The four-time world champion has tentatively re-emerged as a title contender having beaten the McLaren duo in each of the last three races and closed to within 63 points of championship leader Piastri with six rounds remaining.

McLaren are adamant the Dutchman is a threat in the title race and he again underlined that with a scintillating lap to snatch pole away from Norris at the death by just 0.071 seconds.

Norris comes into the weekend 22 points adrift of Piastri in the standings, having finished ahead of his team-mate at each of the last three races.

The pre-weekend talk has been dominated by McLaren's declaration that Norris is facing unspecified sporting consequences having been held responsible for the pair banging wheels during the first lap in Singapore a fortnight ago.

He has so far banished all that talk as his quest to overhaul Piastri continues in Austin, where 33 points are up for grabs including eight for winning Saturday's sprint.

The 25-year-old has appeared to have the edge on the Australian around the sweeping Texas circuit, backing up a blistering pace in the only practice session by topping the first two sessions of sprint qualifying.

He charged to provisional pole as Piastri was over three tenths off his team-mate but it was Verstappen who surged to the top of the charts.

"It worked out well, but I still expect it to be a tough battle tomorrow in the sprint, but that's I think exactly what we want to see," Verstappen said.

"I'm excited for tomorrow and happy with today. I hope that we have good pace in the race, but we'll find out tomorrow."

Nico Hulkenberg claimed an impressive fourth for Sauber ahead of Mercedes' George Russell.

A "heat hazard" has been declared for the second race in a row, with temperatures on Saturday and Sunday at the Circuit of the Americas forecast to exceed 31 degrees Celsius.

Ferrari endured another difficult session. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc both squeezed through to the final part of sprint qualifying at the death but offered no threat to the leading cars, with Hamilton eighth and Leclerc 10th on the grid.

Max Verstappen snatches pole for United States sprint race