Verstappen: We want to win the Sprint and the race on Sunday

Instead, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc claimed top spot on the grid and will start the race at Circuit of the Americas from pole position with the McLaren of Lando Norris beside him, Verstappen is on row three.

Speaking after a tense and exciting Friday session, Verstappen lamented: “It was a shame to miss out on pole with my deleted lap but I knew in Turn 19 it would be a close call. I made a mistake in Turn 1 so I had to really push for the rest of the lap. I didn't understeer or anything, I just really tried to maximise the corner and I misjudged it.

"Margins are very fine when you are pushing to the limit. Of course, it's unfortunate but it makes the Sunday race more enjoyable. Now our focus turns to the Sprint race, we want to win that and the race on Sunday. It's a long weekend and a lot can happen, I'm going to have some fun out there that's for sure," promised the newly crowned triple F1 World Champion.

Verstappen is hunting a 15th Grand Prix win of the season, which would tie his record of 15 victories in one season. While he has a tough job on his hands to take maximum points on Sunday, Verstappen has shown he can win from just about anywhere on the grid. He still starts the race as outright favourite to win.

A tenth down on his Red Bull teammate when it mattered, Sergio Perez in the sister car will line up ninth on the grid. The Mexican veteran lamented going in the wrong direction with regards to setup on his RB19.

"It wasn’t a straightforward one out there," Perez reported. "I was struggling with the balance from low speed to high speed, especially in the low speed, we had made some changes that probably didn’t help us in the way we thought.

"The margins were so tight that a tenth would have made your qualifying so different, but we are on the wrong side of it. Hopefully tomorrow we have a better Sprint Shootout and then get some points on the board, we are expecting some changes in the conditions, there will be a lot of wind around," added Perez, who lies second in the 2023 F1 standings.

Red Bull team boss summed up his team's effort on Saturday: "We start from P6 and P9 for the race which makes things a little harder for us but there is always an opportunity for victory and we look forward to seeing what Sunday brings.

“It looked like we were going to get pole today but then a small lock up at turn 1 put Max on the back foot so he had to give it absolutely everything. He tried, but unfortunately, we didn’t quite do it.

"Checo struggled with balance slightly but it was tight margins with not a lot in it but it will make for an interesting race on Sunday. We start from P6 and P9 for the race which makes things a little harder for us but there is always an opportunity for victory and we look forward to seeing what Sunday brings," concluded Horner in the RBR qualifying report.