A Proud Kelly Piquet encourages Verstappen in Austin.

Verstappen immediately started the weekend strongly. In the first free practice, his RB20 already looked a lot more stable than it had done in recent weeks, and that was confirmed in sprint qualifying, where the Red Bull Racing driver secured pole position for the sprint race. He managed to win the sprint in his first trip to the top step in any form since the Spanish Grand Prix in June.

Verstappen was also strong in qualifying. He seemed on his way to pole position for Sunday’s Formula 1 race, but a yellow flag due to George Russell’s crash threw a spanner in the works. Still, Verstappen was happy with his second place behind Lando Norris. Kelly Piquet congratulated her boyfriend on his good result, a moment captured by F1 photographer Mark Sutton. She also shared her own videos of the Dutchman in her Instagram stories.