George Russell crashes in US Grand Prix qualifying after Lewis Hamilton nightmare

A bad qualifying session for Mercedes, who had already seen Lewis Hamilton suffer a Q1 exit, turned worse when George Russell lost control and smashed up his car in the final stages

George Russell denied Max Verstappen the chance to fight for United States Grand Prix pole with a late crash which brought a premature end to qualifying.

Lando Norris will start Sunday's race at the front of the grid. The McLaren driver was the man at the top of the timesheets when Russell lost control at 125mph and buried his Mercedes into a barrier. The medical car was deployed per FIA regulations but he appeared not to have suffered any notable injuries.

Verstappen was on his final flying lap but had to abort with double-waved yellow flags flying in the area. There were zero seconds left on the clock at the time of the crash, meaning the session would not be restarted and no-one could deny Norris pole.

For Mercedes, the crash capped off what had turned out to be a miserable day. In the Sprint earlier in the day, Russell had started second but slipped down to fifth while Lewis Hamilton was only sixth - both of them lacking pace and suffering from high tyre degradation.

But that was nothing compared to what qualifying had in store. There was a hush around the Circuit of the Americas at the end of Q1 as it became clear that Hamilton's best lap was only good enough for 19th on the leaderboard.

He is due to line up on the grid 18th because Liam Lawson will serve an engine-related grid penalty. But speaking after his early exit Hamilton made it clear he wants his team to make set-up changes which, because of parc ferme rules, would mean a pit lane start.

He said: ""In the Sprint we had some sort of failure on the formation lap on the front suspension and I had that throughout the Sprint race. That made the balance really difficult.

"We did change a couple of things to push us in the direction of what we would have done yesterday and the car was a nightmare today in qualifying. I should probably start in the pit lane, otherwise I will not be going anywhere. It was just an inconsistent balance and no grip."

Verstappen said it was a shame that he could not complete the lap and fight for pole. But he will line up alongside Norris on the front row and will be keen to further extend his championship lead after winning that Sprint earlier on Saturday.

Carlos Sainz will line up third on an all-Ferrari second row, ahead of team-mate Charles Leclerc. Russell was sixth on the timesheets when he crashed so that is where his rebuilt Mercedes will be on Sunday, one place behind the McLaren of Oscar Piastri.

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