2025 F1 United States GP Race - As it happened

Norris is stuck in a Ferrari sandwich at the moment with Leclerc within touching distance in front, while having Hamilton threatening him behind.

Piastri is tantalisingly close to getting into Hamilton's DRS range but not quite as yet - he is 1.2s behind in fifth

Max Verstappen is getting the hammer down, quickly exceeding DRS range with almost two seconds between himself and Leclerc in second.

Leclerc on the other hand has Norris all over his rear wing

Carlos Sainz gets the jump on Oliver Bearman for eighth before Yuki Tsunoda does the same for ninth

Top 10 after Lap 1

1- Verstappen

2- Leclerc

3- Norris

4- Hamilton

5- Piastri

6- Russell

7- Antonelli

8- Bearman

9- Sainz

10- Tsunoda

Alex Albon in trouble in lap one after an incident on track, he is running at the back, five seconds behind Hadjar

Not the best start from Verstappen but he does just enough to baulk Norris into Turn 1, which is enough to allow Leclerc to take the outside and then the inside into Turn 2

Everyone gets away, the countdown to lights out start now

Charles Leclerc is leaving nothing to chance, he's heading into this race with soft tyres - a two-stop ahead for the Monegasque?

Questions to answer:

• Will Oscar Piastri mirror, signal, manoeuvre into Turn 1 today?
• Will Max Verstappen and Lando Norris take each other on a trip across the run-off?
• Will Charles Leclerc be right there to capitalise if the above happens?
• Will Nico Hulkenberg break his point-less streak?
• Will the female fans allow Carlos Sainz to get out of the venue unscathed
• Will the drivers pull off the cowboy hats on the podium?

Not long to wait for these - and more - questions to be answered...

Oops! Liam Lawson gets a brand new rear-wing on the grid after the jack accidentally breaks his previous one as they released his Racing Bulls car from it.

The wind caused a few issues for drivers through the esses yesterday - for reference, Google Isack Hadjar crash - but today the wind is both up again and going in the other direction.

How do we know? Well, there are a couple of - erm - 'modestly-sized' flags fluttering above the circuit. 

Actually, they're probably still considered modestly-sized in American terms, anyway. 

George Russell has been very good at staying out of trouble in 2025 and has racked up some quietly impressive results all season.

While a back-to-back win might require some fate to intervene from fourth, he showed in the Sprint he isn't afraid to have a go.

Watch out for Kimi Antonelli too. The Italian has had a season of learning tracks in an F1 car but he - like Oliver Bearman, who starts a very creditable eighth - looked far more comfortable in qualifying with the benefit of that invaluable realtime experience from the Sprint

Well, Ferrari's weekend has largely summed up its whole season - quick in practice, nowhere in qualifying, salvaged a solid Sprint result and then prove competitive in qualifying despite all sorts of first run dramas.

Charles Leclerc cleaned up as Verstappen and Norris took chunks out of each other last year, so he's well placed in third to take advantage again, while Hamilton looked very racy en route to fourth in the Sprint and he does love COTA...

Could be thorn in the side of Piastri at the very least.

Yes... but...

He was a winner on Saturday and mighty over a single lap in both qualifying sessions, but the man himself is less convinced about whether his Red Bull has the long race pace to match McLaren.

Piastri being out of position helps in that regard and Norris might be willing to accept a safe second if his team-mate can't make progress rather than risk going toe-to-toe with a 'little to lose' Verstappen as he did last year.

That said, COTA is easier to pass around than at recent tracks, while McLaren won't want Verstappen to gather any more momentum as that 56 point margin to Piastri is noticeably dwindling

United States Grand Prix starting grid

Lando Norris gets away from second place, mercifully clear of team-mate Oscar Piastri, who has work to do from sixth place having struggled throughout the session to get it hooked up.

While the Sprint showed you can be right at the front and still be caught up in drama, but for sure Piastri will be anxious at the prospect of so many cars around him

Just over 24 hours have passed since the dust settled on a dramatic US GP Sprint Race that ended with Max Verstappen strolling to victory and two McLarens looking rather second hand.

We didn't have long to pore over the details before we were straight back into qualifying for today's 56-lap showpiece.

Once again it was Verstappen stealing McLarens thunder as he targets a third Grand Prix win in four full-length races, the Dutchman taking a comfortable pole position despite a timing blunder that prevented him from completing his second flyer