
Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton beat Sebastian Vettel to pole position for this weekend’s United States Formula 1 Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas.
Hamilton claimed his eleventh pole of the year, comfortably beating title rival Vettel by two tenths, the Mercedes driver setting his 1:33.108s best early in Qualifying 3 and unable to beat his own time with his final effort.
Vettel split a provisional Mercedes front-row lockout with his final lap to move up a spot into second on the grid to bump Valtteri Bottas to third.
Daniel Ricciardo got the better of his Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen to start fourth with the Dutchman sixth, Kimi Raikkonen between the two Red Bulls for Ferrari.
Verstappen will pick up a penalty following an engine change and will start further down the grid as a result.
Also in the top ten was Carlos Sainz on his Renault debut, getting the better of Nico Hulkenberg who elected to sit out Qualifying 2 as he was eliminated from the session.
Felipe Massa was unlucky to miss out on a Qualifying 3 berth in the leading Williams, while Daniil Kvyat, Stoffel Vandoorne and Romain Grosjean also missed the cut.
Falling victim in Qualifying 1 was Marcus Ericsson, Lance Stroll, Toro Rosso debutant Brendon Hartley, Pascal Wehrlein and Kevin Magnussen, who qualified the Haas on last.
A host of post-qualifying penalties will change the order, as could investigations into blocking for Magnussen and Stroll.
The 56-lap United States Grand Prix gets underway at 06:00 AEDT Monday morning.
Result: United States Formula 1 Grand Prix Qualifying
Position |
Driver |
Car |
Time |
Gap |
1 |
Lewis Hamilton |
Mercedes |
1m33.108s |
|
2 |
Sebastian Vettel |
Ferrari |
1m33.347s |
0.239s |
3 |
Valtteri Bottas |
Mercedes |
1m33.568s |
0.460s |
4 |
Daniel Ricciardo |
Red Bull/Renault |
1m33.577s |
0.469s |
5 |
Kimi Raikkonen |
Ferrari |
1m33.577s |
0.469s |
6 |
Max Verstappen |
Red Bull |
1m33.658s |
0.550s |
7 |
Esteban Ocon |
Force India/Mercedes |
1m34.647s |
1.539s |
8 |
Carlos Sainz Jr. |
Renault |
1m34.852s |
1.744s |
9 |
Fernando Alonso |
McLaren |
1m35.007s |
1.899s |
10 |
Sergio Perez |
Force India/Mercedes |
1m35.148s |
2.040s |
11 |
Felipe Massa |
Williams/Mercedes |
1m35.155s |
1.718s |
12 |
Daniil Kvyat |
Toro Rosso/Renault |
1m35.529s |
2.092s |
13 |
Stoffel Vandoorne |
McLaren/Honda |
1m35.641s |
2.204s |
14 |
Romain Grosjean |
Haas/Ferrari |
1m35.870s |
2.433s |
15 |
Nico Hulkenberg |
Renault |
|
|
16 |
Marcus Ericsson |
Sauber/Ferrari |
1m36.842s |
2.020s |
17 |
Lance Stroll |
Williams/Mercedes |
1m36.868s |
2.046s |
18 |
Brendon Hartley |
Toro Rosso/Renault |
1m36.889s |
2.067s |
19 |
Pascal Wehrlein |
Sauber/Ferrari |
1m37.179s |
2.357s |
20 |
Kevin Magnussen |
Haas/Ferrari |
1m37.394s |
2.572s |
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