Lewis Hamilton will start on pole position for the United States Grand Prix, which could decide the title this weekend, although title rival Sebastian Vettel did the best he could to try and delay that by lining up second on the grid.
Hamilton's lap of 1:33.108 – his first run in Q3 – secured him the top slot as he failed to improve on his second attempt after a scrappy final sector, whilst Vettel could only get within 0.239s of the Mercedes man, but more importantly he starts ahead of Hamilton's team-mate, Valtteri Bottas, in third.
Daniel Ricciardo will line up fourth ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, with the duo posting an identical lap time of 1:33.577. With Ricciardo posting his seconds before Raikkonen he therefore starts ahead.
His Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen was sixth quickest, but faces a 15-place grid penalty which will see him drop to the back of the grid. The Dutchman chose to use the slower supersoft tyre in Q3, which means he will start on the optimum tyre for the race.
Esteban Ocon was seventh ahead of Renault debutant Carlos Sainz, McLaren's Fernando Alonso and the second Force India of Sergio Perez.
Felipe Massa failed to escape Q2 after Perez's late improvement, to start P11 ahead of returnee Daniil Kvyat, Stoffel Vandoorne and Romain Grosjean.
Nico Hulkenberg didn't run in Q2 for "strategic" decisions according to his Renault team, as he faces a 20-place grid penalty for Sunday's race.
Discussion about this post