of the apex.

“I knew in turn 19 that it was going to be a close call,” Verstappen added. I made a small error at Turn 1, so I had to work extra hard the rest of the lap. It’s all about the margins. “To be honest, I didn’t even understeer.” I was just trying to maximize the corner and misjudged it somewhat. When you’re pushing to the limit, the margins are razor thin.

“Of course, it’s a bit unfortunate but it makes the Sunday also a bit more fun.” Verstappen admitted that he needed to work on “a lot of things” before sprint qualifying and the abbreviated race on Saturday. “It’s probably not ideal, but I’ve also started from the back,” he continued. It all comes down to pace; if you keep up, you will pass and move forward. Simply keep an eye on it.

“Of course, we want to win, so today was definitely not ideal. But, as I said, it’s still a long race with a lot of things we can improve on.” Have some fun out there as well.” Sergio Perez, a Red Bull teammate, qualified ninth after practicing extensively in the simulator in an attempt to improve his form, with his performance hampered by a lack of trust on corner entrance as the RB19 has been refined during the season.

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