US Grand Prix: Lando Norris beats Max Verstappen to pole in Austin

That made Norris’ task in the championship even tougher – he needed to take an average of nearly nine points per race out of Verstappen for the remaining six grands prix of the season to beat him to the title.

By taking pole position, Norris has given himself an opportunity to claw back some of that gap in the grand prix, although Verstappen’s pace has looked formidable all weekend after Red Bull introduced some upgrades on to their car.

McLaren had been struggling in comparison but Norris excelled himself to go fastest on the first runs before Russell’s accident confirmed his pole.

“It was a beautiful lap,” Norris said. “I was not going to go much quicker than I did.

“When you just do a lap and you think it’s going to be tough to beat… I put everything on the line, I needed to do it.

“We’ve not had the pace of the Ferraris or Red Bulls so I had to do something, and I did that.

“It was a very good lap. I can probably say quite confidently the best of my career.”

Both Norris and Verstappen made mistakes at Turn 19 on their first laps. Norris had a slide, forcing him to catch the rear, while Verstappen had to lift after missing the apex.

Verstappen was then 0.2secs quicker than Norris in the first sector on their second runs – and Norris was slower there than on his first run – before they both had to abort.

Verstappen said: “On the first lap in Q3 I lost quite a bit of time there. I knew we had another run but unfortunately I couldn’t finish the lap, but that’s how it goes. At least the potential was there to be first, so that’s very good.”

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri took fifth, 0.620secs slower than Norris, while Russell was still sixth despite his crash.

For team-mate Lewis Hamilton it was a terrible day. The seven-time champion qualified 19th, Mercedes saying he had “messy balance and front locking”.