US Grand Prix: Max Verstappen takes the sprint pole, Lando Norris comes fourth

The sprint event, which awards eight points for a win, seven for second and so on until eighth place, takes place at 7pm BST on Saturday.

The result was a blow for Norris, who needs to catch up to Verstappen by an average of almost nine points per race, especially as both Red Bull and McLaren are among the teams that made improvements to their cars this weekend.

Verstappen, who had not qualified fastest since the Belgian Grand Prix at the end of July, said: “We had a good day. The car worked quite well and we were happy to be first. It’s been a while.”

McLaren has had the fastest car for some time and Verstappen is in a rearguard battle as Norris has increased his lead in every race since the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August.

The Brit said: “Not very good. Not a great day. I honestly had issues with balance and setup all day. In a way I'm happy with P4 because it could have been a lot worse, but the lap was shocking.”

And he played down the relevance of McLaren's upgrade package, saying: “It's not a new package, it's broadly the same. In terms of speed, we are where we should be.”

Mercedes, on the other hand, had high hopes for its upgrade package, its first significant one in months, and at first it seemed to have made a big difference.

Russell said: “Really happy because it's been a while since we've been on the front row and it was a really tricky session but in the end I really held the lap together and my last sector was really strong, “That made the difference.” .

“We knew that the car had potential within us. The car has felt great so far with these upgrades. It's close, but surprised us a little with second place. I'm just happy to be in this position again. It’s been a while.”

Both Russell and Hamilton retired at the start of the session at the Circuit of the Americas, while the other leaders chose to wait until the end.

However, this backfired when Williams driver Franco Colapinto, the only other driver on track with them, spun in Turn 12 and Hamilton had to slow down due to the subsequent yellow flags.

Hamilton felt the problem had cost him pole position.

“At the yellow flag I was just unlucky, I was 0.4 seconds ahead,” said the seven-time champion.

“It is like it is. The good thing is that the team has made a move with the car, the upgrade has clearly worked. Really grateful to everyone at the factory. It's not the end of the day yet. We have another chance tomorrow.”