Max Verstappen returned to form on Saturday as he came out on top of an entertaining Sprint Shootout at the United States Grand Prix, the Dutch driver narrowly getting the best of rivals Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.

On his one and only lap in SQ3, Verstappen set a time of 1m 34.538s to get pole position for the Sprint – making up for his deleted pole position lap time in Friday’s qualifying – and besting Leclerc’s effort by just 0.055s.

Hamilton was one of the last drivers to cross the line and he wound up third, 0.069s off Verstappen’s time. The Mercedes man will line up alongside compatriot Lando Norris in fourth, who was followed by his McLaren team mate, Oscar Piastri.

Carlos Sainz was sixth for Ferrari, followed by the Red Bull of Sergio Perez and the Mercedes of George Russell – the latter two drivers setting their times on used softs. Alex Albon was ninth for Williams, as the Alpine of Pierre Gasly rounded out the top-10.

Daniel Ricciardo will give AlphaTauri their second P11 start of the weekend as he narrowly missed out on a place in SQ3. He will line up ahead of Fernando Alonso in 12th, in what was an improved performance from the Aston Martin driver after his Q1 exit on Friday.

Esteban Ocon will start the Sprint in 13th for Alpine while Lance Stroll’s huge lock up into Turn 12 saw him unable to complete his lap, leaving him 14th in the other Aston Martin. He will start ahead of Zhou Guanyu, in 15th, as the Alfa Romeo racer out qualified Valtteri Bottas for the second time this weekend.

Both Haas drivers failed to make it out of SQ1, with Nico Hulkenberg set to start the Sprint from 16th next to Kevin Magnussen in 17th. They will line up ahead of Bottas, the AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda, as the Williams of Logan Sargeant finished in 20th.