Verstappen looked to have qualified first in his Red Bull at a sizzling Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, only to see his lap – five-thousandths of a second quicker than Leclerc – chalked off by the stewards. Verstappen dropped from first to sixth, with Lando Norris taking second for McLaren ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton. Leclerc’s team-mate Carlos Sainz finished fourth with George Russell fifth for Mercedes. But the Dutchman’s quest will start from back down the grid after he put all four wheels off the track at Turn 18 following a rare mistake. Verstappen headed into the final runs a quarter of a second down after he took aim at his team for putting him on track too close to Sergio Pérez in the other Red Bull.

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