In a stunning display of late-session pace, Max Verstappen didn’t just take sprint pole position at the US Grand Prix; he sent a shockwave through the paddock, reasserting his dominance and landing a significant psychological blow to a resurgent McLaren. On a day of high drama, wild surprises, and simmering off-track tension, Verstappen’s performance was a brutal reminder that the championship fight is far from over, while a pit lane blunder forced a rare public apology from Red Bull leadership.

The Circuit of the Americas (COTA) was always billed as the “acid test” for the 2025 grid. With its demanding mix of slow, medium, and high-speed corners, it’s a track that rewards a complete car. For McLaren, it was a chance to prove their recent surge was real. For Red Bull, it was a chance to prove their early-season stumbles were truly behind them.

For most of the day, the story belonged to Lando Norris. The McLaren driver was in sublime form, topping the weekend’s only practice session and then commanding both SQ1 and SQ2. The papaya cars looked unstoppable, and it seemed Norris was on an inevitable march to pole. But as the final session began and the soft tires were fitted, “mighty Max” came alive.

Verstappen unleashed a blistering lap that Norris simply couldn’t match, ultimately falling 0.071 seconds short. While Norris will line up P2 with his teammate Oscar Piastri just behind in P3, the result was a sting. It was a reminder that even on their best days, Verstappen and Red Bull can find another gear.

The implications are stark. This performance, on this specific track, signals that the Red Bull RB21 is now a formidable all-around weapon. After proving its strength on low-speed circuits like Monza and Baku, and the high-downforce streets of Singapore, COTA was the final piece of the puzzle. Red Bull Team Principal Laurent Mekies may be publicly downplaying championship talk, but the stopwatch doesn’t lie. Compounding McLaren’s concerns is the development war: Red Bull is still planning to bring updates to their car, while the McLaren is essentially in its final form for the season.

This sets the stage for an explosive sprint race. The front three—Verstappen on pole, with Norris and Piastri flanking him—are headed for one of the most treacherous and exciting opening corners on the calendar. The long, uphill braking zone into COTA’s sharp Turn 1 is notorious for multi-car drama. Add in the “intriguing battle” and lingering tension from the teammates’ collision in Singapore just two weeks ago, and the run to the first apex is an absolute tinderbox.

But the day’s drama wasn’t confined to the top three. The biggest shock of the session came from Nico Hulkenberg. The veteran German driver, in his “luminous green” Stake, stunned the field by planting his car in P4 for the sprint. “Where the hell did that come from?” was the sentiment echoed through the paddock. Hulkenberg, who famously held one of Formula 1’s most unwanted records for grands prix without a podium, has not scored a single point since his celebrated third-place finish at the British Grand Prix in July.

His heroic lap was a jolt of adrenaline for the Stake team, especially in harsh contrast to his rookie teammate, Gabriel Bortoleto, who starts last after exceeding track limits and getting caught in traffic.

Hulkenberg’s triumph, however, cast a long and humiliating shadow over one team in particular: Ferrari. In a nothing-short-of-disastrous showing, the factory Ferrari team was completely eclipsed by its customer car. Hulkenberg’s P4 means he will start ahead of Carlos Sainz (P7) and a struggling Charles Leclerc (P10).

The Maranello-based team had a “complete lack of pace” on both the medium and soft tires. While the hosts of the F1 Update expected Ferrari to “come good” in the final session, it simply never happened. Leclerc finished almost a full second adrift of Verstappen’s pole time. For a team of Ferrari’s stature, to be so thoroughly outpaced by a customer Stake is a “humongous” embarrassment and one that “does not bode well for the rest of this weekend.”

While one side of the Red Bull organization celebrated, its sister team, Racing Bulls, was managing a self-inflicted crisis. Driver Yuki Tsunoda, who had looked “really good in practice,” was shockingly eliminated in SQ1, qualifying a lowly P18. The reason? A catastrophic team error.

Tsunoda was a victim of what is becoming an unfortunate “trending theme” in F1: pit lane shenanigans. The team sent him out too late in the session, releasing him directly into a “melee” of cars all jockeying for position. He was held up in the queue, and like several other drivers, failed to cross the start-finish line in time to begin his final flying lap. The error was so blatant that it prompted a rare and direct public apology from Team Principal Laurent Mekies. The team openly acknowledged that they had “done Yuki no favors” and took full responsibility for the blunder.

As if the on-track action wasn’t enough, a separate drama is brewing at McLaren, threatening to overshadow their strong qualifying. The team’s internal politics were thrust into the spotlight during the team principal press conference, centering on the “repercussions” for Lando Norris following his collision with Piastri in Singapore.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown, who has previously been a vocal advocate for “openness and transparency” in Formula 1—particularly regarding the Christian Horner controversy—found himself on the receiving end of pointed questions from the media, including RacingNews365’s Ian Parks. When pressed on why the team was being so secretive about the Norris punishment, Brown demurred, stating the repercussions were “so minor you’re not really going to notice them.”

This refusal to elaborate, as Parks pointed out, has “opened a Pandora’s box of speculation”—or, as he cleverly quipped, a “Papaya’s box.” By trying to downplay the incident, McLaren has only fanned the flames of curiosity.

The leading theory, proposed by Parks, is that the “punishment” will be a subtle, on-track maneuver. Given that Piastri felt Norris should have given the place back in Singapore, the speculation is that at some point this season, Norris will be instructed to “subtly” give up a position to Piastri. It would be a move designed to balance the scales internally while remaining almost invisible to the public—which would, in fairness, align with Brown’s claim that “you might not notice it.”

For now, Brown is not “playing ball,” insisting the team has been “transparent enough.” But the secrecy has created an uncomfortable narrative for a team that prides itself on a modern, open image.

As the COTA crowd prepares for the sprint race, they are faced with a tantalizing spectacle. At the front, a supreme Verstappen looks to convert his tenth career sprint pole. Beside him, a determined Norris and Piastri are poised for an explosive, high-stakes duel into Turn 1. Behind them, a resurgent Hulkenberg is fighting for his first points in months, while a humiliated Ferrari team searches for answers. And simmering beneath it all is a pit lane blunder that forced a public apology and a “Papaya’s box” of secrets at McLaren that threatens to spill open.